Frampton on Severn

April 2013

To Frampton-on-Severn in Gloucestershire for a Friday afternoon walk, after a pleasant lunch in The Bell Inn.

This is Walkingworld walk no. 6123 of 7 miles 'moderate' level walking in some sunshine despite a biting wind at times. It is early April following the coldest March in 50 years and a shaft of sunlight is enough to excite us into thinking it's spring.

Starting from the village green at Frampton (reputedly the longest village green in the country but not the largest, which is Great Bentley in Essex), our walk took us along the banks of the river Frome to near Saul Junction where the Stroudwater Canal and the Gloucester & Sharpness Canal join. It was originally a straightening of the River Severn.

Though actually passing over the A38 and under the M5 at two points this was an attractive and varied rural and riverside walk.

It's then 35 miles, just over an hour, to The Cottage of Content at Carey near Ross on Wye. This is in Herefordshire and we will walk in that county tomorrow. However we also have a short walk on Sunday in Gloucestershire again.

This was to Seven Springs, supposedly a source of the River Thames, though this is disputed, and the official Thames source is Thames Head (the hint is in the name), also in Gloucestershire.

Undaunted, however, we took a shortish walk which climbed to surprising heights and took in the villages of Coberley and Cowley. At the former is a monument to Sir Thomas Berkeley who fought at the battle of Crecy in 1346 and his wife Lady Joan, plus a child.

Joan is remembered as mother of Dick Whittington, celebrated Lord Mayor of London. Though born at Pauntley Court, Dick spent much of his childhood at Coberley.

	At Cowley there is a grand Italianate Manor House used as a conference centre, and a church dating back to 1200. The stone flagged porch roof (left) is an attractive element of the church, while the conspicuous display of wellington boots (below) is the feature I most noticed about the Manor.

Afterwards to the Hungry Horse, a large thriving main road family eating place offering waistline-expanding combinations of chunky chips, melted cheese, whipped cream and oozing chocolate in gargantuan portions to people who indulge while talking on their mobiles and nipping out for a fag. I had a baked potato and a pint of Speckled Hen.