CORINIUM TO AQUAE SULIS DAY FOUR

CIRENCESTER TO BATH MAINLY ON THE FOSSE WAY

19TH MARCH 2015 GRITTLETON TO BATHEASTON

After a good breakfast it was out into the cold and overcast day and the morning was more like we should have expected in March. We went back across the three fields to the Fosse Way, the one that was cropped soaking our boots for the first time this holiday.

There was only a mile of unsurfaced Fosse Way and then there was eight miles of the Fosse Way as a modern road although mainly with little vehicular traffic. This is where we joined the road just before the underpass under the M4. 

A quarter of a mile later we passed the Salutation Inn all shut up as it was far too early, there would not be another pub until Batheaston.

The road descended down a valley to cross the By Brook by the Fosse Bridge after 2.8 miles. Most of the water was being diverted into a mill stream just before the bridge.

On climbing out of the valley we diverted off the Fosse Way to look at Lugbury Long Barrow. It is 180 x 90 feet but only 6 feet high because of ploughing damage.

19th century excavations revealed three chambers with burials of 28 adults and children. At the eastern end there must have been a formal or false entrance as there are to vertical entrance stones and one that looked as though it was balanced on top but had slipped.

After 1.5 miles we next descended to the Broadmead Brook where there was another Roman settlement and a Temple of Apollo. We followed a bridleway along the valley to a clearing in a wood where we had a break.

 

 This is the valley and in the distance the bridge on the Fosse Way but we could not locate anything we could identify and returned to the Fosse Way. Pity there was not a display board!

There was a long climb out of the valley, a short dip into another and then at The Shoe we stopped on a  bank for our picnic lunch. Shortly after we arrived at The Shoe, the pub became a house a long time ago. The sun was making an appearance. The Fosse Way descended into the pretty valley of Doncombe Brook and the descent makes one wonder what sort of braking system Roman vehicles used. At the bottom by the brook and a road junction is this pill box.

On climbing out of the valley the huge active military Colerne Airfield was on the left and at the other end we passed the end of a huge runway. A busier road joined from the left which made progress more difficult, hoping on and off the verge.

After a quarter of a mile we got to the Three Shires Stone down off the road on the right marking where Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire meet. They were erected in 1736 and repositioned in 1859 and are a folly despite their megalithic appearance.

Apparently on digging a hole for the Gloucestershire stone three skeletons and a James II coin were found.

 

 

Another mile and we finally got off the road onto Banner Down where the Fosse Way deviates from the modern road and we began a 160 metre decent to the River Avon.

By now my legs were beginning to complain, the pounding along the road was taking its toll. With great pleasure we diverted into the George and Dragon at Batheaston to get two pints of ale and a rest as we had not really stopped all day.

 

Rejuvenated it was half a mile along a flat path by the River Avon to the Old Mill Hotel next to the Toll Bridge. www.oldmillbath.co.uk In the evening we walked to the George Inn by the Kennet and Avon Canal for a meal.

 

It was a 12.80 mile day