Butterow, below Rodborough Common

I woke rather too early, partly I suspect because Bomble decided to waken us for his own purposes, namely his stomach. I finally got up about 6-30am and went to make tea for Helena and I. When I rise I can't help looking out of the windows at the back of the house as the views are always subtly different as the day progresses.

Once I'd made tea I went to my desk and looking out of the window I thought the mists on the hilltops and the sun shining on the houses below were worth recording. So I fetched my camera and opened the window and looked slightly sideways to the south-west.

The settlement on this hillside is called Butterow and roughly marks the line of the change in the rock strata between some of the many Cotswold limestone and the clay strata. The steeper generally wooded slopes are the rocks and the lower slopes tend to be the more clayey pastures. The small road running diagonally up the hillside was the old turnpiked road from Stroud through Butterow to Rodborough and its Common, where the land was more dry. From there the coaches would run to London daily. The bottom of this valley formed by the River Frome was where very many mills were sited to harness the water power for the wool industry ever since the thirteenth century. A much older lane runs along the valley beside the line of the houses at the bottom of the scene. It goes to Bagpath via Montserrat, twisting around the combes formed by the many springs lining the valley, where the copious underground water erupts at the junction of the clay and limestone strata. The spring line was a key factor of life, both supplying water for dwellings as well as forming impassable land below it. Thus dry tracks were created over time along the slopes above the spring line.

The common is now owned by the National Trust and is maintained in traditional ways to retain the classic Cotswold limestone grassland. The land is grazed by cows and horses under the long held Commoners' rights which include:
pasturage – the right to put livestock out to feed on the land, usually grass but can be heather or other vegetation.
pannage – the right to put pigs out to feed in wooded areas of the land.
estover – the right to take specific timber products from the land, like whole trees or firewood.

Most of the land below the houses is private and much of it is still farmed. Many of these wooded hillsides were cleared at various times, so the thick woods have only relatively recently returned.

Out of the picture below this scene is the route of the 'Golden Valley' railway from Cheltenham and Gloucester to London. It uses part of the narrow area of land at the bottom of the valley through which the River Frome, the 'Thames and Severn Canal' and the modern main road towards Cirencester all have to vie for space. On this, or our, side of the valley the hillside rises once again and it is far more densely built upon because the sun shines on its slopes. Butterow and all the north-facing slopes of the Golden Valley tend to have far less sunshine, particularly in the winter months. Modern housing tends to be built on the spots where it was not contemplated before. We were lucky to be able to choose the sunny side and we have never regretted it, especially when you have views like this to gander upon early on a summer's morning.