A drive around Gloucestershire

The blue sky stretched far off into the distance like a vast body of water you would find in an ocean, sparrows and blue tits would race above our heads like darts heading for a board, the green Gloucestershire hills overshadowed the surrounding countryside, coming off the M5 motorway into the county makes you feel as if you have gone back in time, the slow relaxed lifestyle of the villages bring peace to your mind knowing there is a much more easy going lifestyle still in existance in the country, the county is so back in the past I am surprised everyone isn't going around on a rickety wooden cart being pulled along by a strong English horse.

Driving through the village of Cam I am flabbergasted on how much it has changed over the years, the village is now home to a small slightly modern looking coffee shop on the main road and some of the old buildings had been done up instead of crumbling, Cam looked like it has more life to it today as it passes through the 21st century instead of being stuck in the 20th.

We head stright to St George's church to put flowers on the resting spots of many of my past relatives, the quietness of the graveyard is spinechilling, the slight breeze slowly rustles the tall ancient trees with a cold wind as Winter is slowly transforming into Spring, there is another grave here that isn't a family member of mine that I have been looking forward to seeing, it is the grave of a ploughman who has a short but interesting story of how he died, the story has most probably been past down for the last three generations to the point where my nan has told me today. The tomb can be found at the side of the church amongst the other extremely old tombs and graves, most of the burials on this side of the church are so old that the graves have seriously shrunk into the ground and almost disappearing, the tomb of the plough man is still going stong but a little damaged, green/yellow stained moss has coloured in the interesting designs of the tomb that tells the story of the man's death.

The Ploughman on God's Sunday

Sometime during the 18th century there was a ploughman working hard on his field making sure that he catches up with all of his work but he was struck down by lightening (I persume lightening) which caused him to instantly drop to the ground dead. Why? In the Christian faith Sunday is the most holy of days in the week where you are to attend church to worship but this plough man decided to attend to his field instead and was killed, of course this would of been coincidence but people were more religious back then, so this story has passed down through the generations all the way to today.

Leaving Cam we headed through the historic town of Dursley which to is having a modern face lift, with new coffee shops and housing estates slowly eating away at the once beautiful surrounding fields that would of gave this a postcard perfect scenery kinda shocked my nan who was also traveling with me passing through the county looking back at memories, but a little further down the road and you will pass through the village of Uly and my gosh this village is old, the georgian buildings are still the dominant look with their grey and brown bricked buildings and small windows, even the road signs looked like they haven't been changed for over a hundred years, this is truly a place that feels like it doesn't want to change with the rest of the world, to me it makes such a place a unique location to visit, compare to many of the other old villages in England slowly being forced to change.

We started to climb up a steep road that takes you into a thin tree line, the hill was called 'Crawley Hill' which by the looks of it was far larger than the other hills in the area, the scenery in the back ground dances behind the spaces of the trees just like you are viewing into a praxinoscope, we came to an opening in the trees which was actually a view point for the beauty below.

From the viewpoint is beautiful, the hills roll across the countryside seperated by small forests that look like islands and farm land with different shades of green and yellow, in the far distance is the border of Wales with Brecon Beacons staring right back at me as well as the glistening shine of the villages that are dotted around me.

I filled my lungs with fresh air whilst standing on a mud mound looking at the view, the far away sounds of sheep and birds whistling really relaxes you, I noticed a circular walking trail that takes you through a forest which I vow to do one day, preferably when the rustling leaves have returned to the trees.

We get back into the car, to drive a little further up Crawley hill, the trees of the thin woodlands whizzed passed us as I was looking up towards them, we then passed a field that had a odd shaped mound in the far distance, it was a stone age burial or what they call around here a 'Long Barrow', the surrounded Gloucestershire country side has so much history that these funny shaped mounds can be seen nearly all over the place

This is a Long Barrow which the ancient Britons used to bury the dead, they look nothing more than a mound of grass that have an entrance at the side of the hill.

They are dated between:

4000 - 2400 BC

We came to another viewing point which really gives you a panoramic view of the countryside, once again the different hills surrounded the low lying countryside including the now small looking 'Cam Peak' which can be found on one of my previous blogs and a hill that I have fond memories off, from here you can see life carry on as normal below, the distant M5 and M4 are still congested, full of traffic of different sizes, the villages are still glistening in the sun from where the light shines off the glass from the windows, tractors rumble across fields with farm animals gracefully grazing the grass.

The grey dry stoned wall has tumbled to the ground, I decided to go and pick up a few of the stones in search for fossils as they are found throughout the county, the stones littered the ditch before my feet which they have replaced with a steel wire fence, a dry stoned wall was used to seperate fields for agricultural purposes as back then they didn't use fences, the wall had holes in them to allow the wind to gracefully flow through the spaces to prevent the wall from falling down, they can still be found in many parts of the country.

The panoramic view of the Gloucestershire countryside.

The panoramic view of the Gloucestershire countryside.

It was time to decend back down the hill towards Dursley, dogs were running around the top of the hill as it was a great place to take your dog, we made our way back into the car park, I noticed a few elderly couples peacefully eating their sandwiches overlooking Gloucestershire as the shadows from the clouds gentily floated above our heads in the way of the sun, the birds were still chirping away in the surrounding trees and the wind was a gentle breeze of slightly cold air, it did feel fresh up on Crawley hill, my cheeks were rosy and my lungs were full, I didn't really want to go back down, I wanted to explore a bit more of the surrounding hills and go and search for other long barrow's but I suppose it was time to head home but I must admit Gloucestershire will always be one of my favourite counties in England not just for it's natural beauty or laid back lifestyle where villages are in their own little bubble away from the modern world, but also for it's heritage that stretch back to the time when before Britain was an island, it is truly a county that needs to be searched properly to get a full understanding of the land.