Rousham Gardens

I was at a talk this week by English garden designer Arne Maynard. He obviously loves the gardens at Rousham House in Oxfordshire, as I do, which were designed by William kent (1685-1748) and remain almost as kent left them. Ponds, cascades and rills remain in situ along with a fabulous seven arched viewpoint overlooking the river with a pretend ruin in the vista beyond. Its a garden that plays with light and shade and exudes peace. The walled garden has a wonderful dovecote, as above. I also like Rousham because its so uncommercial and whenever you are there, you seem to have the place to yourself. We hope Rousham will feature in a new cycling and boating tour we are putting together for this summer.

New Website

Finally, after many months, the new Capital Sport website is live. We've added to our cycling holidays by offering walking, boating and gastronomic tours.  One of the new features we like a lot are the google maps we have created for each individual tour.  The very large images are also great - I've always homed in on the pictures and headlines of any script!

Happy browsing.

The Exe Estuary

I was exploring the Exe estuary this weekend and staying in Topsham. This is a fascinating, small and immensely charactful Devon town and a great base from which to enjoy this scenic waterscape. There is some great traffic - free, pretty flat cycling up and down both sides of the estuary, with a good cycle hire company in Tosham itself. I opted for some green laning nearby in my son's 30 year old Land Rover. That was marginally warmer than a 2 wheel cycle experience but a lot more muddy - his heaven but a Capital Sport gentle cycling nightmare!

Image by Maurice Budden

Chimney Pillbox

I never knew there were as many as 18,000 pillboxes in the UK - all built during the second world war as makesfhift fortesses from which to defend our island from invasion.  Nor did I know that some actually look pretty; probably beacuse I didn't recognise them as such, being disguised as disused cottages smothered in brambles. Visit the village of Creech St Michael on the Somerset Canal to view this one.

What's interesting is that they are all mapped and recorded with an online search facility. Click here.

I checked out the one I most recently came across which is on one of our cycling tours. Its the usual ugly concrete affair but as estate agents would certainly say, it has a prime waterside position next to the Thames and adjacent to the only ford crossing this great river. It's located in a memorable parish that goes by the name of Chimney. This must have been thought to be a strategic area all those years ago as there are 4 more pillboxes there too It also appears to be part of a defense line known as the GHQ Stop Line which ran from south of Malmesbury to west of Reading.

Pillboxes turned out to be surplus to requirements. It wouldn't take much imagination though to see a current use for them. The picture above shows a pillbox beside the Thames near Lechlade.

Stonehenge and The Avenue

I was recently in the Stonehenge area looking at cycling routes and walks. Once Sustrans finishes its route there, we will have the the pleasure of cycling to this amazing feature without encountering main roads.
I'd read recently about The Avenue - but was completely unprepared when I came across it! The sheer scale and geography are quite amazing. This grand, curving, earthwork road is almost 2 miles long and forms a processional walk from the River Avon up to Stonehenge. Such is its geography that as you follow it, the henge comes dramatically into view on the horizon. Its as gob smacking as the revealing of the grandest opera set. Suddenly it becomes clear that Stonehenge is a lot more than a collection of stones - its a huge, stage managed landscape created some 3,000 plus BC years ago.

There's much about this landscape that is still not understood but visit if you can and enjoy the full production.

The Avenue features on OS maps and is part of the Stonehenge and Avebury Unesco World heritage Site