Category: A walk in the past

  • Oxford for the day

    Oxford for the day

    On Saturday our walking group ventured further afield to Oxford. Oxford University is famous as one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in Europe and scholars have been coming here to study since the 12th century. The town however is Saxon in origin and by 1066 it is estimated that it had a population…

  • Marlborough aWiltshire town through history

    Marlborough aWiltshire town through history

    I belong to a history walking group and on Saturday we were told to meet at St. Peter’s Church in Marlborough. Marlborough is a small market town in Wiltshire about halfway between Bristol and London. Most English People recognise the name because Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge and her sister Pippa attended Marlborough College…

  • Tewkesbury a historic Cotswold town

    Tewkesbury a historic Cotswold town

    This week we headed up the M5 to Tewkesbury a small Gloucestershire town close to the River Severn on the western edge of the Cotswolds.  The town was the site of a decisive battle in the wars of the Roses. It has a magnificent Norman abbey and a remarkably well-preserved old town full of black…

  • An afternoon in Monmouth

    We went further up the Wye valley for our Sunday walk to Monmouth a small market town that lies at the confluence of the rivers Monnow and Wye.  The settlement was first mentioned on a Roman map as Blestium, a place on the road from Caerleon to Gloucester. It is close to Offa’s Dyke the…

  • Frome riverside walkway

    Frome riverside walkway

    The Frome valley riverside walkway forms a green corridor from the Bristol harbourside for about twenty miles to the source of the river Frome in Dodington Park near Chipping Sodbury on the edge of the Cotswolds. Last week our walking group covered the first five miles from the centre of the city  east through the…

  • Bristol and the slave trade

    Bristol and the slave trade

    This week we tackled a more difficult subject for our walk in the past walk – the Bristol slave trade. It is an uncomfortable but undeniable fact that much of Bristol’s prosperity came from the slave trade. Slavery is thousands of years old. The Romans brought slaves to Britain and Celtic tribes traded slaves. However,…

  • Brunel and Bristol

    Clifton suspension bridge which spans the river Avon has become the symbol of Bristol.   This post is about the bridge’s designer Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Last Sunday our walk in the past walking group walked from Temple Meads railway station to Clifton Suspension bridge to see some of his legacy to the city.  Our route…