Walking around Wotton May 17th 2014

Walking around Wotton May 17^th 2014

A lot of things happen on a walk around Wotton,

When seventeen people gather together,

They:

Congregate at the Church of St. Mary the Virgin,

Listen to UA Fanthorpe’s poem: ‘Wotton Walks’,

Examine the sites of old cloth mills,

Search for songs of water wheels and millstones,

Ponder by an old mill leat at Holywell,

Climb up ancient holloways,

Discuss the exactitude of sundials,

Amble through shadowed woods of wild garlic,

Wander past an Iron Age forested hill fort,

Remember how to gauge the age of hedgerows,

See Aubrey Beardsley’s Wotton retreat,

Discuss textual analysis of the Laurie Lee trilogy,

Discourse on Lollardy, the medieval wool trade,

Catholicism, the Reformation and Hughenots,

Highlight the Civil War in the Stroud Valleys,

Link the Tyndale Monument with Cider with Rosie,

Gaze at the blue remembered hills of half forgotten school trips,

Sing our favourite songs from musicals, along cow parsley lanes,

Remember the Spanish Civil War,

Descend into Wotton by Poor Law almshouses,

Sit together for afternoon tea,

Once strangers, now friends,

Wishing Derby County good luck for next week,

At the end of our criss cross path,

That was both Pilgrim’s Progress and Canterbury Tales.