Day 8 Painswick to Leonard Stanley

Statistics: 10.6 miles, ascent 1315′, descent 1589′.

The day after our rest day was also a beautiful day, as we left Painswick. Small, yellow flowers dotted both sides of the trail, making our way very picturesque.

Climbing up the hillside on the other side of the valley from Painswick, we noticed the grass was tall and lush.

A large sign appeared stating that Bath was 55 miles away! We were nearly halfway!

As we turned around to take in the view behind us, we could clearly see the church steeple in Painswick.

Rambling on, just enjoying the exhilaration of a good walk with good views, dense woods and plenty of ups and downs, we happened upon a small monument known as Cromwell’s Stone (the man did get around!). I later learned that this stone was erected in the 19th-century to commemorate the lifting of the Siege of Gloucester by Charles I in 1643. The 1,500 Cromwell supporters (Parliamentarians) in Gloucester withstood that siege by 35,000 Royals.

We walked on, chatting with an Australian woman, Sandra, who was hiking the Cotswold Way alone, before we continued to Haresfield Beacon and the nearby woodlands. Emerging from these woods we were greeted with wide-open meadows filled with flowers.

At the summit of the climb, we found a trig point and couldn’t resist a group photo!

Soon we were back into a forest, Standish Wood. This forest is mentioned in historical documents as far back as 1297.

We returned to the cultivated countryside and descended towards busy roads and the River Frome.

We crossed the river and the A417 roadway before climbing up to a modern neighborhood, a thoroughly unexpected section of the Cotswold Way. Putting great faith in my GPS and my ability to correctly program the Cotswold Way trail into it, we trudged on in the heat of the day, following the GPS’s indicated route over the local asphalt roads. After the modern and rather boring neighborhood ended, the quaint village of Leonard Stanley soon appeared.

At Leonard Stanley’s village center was the nearly 900 year-old Priory Church of St. Swiftin (circa 1131).

Our B&B planned for this evening was the White Hart Pub, an inn built in the 1700s. The bedrooms had been newly restored and were quite lovely. We also discovered that the chef had recently quit. Fortunately, the owner’s daughter said she would put something together from the frig “if that was ok”. The hiker from Australia, Sandra, also arrived and we all shared both this meal and an enjoyable evening.