Cleeve Hill to Birdlip via a knap, a Roman villa, and a brewery that wasn't: 19/4/23

 I had planned to drive into Cheltenham to get a new stick, or try and get mine repaired, but my hostess at Cleeve Hill Hotel had one that some other traveller had left behind, and kindly gave it to me, so I replanned my day. The first job was to climb the hill, via a gate at the back of the hotel. It's the highest peak in the Cotswolds, and there are impressive views from the top; and also a gale force wind. It looks quite savage and impressive as you toil upwards, but when you get to the top there are machines cutting the grass, and a golf course. There even seemed to be people playing golf, although the wind would have surely made it a futile exercise. Lots of walkers, too, mostly with dogs.

I strolled around and found a summit marker, then made my way gingerly back down and to the car. I began by retracing my drive around and on to a tiny road which passed something called Beras Knap. Not knowing what a 'knap' was, apart from in the flint-making context, I pulled off, and toiled up a hill through some meadows and a small wood to reach a burial mound. This was also on the Cotswold Way, and several other people were there already. The knap is about three metres high and twenty metres long, and has three known entrances. Skeletal remains have been found in all of them,

Back down the car, and a drive along increasingly tiny roads -- one lane all the way, with occasional passing areas at the sides -- to Chedworth Roman Villa, a National Trust site. This was excavated fairly recently, and showed that Roman-style life didn't end immediately the Romans moved out, but was viable for some decades afterwards. There are two heated bathhouses, an upper and lower courtyard, dining rooms, kitchens, and toilets flushed by natural streams. The Victorians found some relics here, and put up a hunting lodge, one room of which is now a museum. There are also lots of pheasants, and I saw a live female one for the first time.

On again then to Birdlip, which is basically a posh pub and hotel with a few houses around it. I parked the car here and went for a walk -- first down a connecting path to the Cotswolds Way, which in turn connected up with the Gustave Holst Walk. Holst was apparently a local here, and the trail extends for 55k through this area. I did about 2k and then found my way back up towards Birdlip. At one point I was given the option of continuing on towards Crickley Hill, so:

"Do I feel as if I want to walk to Crickley?",
I asked myself, and answered: "Not partickley."

Back in Birdlip, Google maps gave me some exciting news; there was an open brewery in the little industrial estate, located on a dead-end street running towards the main road. So I strolled up there and found that not only wasn't it open, alas, it wasn't even built; the only sign of it was a planning application tacked to a couple of telegraph poles.

So it was back to the pub, with a nice big room, some rather indifferent staff, and a beer in the bar before retiring. This is another stingy-with-WiFi situation; I can't get BBC iView on the laptop, for instance. But the heating is on, and after grey skies all day the sun has come out. My windburn has largely cleared up, and after a painful morning my knee has settled down. Tomorrow I have some parks and gardens lined up, and an exciting visit to the laundromat in Stroud.