JB Walks: Sunday 10th April 2011 Cooper's Hill to Stroud, Glos

This was a walk done with Robin and Liz along the Cotswold Way, starting at the bottom (!) of Cooper's Hill (famous for cheese rolling event) and finishing near Stroud in Whiteshill. Cooper's Hill itself is more of a cliff than a hill and the 2011 event has been shrouded in controversy, with the event now cancelled for this year. Just got too big?

Cooper's Hill Cheese Rolling

Cooper's Hill

The walk was just under 11 miles and took us 4 and a half hours, including pauses to admire the scenery and a break for a snack. The bottom of Cooper's Hill is not the best place to start a walk but we started the ascent at about 10:20 on Sunday which was a particularly warm day. The track leads through woodlands until you arrive at the top of the hill where contestants would await their turn to 'roll & chase' - rather them than me! Quite a steep climb up the hill but not too bad!

The track continues through woodland towards Painswick, going through Lipton Wood, Pope's Wood and beyond towards Painswick Hill and the golf course. We made a slight detour to go to Painswick Beacon and found lots of other like minded walkers and day trippers - there for the views over the countryside, walking dogs, picnicking etc. We stopped at the beacon to take photos and have a break, taking on fluids on what was becoming quite a hot stifling day. We could see the golf course nearby and the pleasant town of Painswick in the distance. We crossed part of the course and went into the town towards the main street to Stroud. WE left the main street after the quaint post office and the church & gardens, turning right on the Edge Road - with Edge Hill in the distance. Again we passed many desirable Cotswold 'gaffs' before turning into fields and climbing the track towards Edgemoor Inn (crap according to Robin - 'was a fine pub, now a restaurant/pub'). We crossed the road and climbed again, before stopping to the halfway refreshment break, taking on more fluids and not eating most of the food we were carrying!

We continued to the top of Edge Hill, entering Maitlands Wood and making a huge loop encompassing Haresfield Hill and beacon before entering woods beside Whiteshill near Stroud. We dropped into Whiteshill, following the terraced streets around the valley until we came (as Robin promised) to the Star Inn where we stopped for the day, enjoying Addlestones Cloudy Cider in the garden sunshine. We called Brett who promptly came to collect us but was rather 'waspy' due to the lateness of the call and the intrusion into his Sunday afternoon refreshments.