Easter Sunday

Current Government instructions state stay local, so local we remained. Next week, however, things will be different - a long awaited hair cut will be on the cards, a visit to a shop selling non-essentials - we badly need a good reading light, and we shall also be able to spread our wings and travel further away from home.

Easter Sunday dawned hot and sunny, so we packed a picnic, and headed out to walk along a local valley. 

 

Sherborne is a linear village extending for more than a mile through the Windrush valley besides a small river tributary to the River Windrush.

The river was used during the medieval period to wash the flocks of sheep belonging to the monks of Winchcombe Abbey.

The valley is home to Sherborne House, a large property which has been greatly changed and altered over the centuries. As far back as 1087 a property on the site was mentioned as being in the possession of the abbots of Winchcombe. 

During the 17th century part of the house was altered and redesigned by Inigo Jones. 

In the mid c20th the house was used as a private boarding school, but in the 1980s the stable block, the outbuildings and the whole of the house were converted into privately owned appartments.

Passing through the churchyard in search of the return woodland walk, the large number of cherubic Cotswold stone tombstones glowing in the bright sunlight caught our attention.

Finally some welcome shade, and a

place to rest,

and the road home, but not before passing

by the Hunting Lodge to Sherborne House, now owned by the NT. Currently it is closed to visitors until circumstances change. To my eye it resembles a small Italian palazzo sitting here in the middle of the Cotswold countryside.