England #15 - Sherborne and the Motoring Museum, almost in The England Chronicles - September 2024

(Monday September 16, 2024)

We were all over the place on Monday: Sherborne, Upper and Lower Slaughter, Burton-on-the-Water again, and Stow-on-the-Wold. They are all in fairly close proximity to Chedworth, so it was easy to pack a lot in. We set off for Sherborne first, which is about 20 minutes away from Chedworth, and is not to be confused with the bigger Sherborne in Dorset. Especially not in the way that I just confused the two by googling Sherborne and then being shocked that we had managed to miss a huge castle and a huge abbey and a very pretty market town! How was that even possible?!?! We just saw peaceful fields and lots of sheep and a village shop and some lovely stone houses along the little one lane road that we parked on to walk to the shop! Where on earth was all that other stuff?? Then I realized I was looking at a completely different Sherborne, which was a relief.

It does look like we managed to miss an interesting old church that is a little off the main road, but I think that’s it. The Cotswolds Sherborne is a very tiny place with a population of around 300. Our Airbnb host had recommended the  Village Shop, which in addition to selling all sorts of supplies and gifts and snacks is also a coffee shop, tea room and deli. Unfortunately we’d already had breakfast AND coffee, so we just looked around and got to watch locals coming in for their own morning coffee and newspapers. We did buy a couple of fizzy drinks for the road, although Kim accidentally bought some sort of very weird fruity sweet alcoholic drink by mistake, and didn’t realize it till she’d opened it. We were a little paranoid about driving around with open alcohol in the car (seriously illegal in the US) so we stuck it in the drink holder and threw a jacket over it. Nothing to see here! Then we split it later on. It was awful, and tasted like children’s booze. 

I didn’t get many pictures of the inside of the village shop since it’s small and it seemed a little rude to walk around taking photos but not buying anything other than drinks. 

It was a gorgeous day- in the 70s with clear blue skies. 

I thought at first that some of these chickens were real. Maybe all of them.

There were sheep everywhere, as per the usual in the countryside.

This is the surprisingly large village hall and social club.

 After Sherborne it was on to Burton-on-the-Water for the second time, since we hadn’t seen nearly all of it the day before. According to Maps it’s only about 10 minutes from Sherborne, but I am positive it took us longer, being another teeny one-lane back road where I had to do a lot of giving way to people who knew what they were doing. But it is so gorgeous and driving was fun so I did not mind at all!   

We parked at the handy car park which gave us no payment trouble and didn’t demand a phone number when we paid with a card. We never did use the Just Park app once we were in the Cotswolds. And the walk from the car park to the shops and river takes you down this pretty little side passage instead of alongside the busy road into town. 

   Crocheting hats for mailboxes is currently a thing - we saw quite a few in different places. This one sports a caterpillar: 

We had lunch at The Chestnut Tree - I had a delicious cheese and onion pasty and an iced latte (shocker!) and we sat outside. This was actually after the Motoring Museum but I’ve managed to get the pictures out of order trying to save time by posting them first. And I’m not trying to move them because I KNOW I’ll end up deleting half of them. Not that I have ever done that before. 

 I have no idea why I look so very perplexed here - is it my pasty? My latte?? I was having a wonderful time! 

These sunflowers were not out in the countryside, as you’d think — they were right beside the cafe. 

This is a view of the Motoring Museum from one of the footbridges across the river - it’s the building on the right. I had every intention of including the Motoring Museum in this entry, but you know what? I am waiting till next time! Because I cannot be brief and concise and this has gone on much too long already, what a surprise!

 Why is this here?? I need to stop now! It was another day.  

And finally the Motoring Museum which will be up next.