Trailblazer Guide Books

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 - The Great Outdoors

HISTORY OF THE TRAIL

The Cotswold Way runs for 102 miles (163km) through the Cotswold Hills from Chipping Campden in the north to the Georgian city of Bath. The route was originally devised as a long-distance footpath by members of the Ramblers’ Association and was established in conjunction with the Cotswolds AONB in 1970.

Its development as a national trail was approved in 1998, but it was not until May 2007 that the trail was formally launched, one of just 15 in England and Wales.

During the transition, several changes were made to the route, and others are still in the offing, although for the most part the original paths remain open. These include areas around Winchcombe, to the south of Cheltenham, and near Crickley Hill.

The path is the responsibility of the National Trail Officer, under the auspices of the Cotswold Way National Trail Office (see box p41).

GEOLOGY

Look at a geological map of England and it is immediately clear that the origins of the present-day Cotswolds lie in the Jurassic period. Geological maps show a continuous swathe of Jurassic-age rocks extending all the way from Dorset to the Yorkshire coast, with the most complete and impressive outcrop making up the Cotswold Hills.

These rocks, formed between 145 and 199 million years ago, include silts, clays and sands, as well as the famous Cotswold limestone.

Cotswold stone is an oolitic limestone, a sedimentary rock that was formed primarily in the warm shallow seas of the Jurassic. It is comprised of a large number of almost spherical granules, or oolites, packed closely together, and its origins explain the regular occurrence in the rock of fossils, such as sea urchins.

Occasional falls in sea level resulted in dry land where dinosaurs roamed, leaving behind both their footprints and their bones. While most walkers will see little difference between the rocks at various places along the trail, to the geologist there are marked distinctions according to the stages at which the sediments were deposited and compressed.

In addition, while the surface rock of the Cotswold range is predominantly limestone, the underlying structure is more usually of clays, silts and sands. It is the precise structure of these rocks that both determines the wildlife that populates the hillside and influences the buildings that we see in each part of the region.

The Gloucestershire Geology Trust (tel 01452-864438, www.glosgeotrust.org.uk) is committed to studying and conserving the region’s geological heritage, and to recording regionally important geological sites (RIGS).

There are plans in hand to develop a geology trail along the Cotswold Way, but in the meantime, the trust publishes a series of trail guides (£2 each), entitled Gloucestershire Uncovered, covering locations along the route, including Cleeve Common, Leckhampton Hill and Crickley Hill.

HOW DIFFICULT IS THE COTSWOLD WAY?

Familiarity with the Cotswolds – or at least with the tourist areas in the north – might lead to a sense that the Cotswold Way is little more than a walk in the park.

While it would be unreasonable to suggest that it is seriously challenging, it would be equally wrong to underestimate the quite literal ups and downs of a route that takes you from just above sea level to 1066ft (325m) and back over a distance in excess of 100 miles.

If, as is often suggested, you plan to complete the route in seven days, you’re looking at an average of nearly 15 miles, or six to seven hours’ actual walking, every day. Some of those hills are steeper than you might expect from a casual glance at the landscape, and poor weather can exacerbate what would otherwise be fairly straightforward.

It makes sense, then, to have a reasonable level of fitness before you set off, if only to make sure that what should be an enjoyable week or so’s walking doesn’t turn into a test of endurance.

Route finding
Having been opened as a national trail only in 2007, it’s no surprise that the Cotswold Way is clearly signposted along almost its entire length. On the few occasions – usually in a field, but specifically around the Ebley Canal – where there might be some ambiguity, the maps in this guide should quickly put you straight.

The waymark throughout is the National Trails’ acorn symbol, to be found on stiles, kissing gates, fingerposts and guideposts. Sometimes as an alternative you will find the standard yellow or blue footpath or bridlepath roundel overprinted with the words ‘Cotswold Way’, and the authorities in Bath have devised a more discreet sign, a metallic acorn on a black background.

GPS
I never carried a compass, preferring to rely on a good sense of direction. I never bothered to understand how a compass works or what it is supposed to do. To me a compass is a gadget, and I don’t get on well with gadgets of any sort. A Wainwright

While modern Wainwrights will scoff, more open-minded walkers will accept GPS technology as an inexpensive and well-established, if non-essential, navigational aid.

