The Red Lion, Northleach

...(and back to the holiday), so, starving, as we had somehow managed to completely miss breakfast, we wandered the streets of Northleach, searching for somewhere to urgently find something to eat -

- and the Red Lion pub beckoned, if only because we were able to ask the lady busying herself outside cleaning the windows if they would be able to serve us something hot...the answer was yes, as long as we were going to order something worth opening the kitchen for (i.e. not a bowl of chips), but that certainly wasn't going to be a problem, so we descended towards the front door and were greeted by a friendly dog -

- who then (sensibly) went and seated himself firmly between the electric fire and the burning log one -

- and we scanned the extensive menu (chalked onto wooden boards above the bar) and despite being rather tempted by the "rack of ribs" I quickly opted for the Irish Stew, Flyingpops the fish and chips...the bread and butter that were intended to accompany my stew arrived first, but were apparently destined to be promptly consumed by Flyingpops, so when the rest of the food came out we were forced to request more (which wasn't a problem), and my *goodness* was the food good...nothing of the chain in evidence, just superb home cooked food, the stew was incredibly rich in flavour with meltingly tender meat, Flyingpops Fish was a complete delight, impossibly crunchy batter and creamy delicate, moist fish within alongside crunchy hand cut chips...both plates went back to the kitchen wiped completely clean...

Try as we might, throughout all of the rest of the break we were drawn back over and over again to the Red Lion, even if it were just for a couple of pints of cask ale, sat by the roaring fire to read the paper in the evening...and I must have ordered the stew three times, each time being as impressed and satisfied as the last...as we settled in to our "local" so we began to notice and start chatting to other regulars, and note with a glow, that the place really was being used as hostelries must have been for hundreds of years, a place to break your journey, get out of the cold and rain, take the weight off your feet, enjoy a comforting drink, exchange a few words with familiar faces and warm your hands before setting back off into the dark...

On our last night, two of the locals, Aiden and Deb (who has been quite taken with baby Thomas) appeared with a Welsh dragon fluffy toy for him, a touching parting gift from a fantastic group of warm and welcoming (largely Welsh, as you can probably guess from the present) folk who we can't thank enough for taking us in during our short trip, hopefully we'll be back, although we might need to stay in a slightly larger cottage... ;)

Northleach, Cotswolds

So what was the village like? Absolutely charming in fact...on our first walk we met a couple of the local residents -

- who were very pleased to see us (and made Thomas quite excited)... ;) The area, although being largely sheep free on our visit, made an absolute fortune during the 15th Century from the Wool trade and (apart from some semi-sympathetic new housing on the outskirts) most of the buildings date back to that time (and are largely unspoiled) -

- including the "Cathedral of the Cotswolds" the Church of St Peter and Paul -

- which seems disproportionately impressive considering the town it serves (for the reason of enthusiastic funding from wealthy donors) and other buildings obviously built in Tudor times -

- stone on the ground floor with a timber upper storey...

Although nothing much is made of it (oddly, as it would be a fantastic tourist draw) there are also supposed to be a great number of stone vaulted tunnels beneath the town (including, as I mentioned in my last post, the "Guggle" - purportedly some sort of underground chapel - which lent it's name to the lane where we stayed), although no-one seems to know why or when these passages were dug (disappointingly)...

On the edge of town is another point of interest, the old prison -

- apparently you used to be able to tour it, seeing how prisoners were treated when the building was in use -

- unfortunately it's now just a coffee shop (albeit in an unusually shaped building)...

Oh and we couldn't help but be amused by the post office (looking a little more like a farm yard than anything else)...

...the rest of town consists of little alleyways -

- a small convenience store, a dolls house shop, a bakery, some sort of wine bar, a Chinese/fish and chip shop (you know the sort of thing), a very expensive to visit private collection of musical boxes (we didn't do the tour as it was going to cost us almost £20, but the gift shop gave us a decent idea of what to expect)...oh and three pubs (including one that was rather special), but more on that in my next post... ;)

The Bolt Hole, Northleach review

Okay, here we go, sorry for the complete lack of attention lately, there was practically no signal on the mobiles, and very little in the way of internet access during the break, plus I've been a bit lazy going through the photos... ;)

Anyway, lets get back to the break! Set wayback machines to last Monday, clambering into an absolutely packed Poppy the Beetle and driving the two hours to the Cotswolds, specifically the tiny medieval town of Northleach (there is something intensely satisfying at reaching your turning and finding that the place you are going to be staying is signposted by one of those brown road signs indicating a place of interest)...

The place we were staying was called "The Bolt Hole" in Guggle Lane (apparently the "Guggle" being referred to is some kind of underground chapel, but we didn't locate it)...it was a very compact place -

- they referred to it as a "flat", but it's actually more of a bungalow (as you can see) -

- outside there is a tiny courtyard, with the main door into the kitchen/living room and these double doors which lead straight into the bedroom, but the weather wasn't going to give us an opportunity to make use of them (charming as I imagine it would be during the summer months)-

- inside, even though diminutive, the place is absolutely immaculate, the kitchen even boasting a dishwasher alongside the full size fridge, double oven and triple sink...there is a very small sofa and a tiny TV opposite (with some sort of satellite system getting most free channels), in the hall is the boiler and a slimline washing machine (very strange device that you load through the top of the drum), a very well appointed bathroom (with shower) -

- and a good sized bedroom (which we modified by putting up the travel cot and turning the chest of drawers into a changing station) -

One of the most incredible things about the place was the fact that every time we wished for anything (even sellotape) we found it just by poking through a few doors and cupboards, meaning the carefully packed washing up liquid etc. that we had brought from home didn't get used...

The size of the place wasn't really an issue either, it felt plenty large enough, even with Thomas to worry about (although this time his routine got a bit mucked up by being away from home, just because whenever he did wake up he spent ages just looking around wondering where he was)...

I'll talk a bit more about the village tomorrow... ;)