When I finally dragged myself away from St Gregory's church we went in search of lunch. There is a lovely thatched pub in the village called The Stag.
The food, although not cheap was excellent. We chose from the lunchtime menu. The service was impeccable and a little pot of olives and bagette and butter while we waited for lunch to be served was a lovely touch.
We had a quick look round the picturesque village.
The Welsh Road in the distant past was a long-distance bridleway from Anglesey. It was used by cattle drovers on their way to Southam as it avoided the turnpike roads with their excessive tolls.
A few miles from here is the Cubbington pear tree - one of the oldest and largest pear trees in the country - which was elected as England's Tree of the Year in 2015. It is believed to be ~250 years old and is sadly threatened by the dreaded HS2. It is one of 20 ancient, veteran or notable trees within the HS2 Phase 1 boundary and another 18 lie within 200 metres of the proposed route. I understand there are plans to take cuttings and collect seeds from the Cubbington Pear but it will be a sad day when this tree is cut down and, in my view, the tree is irreplaceable.
The Offchurch Greenway is a cycle path which follows a dismantled railway track and made a lovely walk with good views at times of the beautiful Warwickshire Countryside.
Blackthorn is coming into flower and
Hawthorns are showing signs of leaves.
We saw quite a few wild flowers on the banks and verges - Violets,
Ground Ivy (I think - there are a few similar species and I always managed to get them confused),
lots of clumps of wild arum leaves,
Cowslip buds and
White Dead Nettle.
We didn't see many birds but there were several butterflies flitting around - here a Comma and we also saw
several Brimstone.
On the way back we drove through Cubbington and I made a detour to find the old part of the village
which looks as though it might be worth a visit on a future occasion.
I then managed to get lost leaving Cubbington via a different road but before re-tracing our steps (or tyres) I spotted this church - which again looks worth a visit.
It was a good day out and I will certainly return to the area - St Gregory's would definitely be worth a second visit, perhaps later in the Spring to see what is flowering in the churchyard, and the churches at Cubbington and Weston under Wetherley look promising.
Timothy was exceedingly annoyed that I forgot to take him out of my bag - so here he is with some of the guidebooks I bought.
This is the book which inspired the visit. It really is one of the best secondhand book purchases I have made. It has details of many Warwickshire villages where the author writes about the history, notable residents, the church, ghosts, folklore and legend. It has given me quite a few ideas for future local days out.
So impressed am I by the book that I have bought two more by the same author!
*D - Photos taken by D with the Canon bridge SX50
*C - Photos taken by me with the Canon bridge SX50 - my camera was safely in its bag in the boot when we stopped briefly at Cubbington - my son's of which I own a share was thrown on the back seat!
Rest of the photos taken by me with the Panasonic Lumix bridge camera FZ330
19 comments:
For those of us who do not live in Britain what is HS2? And I think you could have made lunch just from the baguette and the olives - nice touch as you say,
Isn't it lovely to see the countryside coming back to life again? I'm having about four hours a day on busses at the moment, thankfully mostly through the country lanes, and it's such a delight to see primrose covered hedgerows, and all the other flowers blooming.
So sad about the Cubbington Pear ~ is it a done and dusted, or is there still hope?
David Gascoigne Thank so much for the comment. I left my son to eat the olives (as I am not keen) - he also demolished the bagette!! So I had plenty of room for lunch!
Sorry I should have explained more about HS2 - you will have to bear in mind when reading the bit below that I am totally biased and against it!
It is a High Speed Rail project - Phase I will go from London to Birmingham and Phase 2 will extend route northwards to Leeds and Manchester. To build it will cost around £55.7 billion!!! (The cost figure I am sure will be higher than this!!) I am sure our Government would point out that there will be economical benefits and it will provide jobs.
However, in my view!, there will be no benefit to a large proportion of the population of this country and there will be a poor return for the huge amount of investment. People on parts of the route will lose their homes not to mention the huge disruption to towns, villages etc. when the thing is constructed which will take years!! There will be noise pollution and it will not reduce greenhouse gas emission. It will supposedly cut train journey time from Birmingham to London by the grand total of 20/30 minutes. I would imagine tickets will be far dearer than normal rail travel and too expensive for the average person to consider so they will gain no benefit. Historic buildings may have to be demolished or damaged. But above all there will be huge environmental damage with habitats being destroyed (I think there will be new habitat created as compensation but there is no way you can just replace ancient woodland!). Public transport is, again in my view, pretty awful especially in rural areas and from my point of view the money spent on HS2 would be better used on improving present public transport system (trains and buses). My son doesn't drive and when he needs to get to places off the beaten track it is a complete nightmare!
Out of interest my son walked part of the route in a local area some years ago interviewing people that would be affected (he is a journalist) and, from memory, he didn't find one person that supported HS2!