To cut a long story short, within a minute of being turned on and with a clear view of the sky, GPS receivers will establish your position and altitude anywhere on earth in a variety of formats, including the British Ordnance Survey grid system, to an accuracy of within a few metres.

One thing must be understood however: treating GPS as a replacement for maps, a compass and common sense is a big mistake. Although current units are robust, it only takes the batteries to go flat or some electronic malfunction to leave you in the dark.

GPS is merely a navigational aid or backup to conventional route finding and, in almost all cases, is best used in conjunction with a paper map. All a GPS does is stop you exacerbating navigational errors or save you time in correcting them.

Using GPS with this book
It’s anticipated that you won’t tramp along day after day, ticking off the book’s waypoints as you pass them, because the route description and maps are more than adequate most of the time.

Only when you’re unsure of your position or which way to go might you feel the need to turn on the unit for a quick affirmation.

Most of this book’s maps feature numbered waypoints from Chipping Campden to Weston, outside Bath. These correlate to the list on pp184-5 which gives the longitude/latitude position in a decimal minute format as well as a description.

Typically a waypoint has been given for most of the high spots and significant places of interest along the route, as well as several of the towns and villages.

You can either manually key the nearest presumed waypoint from the list in this book into your unit as and when the need arises or, much less laboriously and with less margin for keystroke error, download the complete list (but not the descriptions) as a GPS-readable file from the Trailblazer website.

You’ll need the right cable and adequate memory in your unit (typically the ability to store 500 waypoints or more). This file, as well as instructions on how to interpret an OS grid reference, can be found in the updates section of the Cotswold Way text on the Trailblazer website (www.trailblazer-guides.com).

You’ll soon discover that it’s possible to buy state-of-the-art digital mapping to import into a GPS unit with sufficient storage capacity. Advanced GPS users may like this option but it has to be said it’s about as useful as internet on a mobile phone.

Reliability and battery/charging issues aside, the pocket-sized receiver you’ll typically use will have a screen far too small to give you the ‘big picture’ and currently the cost of this digital mapping will exceed a set of easy-to-use OS paper maps which, while bulky, are always preferable.

It’s worth repeating that almost everyone who has ever walked the Cotswold Way has done so without GPS so there’s no need to rush out and buy one. The route is exceptionally well waymarked, and with the maps in this guide, there is little chance that you will get lost.

That said, it offers a good opportunity to try out new technology before tackling something more navigationally challenging. And if you do come unstuck, correctly using this book’s GPS waypoints should get you back on track and tucking into an evening meal all the sooner.

HOW LONG DO YOU NEED?

This is the great imponderable. Is it reasonable – as is generally suggested – to walk the path from end to end in a week? Well yes, but it’s a qualified yes.

If you have just seven days’ holiday but need two of those to get to and from the trail, you’ll be faced with walking 20 miles a day, which isn’t for the faint hearted. If, on the other hand, you can spend most of those seven days on the trail, a week is realistic.

That said, averaging almost 15 miles a day won’t leave much time for exploring the villages on the route, taking time out for a cream tea in Broadway, or a pint of Donnington’s at The Mount Inn in Stanton, or exploring Selsley Common for orchids.

You might find yourself casting a wistful backward glance at old churches as you march purposefully past the lych gate, or promising yourself you’ll come back to do justice to Hailes Abbey, or Dyrham Park, or even to Bath.

So while the world reckons that this is a week’s walk, give it eight days and you’ll be adding in time to breathe.

If time is really short, you could reasonably leave out the last section, perhaps south of Cold Ashton and down Lansdown Hill into Bath (p164). That isn’t to say this isn’t worthy of walking – far from it. But Bath is a destination in its own right, so the chances are that you could justify returning on another occasion.

Plenty of people can’t spare the time to walk from end to end in one go, but still get that sense of achievement by building up the miles over a series of day or weekend walks until they’ve completed the route.

Alternatively, you could simply sample the highlights (though lowlights are few); see pp28-9 for some recommendations.