Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
saltway (which linked Droitwich with the Thames Valley) for about 100
metres.
A cottage in Stanton
Leave Salter's Lane by turning left on a drive along-side a house named
The Barn, then take a footpath angling across a meadow to its far right-
hand corner where you come onto a country road next to the ruins of
Hailes Abbey
, some of which can be seen over the boundary hedge.
Turn right and walk along the road. When it forks, note that refresh-
ments can be found by taking the right branch to Hayles Fruit Farm. For
the continuing Cotswold Way, take the left branch ahead on a track rising
between Hailes Wood and orchards. Soon after the wood ends, a stile by a
signpost directs you into the left-hand meadow. There is little to be seen
of a footpath on the ground, but the way leads diagonally up the slope to-
wards a clump of trees reached through meadows linked by gates. The fi-
nal climb to the top of the slope is steep, and leads to the spot from where
it is said Thomas Cromwell watched the dismantling of Hailes Abbey. A
gate gives access onto
Beckbury Camp
, another of the many Cotswold
hill forts (grid ref: 064299).
HAILES ABBEY
Managed and maintained by English Heritage Hailes Abbey was built in the 13th cen-
tury by Richard, Earl of Cornwall and brother of Henry III, as a thanksgiving for having
survived a near-shipwreck. The abbey was consecrated in 1251 for a community of
Cistercian monks, and when a phial said to contain the blood of Christ was presen-
ted by Richard's second son, Edmund, in 1270, Hailes became a place of pilgrimage
