Ablington

Manor Heads and Valley Quiet

Above the porch of Ablington Manor, five carved heads look down at anyone approaching the door: Elizabeth I, Mary, Henry VIII, Philip of Spain and James I. Beneath them a line was cut into the stone in 1590 — "Plead thou my cause O Lord" — set there by John Coxwell, who built the house that year. The manor is Grade I listed, was enlarged in the seventeenth century and altered around 1780, and its grounds slope down to the River Coln.

Ablington is a small hamlet, a scatter of limestone houses in a sheltered valley about a mile upstream from Bibury. Water meadows follow the river; a ridge above carries the earthwork of an old hillfort. The nearest pubs, shop and church are about a mile downstream in Bibury. Ablington's lanes are quieter than Bibury's busy visitor centre.

Two Walks and Bibury Pubs

That distance is walkable, and the walking is the reason to be here. The Coln Valley Walk 6 is an 8.4-mile figure-of-eight, roughly four and a quarter hours at a leisurely pace, starting at the war memorial opposite the manor and following the Coln downstream to the trout farm in Bibury. If that is too much, the Bibury and Ablington Circular covers 4.1 miles in a little over two hours, on defined tracks and country lanes, and comes back through Ablington's cottages.

In Bibury, The Catherine Wheel is a busy sixteenth-century pub with open fires, a family room, beer garden and three changing cask ales. The Swan, a former coaching inn on the Coln, has a country bar, log fire and riverside terrace; its brasserie serves seasonal British food and scones with clotted cream and strawberry jam. Dogs are welcome in the bar, designated dining area and at garden tables in good weather.

Trout Farm and St Mary's

For food to take back, or a meal you build your own trip around, there is Bibury Trout Farm. It is a working farm founded in 1902, with a fish counter, a deli and gift shop, and a cafe. The shop sells fresh and smoked trout, preserves, local honey and fudge, bread, eggs, milk and cheese. The cafe leans on its own fish: trout Benedict, a trout croque monsieur, crispy trout bites, trout chowder, whole trout, fillet of trout with beurre blanc, and a smoked trio of trout. Beyond the counter the grounds run to catch-your-own fishing, barbecue hire and crazy golf, with plenty of outdoor seating.

Bibury's church, St Mary's, is worth the mile. It is Grade I listed, with fabric reaching back to the eleventh century and additions across the twelfth and thirteenth. Inside are Saxon pilasters in the nave, carved Saxon fragments, a chevroned Norman north doorway, an unusual Transitional north arcade whose carved capitals are the most interesting thing in the building, a Perpendicular roof of ten bays and a square early-thirteenth-century font. Gilbert Scott restored it in 1863.

Hillfort History and Getting Here

The manor's later life is why some visitors arrive already knowing the name. In the 1890s it was home to J. Arthur Gibbs, whose 1898 book *A Cotswold Village* did a good deal to bring people to this stretch of country in the first place. The ridge behind the houses holds Rawbarrow, or Ablington Camp, an oval enclosure of about 4.4 hectares, broadly Late Bronze Age to Early Iron Age. A nearby barn has a sixteenth-century portion and a later addition dated, over the door, to 1727.

A car is simplest for Ablington, reached by local lanes about six miles north-east of Cirencester. Kemble, roughly fourteen miles from Bibury, is the nearest station, with direct trains from London Paddington; a taxi is a practical choice for the last leg. Further afield lie the Corinium Museum in Cirencester, rich in Roman finds, and Chedworth Roman Villa, known for its mosaics, bath houses and latrines.

Arlington Row and the Return

Many visitors photograph Arlington Row's cottages on the longer circuit through Bibury. The walk returns to the war memorial opposite the manor, where five carved faces still watch the door.