enjoy the view

NOTES

www.walkscene.co.uk

Leckhampton Hill and Cobberley

Notes and points of interest

Air Balloon public house. This inn first began serving customers on Crickley Hill in 1777, when it was called the New Inn. It's present name isn't new either and probably dates back to the early 19th century when hot air ballooning was being pioneered.

Cotswold Way. One of Britain's long distance footpaths, this route runs across the Cotswold Hills, an area traditionally rich in wool and still rich in rural prettiness. Some Cotswold valleys are steep but their slopes are rounded and grassy. The honey colour of Cotswold limestone ruralises its buildings in town and village.

Charlton Kings Common - see Leckahampton Hill

Cobberley is a photogenic village of stone cottages around a small village green. The village dates back to Saxon times, though its present centre dates only to the late 18th Century. The name originally meant "Cuthbert's Meadow".

Greenway Lane traces the route of a Saxon drovers' road i.e. a route used to drive sheep between pastures or to market.

Barber Wood surrounds Cuckoopen Barn and is named after a former chairman of the Countryside Commission. A notice on the gatepost celebrates the building in 1982 of the world's largest straw rick, consisting of 40,000 bales. Shortly after passing Cuckoopen you will encounter a long barrow - undoubtedly ancient, and presumably built as a grave, but with little to give away its secrets.

Crickley Hill has been made into a Country Park and is a popular retreat and viewpoint. It incorporates seceral miles of walks within the park, and features the remains of a Roman villa.

Birdlip has its own spectacular viewpoint, which is not part of this walk, but its radio mast it a prominent landmark visible from several sections of the route. The mast surmounts a small radio station.

Hartley Farm incorporates some ruined cottages, which you pass on the way. They were abandoned during the first half of the 20th century due to problems with water supply.

Leckhampton Hill and Charlton Kings Common look out in slightly different directions from this high limestone cliff overlooking Cheltenham and the Severn valley. Leckhampton Hill hosts the remnants of an iron age hill fort.

National Star Centre is a college of further education for the physicaly disabled.

Salterley Grange, now a Private Nursing home, was built in the late 19th century as a private house. It has also served as an isolation hospital for tuberculosis patients.