The cheek of this little Blue Tit! I thought he was building a nest in my house wall but actually he was just helping himself to my cavity wall insulation to feather his nest in a nearby tree!
This week’s Photo Challenge is a great one for me living in the Cotswolds as one of the defining features of our area is the ancient dry stone walling that lines the sides of roads and divides fields. In the 18th and 19th centuries there was a law passed called ‘The Enclosures Act’, which literally required areas of land to be separated or ‘enclosed’. In the Cotswolds plentiful supplies of stone meant it was cheaper to enclose the Cotswold fields by walls than to plant hedgerows. Although there have been stone walls here since Neolithic times most of the walls we see today are from the last 300 years. But there are some magnificent buildings around which have stood for much longer, including churches, pubs and grand houses.
The ‘Oolitic’ limestone found in the Cotswolds is from the Jurassic period about 150 million years ago, This was a time when dinosaurs roamed over the earth. There have been periods when most of the Cotswolds was under water and some fascinating fossils have been found during quarrying for stone. There is evidence that people have lived and worked in the Cotswolds since prehistoric times, with Iron Age Forts and Neolithic Barrows having been excavated by archeologists.
The Cotswolds is a huge area that stretches over the counties of Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Wiltshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire. It is defined by gentle hills, rolling pastures where sheep graze, and deep wooded river valleys. The stone is of different shades from warm gold to deep grey depending on where it is quarried. It also has different qualities, the best being used to build some exquisite houses that will stand for hundreds of years. I have often written about the beautiful unspoilt town of Painswick, which has some of the best preserved Cotswold stone buildings around. Parts of the church date back to the 1300s and there are holes in one wall reputedly made by cannon balls fired during the English Civil War.
I could go on and on about the beauty and history of the Cotswolds but as this is a photo challenge, I will just add some photos!
Some very old Cotswold stone buildings
Next the beauty to be found in dry styone walls and beyond them.
The next two photos show the walls of the Tower of London during the recent installation called Blood Swept lands and Seas of Red. which I wrote a blog about previously.
And lastly some pictures of walls which appeal to me. You can read captions by hovering over the photo or read about the wall painting on the ivy covered church here
There are lots of those dry stone walls in the west of Ireland also, and they are so pretty, and still standing despite the howling gales sometimes from the Atlantic.
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Ah that’s interesting. I love Ireland, my great grandad came from Whitegate, county Cork.
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Oh gosh that is only about half an hour away from where I live.
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Wow then you could pop up there easily. It’s a lovely peaceful place with an ancient monastery garden and a lovely little cafe/ shop/reading room.
Walk along the winding path to the old grange for great views. The monastery is only open at mass times but you can always sit in the little garden. You will be transported by the air of peace and timelessness.
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I think my reply will confuse you- I was talking about Prinknash abbey which is in one of the photos! I thought you were commenting on a different post! Put it down to age and exhaustion!
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Yes, we are confusing each other! I live near Whitegate, County Cork. your great grandfather s Place!
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Oh my goodness! I visited there some years ago to trace the family but got nowhere. His name was William Patrick Roche b 1839 and his father was James Roche.
What a happy coincidence x
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Irish genealogy.ie are updating the parish records all the time, so it might be worth looking on that site some time.
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Yes I will, thanks.
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Many years back, I had passed through Cotswold while visiting Stratford on the Avon, famous as the birthplace of Shakespeare. To me the houses in Cotswold looked incredibly beautiful, something out of a fairy tale. You are indeed blessed to be living there.
Cheers
Shakti
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Yes indeed we are lucky to live here but I do miss the wild North sea which was close to where I grew up in the North of England.
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What an amazing collection of walls. Thank you for sharing.
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Thank you for commenting and I’m so glad you enjoyed them x
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Thanks for popping over to my blog. I have subscribed to yours so will know what you are thinking about. I understand the commitment of looking after a sick husband. Hope he improves and you can continue to enjoy your life together. PS I really love the Cotswolds; a beautiful part of our wonderful world. 🙂
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Welcome to my blog and thanks for joining me on my journey. I look forward to sharing my inner creative world with you.
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Aww! They’re very resourceful little birds 🙂
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They certainly are! We have several nesting boxes but my neighbour has a wonderful wilderness for a garden now that he is 84 and the birds just love it. They only come to me for food ~ and cavity wall insulation apparently!
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Ha ha 🙂 Wilderness gardens are wonderful! My mum lets hers become a jungle and the wildlife flocks in 🙂
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I like the first set of pictures in the post, they really depict how nature takes over out manmade boundaries.
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Thank you x Indeed nsature is so resourceful, man can never compete!
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a wealth of walls
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Indeed and I could have put a lot more in but I don’t want to be a wall bore!!
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I have browsed dozens of ‘wall’ posts and yours is my favourite! 🙂
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Ooh that really is high praise x THANK YOU!
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