Cotswolds and more

It is amazing that none of us was hurt. We were standing by the side of the highway waiting for the bus to bring us back to Oxford from the village of Burford after a day of sightseeing. A car coming the other direction on the highway hit the center barriers for the pedestrian crossing, plowed through both of them (called bollards), and came straight for the group of us waiting for the bus. The driver managed to swerve away from us at the last second, careening back across the road and ending up on the opposite shoulder with his car destroyed. Meanwhile, traffic signs, car parts, and parts of the barricade were flying all around us right as our bus pulled up. So we got on and returned to Oxford from an exciting ending to an interesting day.


As Deb said, “One minute we were 'moo-ing' with the sheep, and the next we’re dodging flying road signs.” (Neither of us is good with foreign languages, as you can tell by the 'moo-ing' at sheep.) The young woman who called in the traffic accident and then boarded the bus to Oxford with us said that she had lived in Burford all of her life and it was not usually this exciting! We assured her that we believed her. So maybe we should back up and tell you how all of this excitement began.



We took a bus this morning to the village of Burford in the Cotswolds. The Cotswolds are a region just northwest of Oxford with gently rolling hills, villages next to small rivers, and the scenery we associate with “English village”. The region has been famous for its wool for centuries. Among the many little villages, we picked Burford because it is easily accessible by bus. Burford, like many of the villages in the Cotswolds, has a Sheep Street on which the sheep were herded into High Street. It is a steep walk down High Street to the Windrush River—actually a creek—with stone houses, narrow lanes, and the local church and cemetery. This particular church was begun in Norman times (like the one in nearby Iffley that we discussed two weeks ago) about 1100, with many later additions and renovations. The most recent additions were made about 500 years ago.


One of the more interesting parts of the church was the crypt of the former Lord and Lady Tanfield who had been the lord of the region in the 16th century. (Notice the skeletal figures underneath—maybe some of you will remember our classic trip to the Czech ossuary during the last sabbatical.)


Although their death figures are impressive, the more interesting part is that they were hated during their lifetime by the locals. Their ghosts reputedly ride through the streets of the village periodically—not today, however. Today the church was hosting the local Beer Festival.


The rest of the village has old shops, pubs, coffee shops, and antique places. After spending most of the day in the village itself, we walked out of town to a footpath along to the river, in the middle of pasture with dozens of sheep. As we stood there, the sheep gradually moved closer until they were nearly surrounding us. It was very peaceful. Phil was trying to remember what he knows about the inheritance of coat color in sheep—always the geneticist, even on sabbatical.



So that was our day. It has something for everyone. Sheep, stone houses right next to narrow lanes, an old church with a ghost, a lazy river—and a car crash!
--Philip