Friday 28 August 2020

A Walk in the Park........

....with thanks to Bob who wrote a comment on my last post about a walk that he had taken in Cirencester Park. The walk in the park is one that happens to be on my doorstep, so I was very happy to be reminded about it.  

As we left the house I took a quick photo of the Anemone hupehensis - Japanese anemone, before they finally go beyond their best. Currently they are a riot of pretty pink, but they do need curbing, otherwise they will take over any areas where they are planted. 


We have now travelled a few miles along the road and arrived in Cirencester - Roman town Corinium. The parish church of St. John the Baptist dominates the centre of the town and overlooks the town's Market Place. A charter market, originally founded during the Roman period, and mentioned in the 1086 Domesday Book.
Around the corner we walk past a very high wall shielding a 40ft Yew hedge which in turn hides a stately home. Planted in 1720, the hedge is now exactly 300 years old and reputed to be the tallest Yew hedge in the world. 
It is very unusual to have a stately home in the middle of a town, but as you can see, it is totally hidden from our view. 
However, a birds eye view from the church tower reveals a semi circular Yew hedge screening the house. It also shows the walk (on the right) that we are about to take over the Estate. It is a walk that the 9th Earl and the Countess of Bathurst generously open to the public from 8.00am until 5.00pm on a daily basis.
The road that leads up to the park is called Cecily Hill. It has some fine Cotswold stone properties showing a variety of styles that alternate between local vernacular cottages to imposing villas. The road is named after an ancient chapel that once occupied the site dedicated to St. Cecilia. 










A terrace of ten cottages bears a stone plaque and is a reminder of something called the Tontine Investment Plan, which was used for raising capital. It was devised in the 17th century and was relatively widespread throughout several European countries during the 18th and 19th centuries. The plan was named after Neapolitan banker Lorenzo de Tonti, who is popularly credited with having devised the scheme, a form of life insurance, in 1653. The scheme eventually became illegal as more bonafide insurance schemes were developed. In the Tontine scheme the surviving subscriber to each enterprise eventually ended up owning all of the investments and properties!!! 
This pretty kitten watched us from inside one of the cottages as we made our way to the park.


In 1710 Allen Bathurst, who later became Lord Bathurst, set about creating a landscaped park with a walk known as the Broad Walk or Ride. 
The walk is very popular with all age groups, people with children, dogs, and young girls exercising polo ponies. 
The Polo Club on the estate, the oldest in the country, is frequented by several members of the Royal family. 
Eventually the paved walk turns into a mown grassy pathway, and after 8km you arrive at the outskirts of an attractive hilltop village called Sapperton. It is known for its strong connection to the Cotswold Arts and Crafts Movement during the late 19th and early 20th century. Several distinguished craftsmen set up their studios and homes in the village. 
On our return home I looked at our own Yew with new eyes, a tree that we have cut and shaped it into a large spherical ball. It is highly likely that the yew seed arrived in the garden courtesy a bird, but it had already grown into a minuscule sapling by the time that we found it. Now more than 20 years later it stands well over two metres high and requires a stepladder to trim the top.
Yews are very long lived - the oldest in the world resides in Perthshire, Scotland, and is estimated to be over 2500 years old. I wonder if our yew will still be around into the far distant future? And if so, I am now left pondering just how big it might become!

45 comments:

  1. Everything about this post smacks of Britain and its days of glory. To even contemplate a hedge that is three hundred years old and has been lovingly tended through all that time confounds the imagination. Your photographs are wonderful, Rosemary!

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    1. That is very kind of you David re: my photos - when I look back at some of my old posts I sometimes feel as if my skills with the camera are deteriorating. Can you imagine having to cut that hedge, which needs doing every August.

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  2. What a wonderful walk.
    The fence is high, when I first looked and noticed the yew hedge very surprised to have such height but upon reading and viewing it all made sense.
    Take care..

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    1. I don't imagine that there are many other countries around the world that do have quite the number of tall hedges that we do. There is beech hedge in Scotland that was planted at a similar time to the yew hedge and it is over 100ft high. I have seen it only once was simply astounded at its size.

