Back to recording indoors this month, and back to recording from different countries. Whilst Glyn remains in Wiltshire I am once again doing battle with French rural internet which seems to be arriving by means of a telephone cable lying in a ditch outside the village. But it’s amazing what Glyn can do with his editing software so the audio was fine.
Bearing in mind I have been away in France for a few weeks and Glyn has been tied up with work, there was a surprising amount to report in terms of activity since last month’s podcast.
Once again Elaine Perkins has been busily producing some terrific blogs and Facebook posts including a little history and fascinating secrets to be found in Fisherton Anger in Salisbury (Facebook post); a blog about The Village of Alderbury on the Hidden Wiltshire website; and a blog about The Borbach Chantry also on the website. Elaine seemed to spend a lot of her time trying to link two sections of a right of way interrupted by a river!
Contributors to the Closed Facebook Group will have seen some stunning aerial shots by Hedley Thorne of Hippenscombe and Fosbury Camp, and Wansdyke. The latter was part of a collaboration with You Tubers Paul and Rebecca Whitewick who posted a fascinating video about Open Access areas.
Facebook Contributor Colin Fry posted some images of Stanley Bridge and nearby Tytherton Lucas which were in the area of a blog I wrote for Hidden Wiltshire entitled Maud Heath’s Causeway.
Meanwhile I have gone all spiritual and posted a couple more blogs for Hidden Wiltshire featuring churches on my doorstep – the two churches at Orcheston, and St Andrew’s Church, Orcheston. But it wasn’t all about churches. My walking buddy Stu and I undertook a long day’s walk from Shrewton to Stapleford and back to search for the end of the River Till where it joins the River Wylye. The walk was particularly long as it involved an hour or so in the pub!
To be fair to Glyn he did actually manage to get out and led the final Wiltshire Museum Guided Walk on Fyfield Down taking in the Devil’s Den and the Polissoir Stone.
But before we moved onto this week’s main subject we talked about cats. Large black cats. Whilst reading Robert Macfarlane’s beautiful book The Old Ways – A Journey on Foot, I came across Macfarlane’s story about his encounter with what he was certain was a black panther on the Marlborough Downs. There have been many sightings of these big cats in Wiltshire including one by my son Adam and I outside Shrewton. So Glyn has decided to start a new thread about black panther sightings on Facebook.
Finally we got on to the main subject of this episode of the podcast. A walk Stu and I did in March 2022 starting from Aldbourne taking in Liddington Castle and the abandoned village of Snap. You can follow the map and walk description in my blog on the Hidden Wiltshire wbsite. This is a walk rich in history from the Bronze Age right up to World War II. Aldbourne was the base for the US Army’s 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division, or Easy Company as they came to be known, and as featured in the film series Band of Brothers. And of course the walk was accompanied by some spectacular wide reaching views of Wiltshire
You will find links to the various blogs and other material described above on the Hidden Wiltshire website by using the link below, as well of course to the podcast itself which is also available wherever you get your podcasts including Apple and Spotify.