We hired a car from Bristol airport to visit some friends and then drove north to see some of my family. The idea was to see a bit of the English country side along the way. Castle Combe was only a short detour. It has a reputation of being one of the prettiest villages in the country. It took a bit to get used to the hire car on the narrow country lanes. People kept telling me we should have got a smaller car but by Australian standards this 4 door hatch was not that big. The driving was not too bad. It just meant going a lot slower than what I was used to back home. I also made sure we had some small local currency for these smaller towns as we had been trying to pay for this whole trip on a travel card. We had already been caught out trying to park in a small town which had machines that only took coins.
The Bybrook river
I like visiting and learning a bit about the medieval looking villages. It helps me have an understanding for what life was like for some of my ancestors. I don't know of any that came from around here but I am sure the places they did come from would have been similar.
Castle Combe is named after the Castle in the valley. Cumbe is the Saxon word for valley. The Castle is long gone through there is supposed to be some earth works and foundations in an over grown part of the golf course where it once stood.
The old stone Buildings gave a interesting contrast behind the new vehicles.
The 14 century market cross.
It looked like some good walking and hiking trail in this part of the world too. We did not venture too far but this was part of the Macmillan Way a Coast to Coast trail through the Cotswolds.
One of the two village pumps
St Andrews a 13 century Church with a 15 century tower and some 21 century scaffold.
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