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  3. Dearest Rosemary,
    Wow, that 300 year old Yew hedge looks incredible and so dense, no holes or bare spots.
    Loved the kitty studying you so in depth from behind that window...
    What a lovely landscaped park and all the architecture from the 18th century is so grand!
    Hope your yew will get cared for ages after you're gone...
    Hugs,
    Mariette

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    1. Dear Mariette - that yew hedge really seems to have captured many bloggers attention, but I seem to remember I felt the same when we first move here, and I saw it, now, however, it is very familiar to me.
      Who knows what will happen to our yew tree in the future, but we are pleased that we saved it, even though it arrived in the garden unexpectedly.

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  4. Lovely to walk with you and see these beautiful sights...starting with that amazing stone wall behind your flowers, including the scenery and yews, and especially Miss Kitty.

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    1. When we first moved here we found a great dry stone waller expert who spent well over a year working for us in our garden. We would come up with various designs and and he would always realise our hopes with his expertise. We were very fortunate to have him working for us.

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  5. Oh Rosemary, I loved this post. What a fascinating walk and with such interesting information along the way plus a cute kitten! thanks for taking us along xx

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    1. Thank you Lyn for your generous comment and I am pleased that you enjoyed seeing the post.

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  6. Hello Rosemary, How glorious to be able to take such a walk. Lately I have not been walking that much. The days are too hot and rainy, and at night if I go out it is usually just to the store, or I walk up busy Zhong Shan Rd., but there is not much to admire, and certainly no polo ponies!
    --Jim

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    1. Hello Jim - I have just, rather cheekily, taken a walk down Zhong Shan Road on Google, and it looks to me to be quite an interesting road, especially around the Beitou park area.

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  7. Wonderful shots. That kitty is a beauty.

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  8. I love to see yew trees, they have so much folklore and history and are always growing in the most important places (ley lines, churches that are on pagan sites, centres of ancient villages), Cirencester is a beautiful place.

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    1. During the medieval period yew trees were always planted in churchyards far away from livestock due to their very poisonous berries. The yew wood was used to make longbows so this meant that there was always a ready supply of the wood in every town and village. But you are right they do have a mystic quality to them. In our local church there are 99 shaped yews, and legend says that the devil would destroy the 100th if it were planted.

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  9. Dziękuję za miły komentarz.

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  10. Lovely walk - there is something so very special about Cotswold stone.

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    1. In our southern part of the county the Cotswold stone it is a pale golden colour, but in the north of the county the stone is a darker honey shade due to it having more iron in it, and then down in Bath it is more of a creamy colour.

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  11. What a marvel of a park, Rosemary! And so wonderful photos - you really are an artist.

    The Japanese anemone - I guess that these ones are September Charme - are beautiful and opulent! The ones I love most are the pure white Honorine Jobert - they are a bit more difficult in growing. Always, when I see the first September Charme I am astonished - might be due to their name: they appear in late July, early August here - and are a first reminder that autumn is approaching.

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    1. It is a lovely park to walk in Britta and very generous of the owners to allow the public to have daily access to it.
      My anemones have been flowering for weeks now, and it looks as if there are still plenty more to come. I have to agree with you, I too think that the white ones are preferable

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  12. Oh, everything is a glory on this walk! I love massed Anemone hupehensis and that yew hedge is a wonder. It was probably doing an effective job as a screen by the time the first convicts tumbled ashore in Australia. Mr. P threw in a little factoid for you: the bark of the yew tree is the source of the chemotherapy drug Paclitaxel, so a very precious plant, indeed!

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    1. Yes, Mr.P is correct, however, I understand that he is talking about the Pacific Yew supplying bark for the chemotherapy drug Paclitaxel.
      Here our trees are European Yews and we use all of their green needles(leaves) not the bark and make a chemotherapy drug called docetaxel (Taxotere) from them.
      All of the trimmings from the hedge I showed are taken away to be used for cancer, and so too are the ones in our local churchyard which has 100 trees.

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    2. That's such a nice thing to read - everyone chipping in their little bit for the greater good!

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  13. That yew hedge is really something! I didn't realize yew trees were so long-lived.

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    1. They live to an impressive age even older than Methuselah.

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  14. The hedge is impressive, though I hope my neighbour doesn't decide to grow one like it! That's a very pretty little kitten, beautifully photographed too.

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    1. I hope my neighbour doesn't either, but where it is upsets no one.

