Exploring the Beauty of the Cotswolds with Friends: Moreton-on-Marsh, Sezincote Gardens, Broadway Tower, Broadway.
Cotswolds
Wednesday, May 25, 2022
Today we were grateful for friends. And for friends with cars! Today we were able to tour a good part of the Northern Cotswolds with friends who made it a delight and a convenience as they chauffeured us around one of the most beautiful parts of the world--the Cotswolds.
Our day began in our friends' Sue and Tony's home in Oxford as we breakfasted on muesli with yogurt and milk and toast with butter and marmalade--all washed down with good decaff coffee. Our showers done, we left our place at 9.00 am for the brisk walk to Oxford Town Center intending to catch the 9.20 am bus to Chipping Norton (an hour away) where our friends Sam and Mary intended to meet us. But when we arrived at the bus stop on Magdalen Road, we discovered that our bus was at 9.50am--half an hour later, after browsing through Sainsbury and Tesco and a book shop that had just opened, we were on our way. The bus ride was, fortunately, uneventful, as we went by Blenheim Palace and Grounds and arrived at "Chippy" (as it is now popularly known). We spied Mary browsing through the charity shops from the top deck of our bus as we sailed in towards the last stop.
No sooner did we get off than Llew went to find her while I nipped into a charity shop myself. There was some china I decided to buy and a necklace that I had seen yesterday but had passed up. I had my items wrapped then nipped into another shop to buy a bag! Those purchases done (and with Mary buying a Royal Doulton pitcher "for custard"), we were on our way in their car headed to Moreton-on-Marsh.
Exploring Moreton-on-Marsh:
This was a Cotswold town I had wanted to see the day before yesterday, but with all the bus mishaps we'd had and the many glitches with taxis, we had nixed the plan. So, when Sam suggested we start off here today, we were game. Moreton turned out to be a very typical Cotswold town with honey-yellow stone structures lining both sides of the main roads. Shops and restaurants were lined up alongside the main artery. Mary and I found distraction in a few shops and I found a few odds and ends to bring back home. However, other than its countrified charm, Moreton does not have much to recommend it. So, on we went.
The Incredible House and Gardens of Sezincote:
Our next port of call is on the list of Must-See Highlights of the Cotswolds and since our heritage is Indian, it made perfect sense for us to head to Sezincote (pronounced "Season-cote") next. A short drive away, we were at the entrance to one of the most visited parts of the Cotswolds and one of the most unusual.
I am not clear who built the extravagant Indian-style house in the middle of the Cotswolds as neither the introductory brochure nor the website gives many details. I shall have to do some more digging to get to the origins of this fairy-tale place that has become a popular venue for Indian weddings--and understandably so. The onion-domes and minarets that comprise this structure could well lead one to believe one is in a palace in Jaipur. We did not go inside the house which is decorated in Western Baroque style, but we did buy tickets (7.50 pounds each) to take a self-guided tour of the gardens. After parking our car, we walked down a steep slope to get to the house and gardens which sit in a bowl, surrounding by gently-rolling Cotswold hills all around.
A wedding marquee was being set up as we approached but we were able to take pictures without getting those ugly structural backbones into them. We focussed instead on the gardens which are extensive and beautifully landscaped. Interestingly, they are constructed in tiers. Hence, you can stand at one spot and survey the entire landscape and decide where you would like to stray next. There is a map that is handed out with the tickets, but one is free to take the road not traveled (as it were).
The garden is punctuated with loads of Indian-style sculptural decor (bulls, snakes that wind around tree trunks in the middle of a pond, the pillars of a Hindu temple under which you can pose for pictures and which also creates a picturesque bridge, a pair of elephants). The plantings are lush and grouped--lots of well-established trees with shrubbery and bushes any Westerner could recognize: hostas, rhododendrons (many in bloom), azaleas (also blooming in late spring), the beginning of vast and abundant rose bushes, irises standing tall in soft shades of mauve and yellow and white). I also saw flowers with which I am unfamiliar--Mary was a valuable resource as she introduced me to primula candleabra, blooming besides a stream that flowed down in tiered cascades. There was a little programmed robot in the shape of a child's car that constantly kept up a mowing motion. This lent the garden much sensuality as almost all five senses were engaged: we could see visual delights all around, smell the scent of freshly-mown grass, hearing the constant twittering of birds in the trees and water flowing down musically, touch the leaves of bushes to examine texture. The only sense left disengaged was taste. Yes, there was a cafe on the grounds but it only sold coffee and cake. We decided to find more substantial sustenance later. Indeed, Sezincote was a delight and a completely different garden experience from Highgrove (yesterday) which was flat and divided into garden 'rooms'. Yesterday, each section came upon us as a gentle and delightful surprize. Here, we could survey most of the acreage from above--there were no separate 'rooms'--the landscape rolled gently around us, one part leaning into the next. Each garden had its own appeal, of course, and there wasn't a single element that was identical.
Lunch and Off to Climb Broadway Tower:
At this point, after we had gradually made our way up the steep climb back to our car, we were ready for a bite. The Cafe at Broadway Tower seemed like a good bet (our friend Mary had sussed it out yesterday and recommended it highly). We drove for about fifteen minutes (how convenient it is with wheels!) and arrived at the venue but made our way first to the cafe.
Lunch in the cafe-cum-gift shop was a wonderful way to sit down and rest our feet a bit. Both Mary and I had the cheese scone with cheddar cheese and chutney with a hot chocolate while Llew had the tomato and red onion quiche which came with a coleslaw, potatoes and a salad and created a whole meal for him (unwittingly). Sam chose tea and cake! With our meal done, we could admire the herd of tame deer that are kept in an enclosure on the estate. We then drove towards the Tower itself as we had braced ourselves, nutritionally, to climb it!
