Dairy cows at Threshold Farm, Harescombe

On my drive home I made a snap decision to turn right off the main road and to wander to see what I found. I had a bit of time and I like to be able to roam through the landscape and try to see places I haven't explored before. I was tempted by several small lanes off this side road and in the end the sign for Harescombe got my attention and off I went.

I was in the Severn Vale running along the bottom of the escarpment of the Cotswold Hills through the clay vales as they are called, the rather undulating land which is predominantly farmed with cattle. Within a mile the climbing road brought me to a junction where a farm nestled and I stopped when I saw some young calves sitting under the old apple trees in their rather unkempt orchard.

But opposite there was a small field next to a large modern pond where these three dairy cows were grazing happily. Watched them as they watched me and before too long they went back to grazing. I on the other hand spotted a range of interesting things, including the beginnings of a gathering of starlings flitting between the tree tops. the farmmbuildingu were relatively recent but the farmhouse was a classic seventeenth century limestone building set on a mound. beside the old high banked single track lane. this lane leads upwards for about two miles to to Harescombe Beacon at the top of the limestone escarpment.

Whilst I stood looking about me and waiting for the starlings to flock in the air again, a farmer drove up on his quad bike and parked right beside me. He told me when I asked that he was going to gather a herd of cows in the neighbouring field in order to take them about half a mile up the narrow to his different farm. In fact I now know there are five farms all within half a mile of each other in this combe. the farmer asked me to move my car a few yards round the bend in the lane so that the cows weren't frightened by it. Having done that I watched the cows being gathered up and then lead up the road, from my position blocking off another lane to help them.. Three cows decided to not play ball and the farmer must have spent fifteen minutes chasing them around the large field on his quad bike. He eventually got the assistance of one of the neighbouring farmers and I then followed in my car as they walked slowly up towards the other farm higher up the hillside closer to the Beacon.

I expected to blip a view of the herd moving all together but in the end I liked this image of the three cows in their own field who just stood around disinterestedly watching the other herd be lead away.