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  15. Dearest Rosemary,
    Thanks for your courteous message! Strange was that only in Safari it showed like that; not in Google Chrome. For quite a while already I can no longer comment or reply to comments while in Safari...
    Happy weekend!
    Mariette

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    1. Dear Mariette - that makes it even stranger because I do not use Safari only Chrome. Your blog is now no longer showing insecure when I looked.

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    2. Blogger forced us to use only Chrome I guess... But thanks again Rosemary!

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  16. What a treat it s to scroll through your posts. That hedgerow is amazing! I also loved the little kitten. Janey

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    1. Everyone has been amazed by the hedge and loved the sweet little Kitten Janey - thank you for your kind comment.

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  17. I would say it's a walk down memory lane but it's almost 40 years since it occurred so I recognize very little of it now apart from that long lane. Love the kitten photo. I remember Cirencester impressing me but my main memory of the park was that long drive, halfway up finding a small folly just off it and enjoying my lunch out the brutal cold wind that day. A young teenage couple turned up, probably local, and seemed very disappointed to find me sitting in it. I kept my sheltered seat and carried on eating but when they circled back ten minutes later and still found me pouring over my OS map I relented and left. When I looked back they were moving in, probably for a kiss and cuddle as it was a cold raw afternoon and I thought 'that's me done my good deed for the day'. Funny how some things stick clearly yet others fade. I was in a very good museum as well but cannot remember if it was in Cheltenham or Cirencester yet other events on that trip are as clear as if they happened yesterday.

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    1. The Corinium Museum in Cirencester is wonderful - it is filled with mosaic Roman pavements found beneath many of the towns houses, Roman tombs and lots of Roman artefacts. The largest amphitheatre in the country is found in Cirencester too, but sadly it is bereft of all its stones which the locals used for building purposes once the Romans had left. However, Cheltenham too also has a really good museum.
      I know the folly, I didn't take a photo of it because it was filled with children playing hide and seek.

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  18. For some reason my post wouldn't post. I'm trying again.
    Loved this walk you took us on Rosemary - amazingly beautiful scenery, trees, flowers, the sweetest kitty, and the backsides of those handsome polo ponies!!
    Mother grew pink Japanese anemones and always complained as to how they "walked all of the garden." We loved them though - I've tried to grow them here with no luck.
    Hugs - Mary

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    1. I really like your mother's expression re: the Japanese anemones 'walked all of the garden' - we really enjoyed our trip to Cirencester Park. If there is one thing to be said about this wretched virus it is that I am learning even more about this area where I live, which can be no bad thing.

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  19. Cirencester is one of the most beautiful towns; I have only visited once but still remember the harmonious town centre. I missed the park though, but perhaps we didn’t have the time for a long walk.

    I love the Japanese anemones, my pink ones have all disappeared and there are only white ones left in the garden. And I envy you your yew ball; I too am fond of shaping all evergreens that allow it, one quite ancient yew included. I am not sure if my one was once part of the castle grounds but I know we have a churchyard yew which is said to be a thousand years old or more.

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    1. Yews are really fascinating trees aren't they?
      They enjoy such longevity due to their unique growth pattern. The branches grow down into the ground to form new stems which then rise up around the old central growth as separate but linked trunks. Although the central part may decay and the tree looks hollow and dying, new trunk growth continues to give new life around the original tree.
      It is not surprising that medieval people considered it mystical, and now we have discovered that the yews needles are an important source of chemotherapy helping many with their cancer treatment.

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  20. What a beautiful place for a walk, as well as an interesting location. It is curious to see the big house surrounded by the yew hedge, and the tightly packed town nearby. My first sighting of a yew hedge amazed me - it is not something we see here at all. The name of Cirencester sounds very familiar; perhaps I have seen references to the royal polo players being there over the years. The pink Japanese anemones really are very pretty, even if a bit over-enthusiastic!

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    1. Cirencester was considered to be one of the three most important locations for the Romans when they invaded here. It is widely held that Roman Corinium (Cirencester) was the Roman capital of Britannia Prima.

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  21. So lovely! What a great and beautiful place and park...a nice post again Rosemary!
    Love from Titti

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    1. Thank you Titti - you are always so generous with your very kind comments💕

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