Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
brow of the hill a track breaks to the right. Ignore this and continue ahead,
now sloping downhill towards trees among which you cross a footbridge
over a stream.
Walk across the lower corner of the next field, then up the slope along-
side Dyrham Wood. On reaching the top corner the path goes into the
wood and eases a way through.
Note
that as you pass a small spring, there's a
box on a post beside the path. This contains a 'message book' which encourages walkers
to record their impressions of and comments about the Cotswold Way.
Emerging from Dyrham Wood, walk along a track which leads directly to
Gorse Lane. Take care as you cross, for traffic races along here. On the
opposite side enter a field and turn left to walk parallel with the road. Go
through a kissing gate in the corner then turn right on a bridleway. This
keeps to the right-hand edge of another field, at the end of which you
maintain direction between hedges and come to the A46 yet again at the
hamlet of Pennsylvania (accommodation, refreshments, grid ref: 744733).
Cross the road with due caution to steps leading into a field on the east-
ern side. A path cuts diagonally through the field to its top right-hand
corner where you go over a stone stile and half-left through a second
field to exit onto the A420. Turn left towards the White Hart, then almost
directly opposite the pub you follow a footpath alongside a driveway to
Holy Trinity Church (grid ref: 751727). Walk through the churchyard, and
emerging on its south side bear right on
Cold Ashton
village street. You
will pass several handsome buildings gazing out over a magnificent, broad
and undulating landscape that folds into St Catherine's Valley, into which
the
Limestone Link Path
drops from the road. There's accommodation
to be had here in Cold Ashton.
COLD ASHTON
Cold Ashton deserves its prefix by virtue of the winds that sweep in off the Bristol
Channel to catch its exposed face. But it is a charming place for all that, perched on
the southern edge of the Cotswold plateau with fine views that overlook land on which
medieval farmers grew vines. The gabled Elizabethan manor, with its tall chimneys
and ornate gateway, stands next door to the rectory, but is partially hidden from the
Cotswold wayfarer by walls and clipped yew hedges. Considered to be one of the finest
examples of this type of building in the country, it was in Cold Ashton Manor that Sir
Bevil Granville died on the night of 5 July 1643 following the Battle of Lansdown in the
Civil War (see Section 13).
