Towards the head of The Horns valley

My good friend John W. came around at 9-30am with his dog Theo, a wonderful Bedlington terrier. I'd asked him for his advice and help with a seemingly minor plumbing problem, which of course was no such thing.

Before getting down to business John suggested we took Theo for a walk, so I guided them through the new cemetery and onto Horns Road. This begins in the old town and then wanders up and towards the head of The Horns valley. Our house is sited on the south facing slopes leading down to the Lime Brook which has formed the valley.

We chatted back and forth with me describing the landscape's physical and social history and John reciprocated by filling me in on botanical and general scientific knowledge related to what we saw. It was delightful. Theo enjoyed exploring the new paths and woodlands while keeping a beady eye on where we were.

As we neared the narrowest part of the valley we stopped to look back down towards Bowbridge with the acknowledged ancient woodlands on the highest slopes above the grazing meadows now turned over to the modern agriculture involving the leisure pursuits with horses. The old farm a few hundred yards below this point is now a riding stables rather than its former life as a dairy. I used to see the ruins of an old electric float which would have been their local delivery vehicle, but it seems to have been recycled. As a kid in Surrey I used to help our milkman on his local rounds and in return he allowed me to occasionally drive the float!

I took this picture from the footpath which by then had narrowed to a couple of feet wide following the old Cotswold limestone walls which separated the meadows from the old coppice woodland.

Now the pastures and meadows have been parcelled out to owners of horses who use the riding stables. They sometimes walk their horses down the hill and past our house to exercise them and train them to use roads.