Climbing Broadway Tower is another one of the highlights of the Cotswolds and indeed it has much to recommend it. It is a rather elaborate 'folly'--the kind of garden structure that the aristocrats built on their properties to provide shelter should a sudden shower arrive--as is common in England. This structure is much more than the ordinary folly. When George William, 6th Earl of Coventry, set about improving the estate at Croome Court, some 22 miles away, with the help of Lancelot "Capability" Brown, Barbara St. John, Lady Coventry, was enthralled with its tales of fireworks, signals of war and celebration. So the Earl commissioned the "Saxon Tower" as an eternal love token dedicated to her.
From all the pictures I had seen of the Tower, I had always imagined it to be a bit like the Qutb-Minar in Delhi--a structure with an internal spiral staircase that would lead to lookout balconies and verandahs at each level. Little was I prepared for what I saw here. This tower contains a whole house. At each level, there is a living room, dining room, bedroom and library-cum-drawing room. For the price of 20 pounds, you get to climb up, see the incredible views (of 13 counties plus the distant towers of Birmingham), a brochure that gives lovey colored pictures of the interior appointment sand external architecture and the ability to tick one more item off your To-Do List! There are no bathrooms in the Tower. As was common, occupants had chamber pots and wash bowls in their bedrooms. When the artist William Morris came to visit one of the 19th century occupants of the Tower, he had no option but to use the enamel wash tub on the roof--a large chair to be exact. His friend, the painter Edward Burne-Jones jocularly drew several caricatures of him in the awkward position of washing himself!
Of course, we took many pictures from way up high to encompass the great height at which we were ourselves. It is a very exciting experience and there aren't too many stairs to climb--less than sixty, perhaps. You also pause at each level to take in the beautifully appointed and recently-redecorated place with its Georgian flourishes. At any rate, this place is a charming delight and is accentuated by the romantic story behind it. On the outside, it looks like a medieval tower with its Rapunzel balconies decorated with motifs from the Middle Ages--but its appeal is indeed timeless.
Off to Broadway:
As our friends Sam and Mary had chosen to stay in the Northern Cotswolds (to cut an hour from their journey back home to Derby), they'd had the chance last night to suss out the town of Broadway. Mary had been raving about it and called it the "creme de la creme" of the Cotswolds. She insisted we explore it together and that we then call in at their B&B for tea before they dropped us off to our bus stop at Chipping Norton. This made full sense and indeed that was where we headed.
Broadway is indeed a gem--a gem in a part of the country that is studded with extraordinary gems. As in Burford or in Moreton, the town is designed around a central artery that is lined with shops and other enticing places to tempt the visitor to exclaim and then part with money. There are souvenir shops, of course, but there are also boutiques, delis, cafes, antiques shops, etc. Each of these business establishments is positioned in a lovely old Cotswold stone house or mansion complete with fairy-tale chimneys and ivy draped all over. It is enchanting at every turn and I simply could not stop taking pictures. The whole town (as indeed are all the towns and villages) are strewn with flags and buntings to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee of the Queen (in about ten days) and red, white and blue colors as well as commemorative china in all the windows of the charity shops tempted us inside. Sadly, we had only about 20 minutes to browse before the shops downed their shutters (frustratingly at 4.30 pm),
Nevertheless, it was a joy to stroll through the town, to take in the air of festivity and frolic, to make our way to the B&B that Mary and Sam occupied and to sit down with them and their landlady, Pam, to partake of afternoon tea. We loved their living quarters as well as the tastefully decorated lounge and dining room where they had enjoyed enormous breakfasts in the morning before joining us for the day. Pam provided all the fixin's of a good cuppa and over another companionable half hour, we shot the breeze.
It was time finally for us to leave so that we could catch the 6.50 pm bus back to Oxford from Chipping Norton. And indeed, catch it we did after saying long and loving goodbyes to our friends. It had been incredibly generous of them to give of their time and resources to come and spend two whole days with us in the Cotswolds where the weather had been perfect and the sights we saw truly memorable.
Dinner at The Ivy:
Back on the bus to Oxford, past Woodstock and Blenheim Palace, I told Llew that I wanted to have an Italian dinner at my favorite Italian chain, Carluccio's. But when we arrived in Oxford and went to Little Clarendon Street to find it, it had closed (another sad victim of Covid). That was when we decided to have a really nice slap-up dinner at The Ivy, the lovely posh chain of restaurants in which Llew had never eaten (although I had done--as a few years ago, in London, our friend Bande had taken me there). Llew was not too hungry as his lunch had been substantial...but he did chose to have the salad which was an excellent choice. His Asian Crispy Duck Salad with watermelon and roasted, salted cashews was just unbelievable (I had a little taste). My choices were just as amazing. I had the Gruyere Cheese Souffle for a starter (just decadent!) and the Rabbit and Langoustine Pie for a main--equally grand! I also had a martini while Llew had a glass of Rioja. Neither one of us had any room for dessert! The food was superb but the service was lousy. Anyway, if the idea was to enjoy a nice meal. we did just that.
We then decided to take a bus from St. Aldate's for the two stops home and indeed that was exactly what we did. It had been another fabulous day with fabulous company and we were really really glad that we have managed to cram so many exciting and appealing aspects into our travels.
Until tomorrow...cheerio!
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