Carve-up in the Cotswolds

As we explored Britain from the mid-60s onwards and began to appreciate its fabulous variety of scenery, there were some areas that seemed more welcoming than others. The Lakes, Scotland and Cornwall all seemed to have plenty of footpaths and open areas, and, even then, they were [kind of] geared up to receive visitors.

The Cotswolds appeared to have fewer obvious permissive paths and more signs telling you what you couldn’t do and where you couldn’t go, rather than encouraging access. It felt like a bit of a “carve-up” to me. I guessed that partly reflected its role as comparatively productive farmland. I also imagined that a lot of affluent local residents with sizable properties and otherwise uninterrupted views over idyllic English landscapes would probably have been quite happy for it not to be a tourist area at all.

We first visited the Cotswolds on our bikes in 1965, climbing the Cleve Hill escarpment and crossing the hills from west to east. We returned in 1970, with our girl-friends this time, staying at Cleve Hill youth hostel on the 24^th July and Charlbury the next night and travelling in Ian’s two-tone Ford Prefect.

We somehow gravitated towards both Charlbury station and Finstock Halt during our brief stay in the area. Charlbury station was opened in 1853 by the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway. It is a Grade 2 listed building in the Italianate style. The line was singled through both stations the year after our visit. Double track was reinstated at Charlbury in 2011.

Opened by the Great Western Railway in 1934, Finstock Halt officially became just Finstock in May 1969, though the running-in board did not yet reflect the change. By 1980, the GWR corrugated iron shelters had been replaced by a modern “bus-stop” style waiting area on a re-built platform occupying the site of the former down line.

It was a warm and muggy evening, overcast after rain, when I took these photographs. Occasional shafts of low light penetrated the clouds. Local services were in the hands of DMUs and the main line expresses to Paddington from Hereford and Worcester, which did not stop at Finstock, were diesel-hauled by Warship Class locomotives.

Ah, yes. Nothing better than a bit of late in the day train spotting along the local main line to make a short break complete. You can’t say we didn’t know how to give the girls a treat……………....