English Walks

The Thames at Lechlade

We spent a good part of our time in England walking, and we were very lucky with the weather, though the air was rather brisk at times we had no rain on our walks.  Our first walk was  in the town of Lechlade, not a particularly pretty place, but it sits on the Thames River and has a series of lovely walks around it.  So we walked along the Thames, watching the swans and narrow boats, stopping to chat with the fishermen--Mac loves to fish and always checks out what the locals are fishing for-- and found out that this area of the Thames has been invaded by American crayfish that someone had released and now the fish would rather eat them than the bait fishermen were using.

Round House

The Trout

St. Lawrence Church

Our walk continued out to the Round House,  Molly Harris mentions it in her book her book The Strippling Thames.  As you walk along the water you first catch sight of it in the trees, round houses were first built to accommodate lock keepers.  There are still 4 of these round houses along the Thames but this is the only one we've seen.  Across the river was a field of what could only be called a "herd" of swans, imitating sheep.  Our walk circled back to town and we took another path down the side of the church where we could hear the parishoners singing, pass the graveyard  and through a kissing gate to the fields beyond.  We reached The Trout, one of our favorite places, and where we have eaten before, but decided to walk back to town and have our Sunday roast there, which we did, at the Swan---Yorkshire Puddings around.

Sunday Roast

In the church yard