Holidays & Travel

with Al Hidden

Think January: cold, wet, short, dark days and a New Year credit card bill to pay. Alternatively, how about clear, dry and a delicious picnic or cosy pub pause amid worldclass scenery?

Your Boxing Day stroll was the warm-up; now set your Sat Nav for Hazleton, just off the A40 near Cheltenham, and get those walking muscles working again.

One of our favourite circular walks from the village is ‘the Hazleton-Turkdean-Cold AstonNotgrove diamond’. It’s a rewarding, c.16km/10-mile walk including sections of the Diamond, Macmillan and Gloucestershire Ways. A mixture of limestone tracks, quiet roads and hilltop footpaths means you needn’t be a mud-plugger to enjoy the walk.

Leaving Hazleton, head for Turkdean. En route, after passing Lower Barn and Nut Tree Brake, we always gaze down enviously on gorgeous old Grade II* listed Lower Dean Manor. Once held by Llanthony Priory, it’s now the home and recording studio of a British music industry treasure.

After crossing the minor road through Turkdean, a few more gentle kilometres lead us past quaintly named Kitts Knob and Bangup Barn to Cold Aston. There, in the heart of another classic Cotswold village, the village green and welcoming Plough Inn make perfect stopping places.

The pub’s timeworn flagstones, history-imbued beams and roaring fire are perfect all year round. You might even meet the resident ghost, ‘Old Harry’!

After tarrying awhile by the fire, a short road walk leads to one of our favourite parts of the day – the gorgeous treelined section of Gloucestershire Way to Notgrove. There, the village’s Norman church holds the graves of the Whittington family, famous for one Dick Whittington, former Mayor of London.

Leaving Notgrove and its glamping pods – we love the giant multi-coloured roadside bunny – behind, the Diamond Way descends through rolling farmland to Raspberry Brake, before climbing gently again. The views from the summit, where we cross the SalpertonTurkdean path, are always impressive. As elsewhere on the route, look out for deer, red kites and buzzards along the way. Soon, we’re dropping steeply into Lumley Culvert before following a narrow metalled road back to Hazleton. Just after the twelfth-century St Andrews Church, look out for thoughtful ‘Slow Hedgehogs’ road signs, enjoy Hazleton’s ‘impossibly pretty’ period cottages and return to your car. Now that was better than bingeing box sets on the sofa, wasn’t it! The Local Answer To advertise call 01242 510500 Page 35