BetseyE

We'll have only 3 days to walk around in the Cotswolds and plan to stay in Painswick for 4 nights and walk to interesting sites from there. We're pretty active and love to ramble, preferably with the fewest crowds possible. We'll be there 9/27-9/30. Ideas??

flanneruk

Do you really mean you're planning on walking from Painswick each day to wherever and then walking back? Or do you mean you're driving to, say, Slad and then walking round Slad?

In either case, the simplest answer starts off with decent walk books. The two Jarrold/Ordnance Survey Pathfinder Guides on the Cotswolds (ISBNs 0-7117-0458-9 and 0-7117-1118-6) are in most Cotswold area book shops, and in bigger shops in whatever larger towns you'll be passing through on your way. Get both: there's not enough in either immediately in Painswick to keep you occupied.

If you're planning the heroic option of walking out and back from Painswick, you also need a decent map. The OS Explorer no 179 covers the area in sufficient detail to track the footpaths out from Painswick. Some shops in the area sell pre-laminated versions, which are invaluable given the absolute certainty it'll be rainy and windy, and the next bit of the walk will be on the other side of the fold. Getting a paper OS map out of those new-fangled plastic pouches, refolding it in the rain then getting it back into the pouch is one of the less enjoyable parts of the exercise.

Crowds are a non-issue on the footpaths. Indeed, since you're planning on being here midweek, it would be surprising if you met any fellow-walkers. Maybe the one elderly local who's not using her retirement to eliminate Angolan landmines or do that doctorate in Mayan number theory. But that's about it.

As with everything else in the Cotswolds, it's pretty pointless recommending any one thing as being outstanding. We don't do stunning here (which is why the awful, ostentatious, noovy Blenheim, with its vainglorious triumphalism, is so alien and thankfully outside the area). We do endless, wall to wall, niceness. Do the walk round the Beacon, then meander round Leckhampton or Edgeworth. Or walk to Leckhampton and back. Or pick any of the walks at random.

If you fancy a short drive, the autumn show at the Westonbirt Arboretum (about 10 miles away) will be just gearing up. You might find it underwhelming: this is not the industrial-scale maple forest you would find in the US. Modesty, diversity and understatement are the Cotswold Way, in autumn foliage as in life.

BetseyE

Thanks for your marvelously articulate reply. We ended up staying in Shipton-underWychwood and did several day hikes in areas around Winchcombe, the Slaughters, and Broadway. Each offered its own wonders, whether a 972 church, multiple pheasants, or Gardens-one-could-only-lust-after-in-the-US. A bit of slippery mud only added to the charm, and when the sun shone brilliantly in later afternoon, we felt we'd discovered a special world. Clearly you know that world well. Thanks again. BetseyE

Fairhope

Flanneruk: Can you tell me if the Hope Mills Cottages, Brimscombe, Stroud still exist. My Grandmother's brother( Uncle Shirley) lived in them and I walked along the canal and train tracks as a young boy visiting from Canada. We come from the Chalford area.

flanneruk

Fairhope:

Stroud's not my manor. I have a house in the more suburban bit of the Cotswolds, from where I travel round. It's at least 15 years since I was in Stroud (which, you'll recall, is really an northern industrial town accidentally misplaced), and have never known it to that detail.

For what it's worth, the Royal Mail postcode finder denies all knowledge of Hope Mills (or Hope Mill)Cottages, and I can't find it on the Multimap maps. There is a paid for (but very low cost) address finder at http://www.multimap.com/map/home.cgi...ap&rt=jump

Are you familiar with the complicated story of what's happened to the Thames + Severn Canal, and what's going to happen to it? A great deal of it was blocked up or destroyed (including a lot round Hope Mill) during our postwar Age of Institutional Vandalism, and there's now a huge project to recreate this coast to coast link for walkers and waterpeople. There's been a significant donation to the programme by the Lottery Fund, but they're still looking for more cash - and volunteers. You can find out more at www.cotswoldcanals.com/index.htm

BetseyE. Glad you were here during the few hours recently we've had any sun. Delighted you enjoyed it.

Fairhope

When I was much younger the Cotswolds was where you came from and the Lake District was where you went. Is this not the case now?