Jul 15th - Chipping Campden

 A non-hiking day today and the plans were to go for a wander around Chipping Campden and a bit of a walk up in the local hills.  The ‘Rain-Gods’ however had different ideas, and, with only short sporadic spells of the non-wet stuff, we only managed to get a brief walk around town. 

One of the unusual sights we came across was a stone lined ‘Cartwheel Wash’.  In the days of horse and carts, and in hot weather, the wooden wheels would shrink away from their metal rims.  Wetting the wheels in the ‘Cartwheel Wash’ reduced the shrinkage and kept the outer metal band in place (this procedure is apparently what’s happening in Constable’s ‘The Hay Wain’).  During wet weather however the ‘Wash’ was used get rid of mud and stuff off the wheels. 

I don’t normally mention our accommodation but for the next few days we reckon we’ve lucked in.  We’re staying in a ‘granny flat’ in a lovely old sandstone house that’s just a couple of hundred metres from the main street here.  Apart from the rooms themselves, and the balcony overlooking fields of wheat and sheep, one of the bonuses is access to washing and drying facilities which, after our condition yesterday, was sorely needed.  Originally here for two nights we’ve managed to extend by a night as we’d had a bit of a shock from Airbnb this afternoon, they advised us that tomorrow’s accommodation had been cancelled! 😳