The Cotswolds

So I have had a little fun this afternoon going down memory lane with my husband. My good friend Barbara from Ramblings in an English Garden asked me where my new header picture was taken. She guessed right that it was in the Cotswold’s...somewhere??? Exactly where…I am still not 100% sure! Seven years ago my husband and I went to France and England for our 25th Wedding Anniversary when on one sweet summer morning I snapped that picture that is now my header.

All I could remember was that we stayed at a lovely old house called Clapton Manor, in this tiny village of Clapton on the Hill. I was able to look up that much information in my journal. There are a lot of places in the Cotswold’s that sound so similar. They have a lot of places that are called:______on the Water, ______ on the Wold. (What’s a wold?) ______on the Hill…. Lower______, Upper _______I got very confused :0)

Here is what some typical roadside signage looks like

On our first outing, we headed off to visit some beautiful gardens, (Hidcote & Kiftsgate) It was all just so quaint, my first day of Cotswold quaint, and I just couldn't stand it another second longer as we were passing through this village. I just told Dan to stop! We simply pulled over and parked and I went around with my eyes bugging out and snapped a couple of pictures and said okay, we can continue now...phew! Dan and I could not for the life of us remember where in the world I had snapped those pictures. So we did a little detective work, using Google Earth. I found another picture that I had taken in this place. We zoomed in on the sign and Google Earthed it.

Redesdale Arms

It brought us to the village of Morton on the Marsh. We played around with Google Earth for awhile, check out some of the pubs we had eaten at. We are still not sure which Fox we ate at? Dan thinks it was at Morton on the Marsh. But I think it was the one in Lower Oddington?
Google Earth is quite a fun program. If you haven’t tried it, just type in your address and it will give you a visual image of you house from the air. Than you can zoom right in on your own backyard...

We had a lot of fun trying to remember all the sweet little places we visited on that quick jaunt to the Cotswolds.

So now I must take you all with me on a little tour ... thanks Barbara for getting me started down memory lane!

Here is the back of Clapton Manor

The fireplace in the sitting room. Big enough I suppose to roast an ox!

Our bedroom


Behind the bookcase is a secret passage. The owner of the B&B thought we were out and she came right through that passage way and scared us both! She was pretty embarrassed , I was pretty freaked out!

Take a look at the depth of those window sills. Had my first taste of Lady Grey tea here!

This manor house was built in the sixteenth century out of the golden cotswold stone of the region...
Here is a glimpes of the manor from one part of their garden

So at this point I haven't even left the B&B this was all the Clapton Manor's gardens


Stay tuned for more of my tour...I will have to break this up into several posts. Hope you all enjoyed it!