| The Gustav Holst Way starts at Cranham Church. The church is usually open and it is worth spending a few minutes there before commencing the walk. From the church go up the road to the school and just opposite the school take a gently sloping grassy path down to the left. This joins a track to go downhill past a car park to the Black Horse. |
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Holst‟s mother Clara is known to have played the harmonium in Cranham Church, and Holst, visiting Cranham later, most probably also played in the church on several occasions. 'There is a kneeler in the church which is embroidered with 'In the Bleak Midwinter' and 'Holst'. Opposite the Black Horse is Midwinter Cottage, where Holst was staying in 1904 when he composed his now very famous carol “In the bleak midwinter”, the hymn tune known as Cranham in The English Hymnal of 1906.
'There is a kneeler in the church which is embroidered with
'In the Bleak Midwinter' and 'Holst'. |
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Opposite the Black Horse is Midwinter Cottage, where Holst was staying in 1904 when he composed his now very famous carol “In the bleak midwinter”, the hymn tune known as Cranham in The English Hymnal of 1906. |
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| Go down beside Midwinter Cottage to the lower part of the village and turn right onto the main road. Walk approximately 50 metres and turn left onto the signposted footpath. |
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| Follow the footpath over the stream and into Buckholt Wood and in approximately 50 metres bear left and follow the path up the hill. The path twists a bit, but keeps to the same general direction and gradually gets steeper. |
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| At the T-junction in the footpath turn left and continue up hill following the yellow directional arrows marked on the trees. The footpath narrows and rises steeply towards the road. |
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| Cross the road and turn left and then past a large house, now called ‘The Buckholt’. |
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| This was the house that Samuel and Mary Lediard, Holst‟s maternal grandparents, lived in with their children, one of whom, Clara, was Holst‟s mother. It was then owned by David Whatley, Holst‟s maternal great-grandfather. The house was smaller then and known as „Buckholt Cottage‟. More recently Buckholt woods have been famous as the location of a sanatorium where amongst others George Orwell spent some time recovering. Buckholt is a name going back to the 11th century and means beech wood. |
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| At the end of the garden wall, turn right off the road and take the right of two signed footpaths down beside the house. At the first opportunity turn right onto a forest track and continue going gently down until meeting the Cotswold Way, recognisable as a much wider well walked path. Turn right onto the Cotswold Way. |
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| The walk now follows the Cotswold Way along the Cotswold escarpment and on a footpath which is well waymarked, wide and easy to follow. The path continues through Witcombe Wood and crosses the road just below Birdlip village and the Royal George Hotel. |
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After crossing the road the footpath goes up hill in a north easterly direction. |
| It is well worth following a short detour to 'The Peak' to experience the unobscured panoramic views. |
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| From The Peak the path turns back again to go past the Barrow Wake viewpoint and from here the footpath runs parallel with the main A417 road downhill to the Air Balloon public house. |
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| Be very careful crossing the busy road junction at the Air Balloon roundabout and into Crickley Hill Country Park. |
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| Follow the Cotswold Way signs through the park to the Crickley Hill visitor centre & toilets. |
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| Crickley Hill is the site of a Late Bronze Age - Early Iron Age promontory hillfort, with two phases of construction, and a later Iron Age unenclosed settlement. The two main phases of hillfort defences were located during the 1969-1993 excavations on Crickley Hill. The earliest phase comprised of timber-laced ramparts enclosing several rows of rectangular buildings, with clusters of small square buildings, possibly 7th century BC in date. On the flat approach and the western tip of the hill, the ramparts had been constructed with a regular pattern of timber internal uprights, horizontal timber lacing. Elsewhere the ramparts diminished in both width and height to become a drystone wall. It is not known whether this defence was continuous around the promontory as landslips and quarrying have removed any evidence; for more information see www.pastscape.org |
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