Some time back a colleague of Sue’s introduced her to Luxury Escapes, a website offering super deals at top-end hotels in a variety of locations worldwide. In a serendipitous moment as we planned this trip, a deal popped up near Wotton-under-Edge on the southern end of the Cotswolds. We had already decided to visit this popular tourist area on our way back to Nottingham, so when the bargain priced offer at Tortworth Court Hotel presented itself at just the right time we couldn’t resist.
The Cotswolds encompasses almost 800 square miles of five counties in Central and West England. It is characterised by the beautiful rural landscape punctuated by golden Cotswold stone-built villages (with irresistible names such as Piddlehinton and Stow-on-The-Wold), historic towns and and stately homes and gardens. It was this scenery we were keen to discover and Tortworth Court Hotel was a good start.
The hotel occupies a Victorian Gothic country mansion set in 80 acres of gardens and woodlands. The original building dates back to the 11th Century and is currently a class 2 listed Heritage Building. Basically that means we were staying in a huge old house, dripping with history and refurbished to four-star hotel standards. And by huge…when we checked-in, we were given a map to find our room! Fifteen minutes later we were still wandering the corridors, wondering how we were ever going to find our way back to the dining room for our decadent high-tea that afternoon. Three days later and Graham (known ironically as Captain Compass) was still taking wrong turns and stumbling baffled along endless corridors. “We don’t need a map, we need a GPS!” he bemoaned helplessly. Note, Graham’s complete lack of directional ability is a constant source of amusement and entertainment to Sue, who has spent much of the past 25 years leading him, bewildered but excited, around the world.
Geographical challenges aside, we had a wonderful stay in Tortworth Court, our first Luxury Escapes experience. A massive room to match the scale of the old mansion, fine dining every day, indoor pool and a gym – what’s not to like?
Back to the beauty and splendour of The Cotswolds, our first full day of the Lonely Planet self guided driving tour happened to coincide with a day of rainstorms and flash flooding that hit central England causing massive damage to farms and towns across Cheshire, Lancashire and Yorkshire. Fortunately we were spared the worst of it, being further south, but our viewing pleasure was nonetheless restricted to peering through the rain, taking quick snapshots between windscreen wiper blades and an occasional dash along a Main Street dodging the rain by diving into the nearest tea shop.
Highlights were the gorgeous villages of Painswick, Chipping-Campden, The Slaughters, both Upper and Lower (“slaughter” being Old English for muddy field) and the towns of Broadway and Stow. Driving conditions, challenging as they were, dictated our decision to avoid the larger towns of Cirencester and Cheltenham, but we had seen enough through the misty downpours to get a feel for this charming area of England’s green and pleasant land.
With improved weather conditions on our final day in the Cotswolds, we took a drive through the local area, stopping at Uley then walking from just outside Wotton-Under-Edge on a wooded farmland trail to the Tyndale monument. From the top of this 19th Century tower on a hill in North Nibley, we had commanding 360 degree views of the surrounding countryside. The day was clear enough for us to see the two bridges crossing the River Severn to Wales. The 111 ft tower with its spiral stone staircase of 121 steps was erected in grateful remembrance of a local man, William Tyndale, translator of the bible. He was responsible for the first printing of the New Testament in English and, like many who wore their faiths proudly in times of brutal religious persecution, was martyred in 1536. William Tyndale’s great legacy to the world is bringing the New Testament to all English speakers and a tall stone tower on a hill in the middle of the Gloucestershire countryside.
We left the glorious scenery of the Cotswolds and hammered up the motorways to Nottingham to spend another few days with our girls in Stapleford. Out trusty little Hyundai i10 had served us very well for five and a half weeks and we were grateful for its efficiency and reliability during that time. Few people hire vehicles for extended periods, it seems, and our contract with Enterprise had been for an initial period of 28 days, with the option to renew. We had to do this in Dorchester, which caused some confusion over rates, the deposit paid and a renewal rather than a new contract for a further period. On returning the car to Ilkeston, where we had originally collected it, there was further confusion regarding the deposit. Suffice to say we managed to clear up any conflicting opinions to our satisfaction but a cautionary note to anyone hiring a car in England (or elsewhere): Ensure you get a written quote for any booking with costs included, keep the quote and produce it when an alternative higher rate is suggested. We received good service from Enterprise and always have, but a very helpful emailed quote from an employee who no longer works for the company saved us a significant amount of money.
Clapmacks Foray into Retirement 