The Sun Shone Bright Over Minety.

T’was welcome back to Marion on a stop-over from Rwanda. To complete the reunion Julie n Merrick popped over and were given the grand tour of Gloucester Quays  with lunch at the Brewery House idling the afternoon by watching narrow boats navigate the Sharpness.

Sunday was spent walking the gardens of Minety and Upper Minety. Minety is a village in north Wiltshire between Malmesbury and Swindon. It takes its name from the water mint plant found growing in ditches around the village, and has previously been known as Myntey. Until the mid-18th century, the parish was unique in Wiltshire for its unusual jurisdictional anomaly. Most of the parish lay in Gloucestershire, but a small area of land, centred on St. Leonard’s church, was based in Wiltshire. Only in 1844 was Minety deemed part of Wiltshire.

Many Cotswold Country piles

 

And much summer colour

And, of course, the traditional tea n cake.

The last stop was at the mansion of ‘Jethro Tull’ (you may remember him :) but he was on tour at the time :(

lawn laid out like a record player :)

 

Had a stop over at the Wm Morris Tea Rooms in Bibury with Arlington for a traditional cream tea before heading home.

Quintessentially Cotswolds

Lower Oddington and Upper Oddington are a pair of adjoining villages in the Gloucestershire area of the Cotswolds.

Pasture Farm Garden, half way between Upper and Lower Oddington, is an informal country garden, developed over 30 years, containing mixed borders, creative and original topiary, orchard and many species of trees. 

A derelict cottage has been set back to nature and incorporated in the garden.

The working farm also contains a sizable veggie plot, a spring-fed pond with ducks, roaming bantams, chickens and 2 kunekune pigs.

The church of St Nicholas is located at the end of a small lane some 1/4 mile from the centre of Lower Oddington village. The church is composed of a very high, flat-ceilinged nave, a large south aisle, south chapel and porch, and central tower. It originally had a north door as well, but this has been partially bricked up to form a window. The church was begun some time in the 12th century, and is very simply adorned, with a three-arch nave arcade and Early English chancel arch. Built of dressed limestone it has a brick roof. The chancel is fifteenth century and the tower at the east end is thirteenth century. It has medieval wall paintings of the Doom on the north wall of the nave, dating to the early 15th century. They were whitewashed over in the Reformation and conserved by Eve Baker from 1969. Scenes depicted include the Acts of Mercy and the Seven Deadly Sins. It is a Grade I listed building, having been added to the register on 25 August 1960.