A local tour

Our tour started with a walk along a narrow path to the River Stour and a bonus boardwalk before emerging in town for coffee at Oxford Bakery, claimed to rival Joshua’s café for the best local coffee. Though we didn’t get the opportunity to compare, we thought that the Oxford coffee art would be hard to beat. 

A classic car meet is held on the first Saturday of the month and the town was busy.  A small blue plaque marked the house where Thomas Hardy lived for 21 months with his new wife, Emma and wrote Return of the Native

We crossed the river to an old flour mill now a working museum and still in occasional use. There is evidence that a mill has existed on this site since 1016 and is mentioned in the Doomsday book.

We climbed to a narrow track along flowering blackthorn hedges and through Piddleswood with glades of early blooming bluebells. As we emerged from the woods we could see Hambledon Hill and continued down to Fiddleford Inn for a beer and lunch in the sun.

For a history lesson we detoured via Fiddleford manor with its impressive wooden roof structures.  After Bryony and Ron unsuccessfully attempted to remodel the manor we continue back to the river and crossed the weir to return to town with time for a quick cup of tea before hitting the road back to Devon.

We followed up with another cuppa with Georgie whilst we waited for Graham to return from watching Exeter lose in the football.  Our final dinner together was a fabulous beef bourguignon in readiness for our next meeting in Tours in May to cycle the Loire.

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