B2B Day 29 A Rest Day in Roman Britain

Walking to the Villa

For an OS map of today's rest day walk to Chedworth Roman Villa and back (3.2 mi; 5.15 km; 606 ft total ascent), click here.

The enjoyment of our stay at Baldwin House continued in the morning at breakfast, with a lovely mix of strawberries and blueberries; muesli; sausage; scrambled egg; potatoes; bacon; and toast. We sat at our table in the window of the sitting room and peacefully enjoyed looking at the decor inside—including lots of books!—and the lovely flowers and trees outside in the bright morning sun. Although we didn't realise it at the time, this day would also mark the beginnings of a very positive turn in the weather from a cold, rainy March & April to a bright and brilliant May.

Since this was a rest day, we left around 10:30 a.m. and slowly walked the couple of miles to the Roman Villa at Chedworth: "at a Roman snail's pace," I joked. After walking through the village and up over a hill, a bridleway (this one less muddy) took us down to the villa in the neighbouring valley in about an hour. Our timing was good: a large bus full of schoolgirls was just leaving—though that meant that the volunteers began mowing the lawn just as we began our tour. The audio guide was very good, but somehow we felt like reading the information provided rather than listening to a guide.

 

Beautiful Chedworth Mosaics

Romano-British fashion items!

The villa and its mosaics were truly impressive, and it is always fascinating to encounter the Roman engineering of the hypocausts: pillars of ceramic tile holding up the floor, with heat pumped into the space beneath the floor to heat it and also heat the baths. The small museum contained an intriguing collection of artefacts; I am always fascinated by the hairpins and brooches. There was even a stone with the Chi-Rho symbol of Christ—evidence for the presence of Christianity at the villa at some point during its occupation.

 

Mosaic with hypocaust heading system in baths

We had lunch at the cafe there. I tried not to notice that the food manager (so her name tag said) was eating at a table nearby with a lunch she had clearly brought from home. If you think about it, the selection of food at a small cafe, though excellent, would become a bit repetitive if you worked and ate there every day. And the food was good: we had two different pasties, and tea and a slice of Victoria sponge for dessert. We also bought two chicken pesto sandwiches to take away for dinner because we looked forward to a restful night "in" at Baldwin House. Another busload of schoolgirls arrived just before we finished our tour and went in for lunch, so the timing was again good.

The centre of Chedworth, nestled in its valley...

...complete with lovely Cotswold stone cottages!

 

The walk back was simply lovely: uphill through woodland and then a meadow at the top of the hill before descending into beautiful Chedworth. The path had a puddly bit, but we navigated it successfully, though Ken did so a bit nervously given what had happened the previous day. Some of the cottages in the village were just amazing. Ken and I love the warm Cotswold limestone and traditional architecture here.

 

Medieval pulpit & modern lectern (left)

We stopped at St. Andrew's church and admired the skilful craftsmanship on display inside. In 2000, a stonemason had carved a lectern that matched the style of the medieval stone pulpit, and the piano was covered with a spotless, elaborately embroidered white cover, created by several women in the church. We sang "Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee" before we headed "home" to our B&B. 

 

We arrived around 4:00 p.m. just before some dark and dramatic clouds rolled in. We warmed ourselves up with tea and hot baths, ate our sandwiches, and came down to the sitting room around 7:00 p.m., where our hosts had lit a fire for us. We briefly got to say hello to Pippi the dog (who was adorable) before we settled down to read, journal, and just enjoy a leisurely evening in their warm and comfy sitting room. Caroline came in to tell us that there was no water, and we were worried we had used it all up in our baths! But it was apparently an issue in the neighbourhood that had happened before, so she set our minds at rest. It certainly was a good day of rest, all round.

 

Baldwin House, our lovely B&B

  

The peaceful sitting room