Burcombe Lane

We often walk a drove road that we know perfectly well was a drove road: but why is it there?  Which market is it leading to?

Such a one is Burcombe Lane.  It meanders over Halfpenny Hill and down the other side, then up again to Woodmancote; it has deep holloways; it feels totally right…but we can only guess why drovers took sheep along it, unless…

…Unless it was a toll-free route from Ermin (no ‘e' at the end) Way to the Fosse Way.  On the Fosse Way are the markets of Northleach and Stow-on-the-Wold.  Maybe the Cotswold Lions came this way…

Anyway, it's a possibility.  It became even more of one when we saw the width of the lane, complete with stone wall to protect the lions from the wolves (#2).  You can either walk from Duntisbourne Leer (magic village from the past) or else park under the A417 (the old Ermin Way), turn a corner at SO 985081 and you're at the starting post.  


The lane starts unpromisingly (#1), then gets Better (#2), Be-etter (#3), Be-e-e-etter (#4), then trails off and becomes a normal track: Be-e-ehh! (#5) 


(Extraordinary how easy it is to remember Alice through the Looking-Glass, which I read over 70 years ago, and how hard to remember what I did yesterday.)