Butterow, near Stroud, in the morning light

When I got up and saw the frost covered hills opposite us, I had a feeling that it might be my only chance of a blip today. I was right.

The sun rises behind the the other side of the valley and as soon as the rays rise above the hilltop, the warmth quickly melts the upper slopes of the Golden Valley. I like these perched houses in Butterow, which are congregated along the spring line, and the road that follows it all the way along the valley to Chalford.

The road you can see running down the hillside diagonally was built as a turnpike, and the original turnpike collections were made from a still existing building, now a cottage beside the road, but without the original gate. The road runs up and round the coombe, through the trees, before reaching the open common of Rodborough, where once an Iron Age settlement was built. At night it is also very pretty and I love looking at the twinkling lights of the houses and the occasional car headlights drifting in and out of the trees.

You can cross the common and drop straight down the other side into the beginning of the Nailsworth valley, and within one mile reach the site of the Woodchester roman villa, where a very important mosaic was discovered and then reburied. It is thought that the villa may have been for a local governor of the region, because of its magnificence. Cirencester, which is only thirteen miles away, was the second most important roman town in England, so the villa may have been his holiday home.