Sorry, rant over!!! Have gone on a bit above but it will give you an idea why so many people are against it! I suppose I am being a bit of a NIMBY in some ways (i.e. Not in my backyard) as it will adversely affect many areas not too far from home that I know and love including cutting across part of one of my favourite nature reserves!
Deborah 0'Brien - thanks so much. Yes,it is so lovely to see Spring arriving and all the beautiful signs of the season returning. Four hours is a lot of time! but at least you are travelling through rural areas which must make it a little more bearable. Do hope you don't have to travel for so long for too much longer.
I don't think there is any hope of saving the poor old pear tree apart from trying to take grafts and collecting seeds to plant new trees. But it is still at present standing. I just wish the whole project would be dropped - so much damage to the environment and, in my view, all for little benefit. I just think it is a total and complete waste of money!
Based on your explanation, and not having any other knowledge, I can safely say I would be 100% opposed to it. The glowing projections of benefits from these mega projects never come to fruition. Enough of the countryside has been destroyed. Leave the rest alone.
David Gascoigne - Thank you and sorry again for going on so much. Nothing angers me more than the destruction of precious wildlife habitat and Sites of Special Scientific Interest (well apart from the badger cull that is but that is another story!).
Lovely photos again, such picturesque places :) I'm 100% with you on opposing HS2 for so many reasons!
Pam - Thanks so much. It never ceases to amaze me the places you can find that are fairly local :) Good to hear you are against it - I do wonder if any members of the public actually support it! Phase 2 of course will be in your neck of the woods :(
Completely agree with you about HS2, we need to make good and then make better what we already have. Such a shame about the pear tree - we've seen trees taken down recently a lovely one nearby and some cherry trees whose blossom I used to look for every year at this time. Poor Timothy missing out on that lovely church and the olives and baguette too! You saw some wonderful wildlife and flowers on your walk and those other two churches look worth a further visit:)
Rosie - Thanks so much and good to see even more support against HS2. Were your lovely trees taken down for HS2 or were they just chopped?
I've been fed up over last couple of days neighbours have had in an oddjob man (I wouldn't even call him a gardener!) and had so many trees and shrubs chopped completely that the whole garden now resembles a desert :( They used to have a lovely Hawthorn - now completely gone:(
Non of the trees were taken down because of HS2. The lone tree was on the site of a recreation ground part of which has had a new school built on it which now floods in the winter. Severn Trent are putting in a sort of drainage station and the tree was in the way of access to the site so it was taken down, I hadn't walked into town that way for a while so was shocked to see it had gone. The avenue of cherry trees lead up to the old Remploy factory which has been left abandoned for some time, again I couldn't understand why the trees had to come down when nothing was being done about the fenced off building:)
Rosie - Thanks so much for the information - I should have realised it was too early for HS2. So sad when trees are removed especially when there doesn't appear to be any valid reason as in the Remploy factory case. Have you seen what is happening in Sheffield? So glad I don't live there! Amey are chopping down trees all over the place just I think to make it easier to maintain the pavements :( It is to be fervently hoped the practice doesn't spread to other cities! Although I think they have halted it for the time being (not 100% sure as not completely up to date on the situation) but that won't replace the one's already removed!
Yes, I have one or two friends who live in and around Sheffield and they are all quite upset about the trees. I think it is to save money both on maintaining the trees and the pavements. They are taking the grass bits off the pavement awayaround here to save on paying grass cutting crews which in its turn encourages more parking on pavements (another of my gripes) Such a shame :(
Rosie - It is an awful situation about the Sheffield trees and I really feel for your friends. Grass verges round here are awful as idiots park on the them constantly - in winter they are mud baths and in summer dust baths - I gripe about it too!! OH contacted Council and they say they can't put up notices or plant more trees to try and stop it as it would be too expensive!
What a beautiful place, I love the old houses, could just eat those chips right now !
Lovely to see so many wild flowers, things have certainly moved on in this last week with the warm sunshine. It would be wonderful to ride my bike along the track.
Stunning set of photos...
Amanda xx
Amanda Peters- Thanks so much for your lovely comment :) The chips were good!
And yes, you would like it there! :)
Yes, things have started to really get going in the last week with lots of leaves finally appearing. Spring has sprung:)
The village looks delightful and the food looks tasty.
Cherry Pie - Thank you.
Oh my gosh! I love olives. Yum! Looked like a good meal and a nice hike around the village. Hopefully they don't take the train through the village but around it if they put one in. Historic trees and buildings should be preserved. It also looks like it might be a wildlife corridor as well. A train blasting through that area would be devastating the wildlife and vegetation.
Chris Rohrer - Thanks so much. We add olives to a lot of dishes - son adores them too :) HS2 will be a disaster for wildlife not only the destruction and fragmentation of important habitat but, as you mention, permanent devastation from the train.
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