A wet wander.

It has rained just about continuously from about 2000 last night. Today though it has mainly just been light drizzly rain and with little wind. This morning we shared the ironing (sorry Heather) and then after lunch went for a walk round the local countryside.

It was only when we walking back up the tow path it dawned on my why the Stratford had the synonymous split bridges. Obviously from the photo above they didn't provide a tow path through bridge holes, so rather than unhitch  the animal at each bridge they could give slack and pass it through the gap. I think the boat crews would have preferred to just walk the animal through so it must have been cheaper to build like this.

After leaving the tow path we set off past a hill that actually had an Iron Age fort among the woods. It has a double bank and ditch fortification and was called Ashborough and was maybe a home for a chief of the Dobunni Tribe.

A nice green lane to walk on. Not all the footpaths today were quite as well made as this.

This very nice barn conversion is in the hamlet of Kington which, means farm or estate of the King so maybe this was the lands of a King in pre-Saxon times.

One for the family album. No not ours, silly.

Despite the low cloud and drizzle the rolling countryside of South Warwickshire was looking at it's best with the leaves bursting forth and the bluebells hanging on. It wont be long until the hedgerows are full of May blosoom.

We walked through Austy Wood whose old name was Horstow which means 'hallowed place' so was probably a site that was used to Druids. When the area was converted to Christianity the priest erected a cross near her where they worshiped before setting to and building the first church at Wootton Wawen.

As we approached the canal near the aqueduct this stand of trees made a stark outline on the grey sky. I couldn't tell what trees they had been but they reminds me of paintings by David Hockney.

The Wootton Wawen aqueduct and the Anglo Welsh base.

We made a detour to Yew Tree Farm Craft centre here to take advantage of the tea rooms there and for Helen to have a gander around the shops there. On Bank Holiday weekend there had been an organised route through the bluebells in Austy Woods. They had raised over £35000 so there must have been plenty there. It rained on the Monday and they had to call seven ambulances for broken legs and ankles etc as folk came in flip flops and pumps to walk around the woodland moody paths. It was all for a good cause. We were at the Black Country Museum and there were families there with just T shirts and sandals on. They either don't ever hear a weather forecast, have only lived here for a short time and haven't learned that it always rains on Bank Holidays, or shouldn't be allowed out with out supervision. There is 'naught so strange as folk'!