Moreton-in-Marsh and Evesham

I’ve been in Oxford for five-and-a-half years now, and for some reason I’ve rarely thought of going down the Cotswold line.  Which is a shame, because it’s a really pretty journey through an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and there are some interesting places along there too.  Having said that, winter was maybe not the time to go; you can only see the views one-way.

Date of trip: Saturday 17th February 2018
Journey time: approx. 40 minutes to Moreton, 1hr to Evesham.
Fare: £11.20 (Off-Peak, with Railcard)

Moreton-in-Marsh

Moreton is a typical Cotswold town, with basically all the buildings made with the local stone (similar stone to that used for most of the old Oxford colleges).  But, not gonna lie, there’s not a huge amount to do here.  There are a lot of independent shops, but mostly of two types: antiques shops and tea rooms.  Seeing as you probably won’t want to go to more than one tea room (unless you really like tea), and as antiques are mostly out of a student budget, you’ll find it hard to spend a day here.

There is, however, enough to do for a couple of hours.  I particularly enjoyed having a cream tea at the Yellow Brick Café—and wished I hadn’t already eaten lunch, as I looked enviously at other customers’ plates—and browsed a small-but-very-friendly bookshop and a traditional sweet shop.  All three were tucked away down Old Market Way, so easy to miss unless you’re looking out.

Also one of the antiques shops had two old London Underground roundels on sale, so this day trip is particularly recommended for people looking to buy me Christmas/birthday presents.

Evesham

I last visited Evesham in 2009, on the same day I last visited Moreton.  I remembered it as a bit of a dive, but my first impressions on visiting were that it was… well, a bit of a dive, to be honest.  By this point in the day I’d decided that this would be the first post on this blog and so I was starting to wonder if I’d made a mistake leaving Moreton—unless I wanted to write a blog post about how fulfilling it was to peer into a derelict Argos.

And, as it turns out, first impressions were partly accurate.  There was a functioning town centre, mostly of chain stores, as well as a 70% empty shopping centre (in which the passage to the toilets had an American-style street sign labelling it as “New Jersey Sidewalk”, for reasons unknown).  There are some historic buildings, and two churches next to each other (one still the parish church, one in preservation) that are open to look around; there’s also a museum in a low thatched building (£5 entry, and as it was 4pm by the time I found it I didn’t go in).  This on its own probably wouldn’t be worth recommending the trip, nice as it was.

What makes it worthwhile is the river.  The town sits in a curve of the Wye, and apparently in summer there are boat trips along it.  Even in winter, though, it’s possible to walk along a long stretch of the riverbank, which is mostly green space (the town frequently floods, which presumably explains why).  One of those was Abbey Park, the site of Evesham’s one-time abbey (which explains the concentration of churches), with markings of the old walls along the ground.  But perhaps more pleasant was further along the riverside walk (well-signposted), where there’s just a vast meadow, and it feels about as close as you can get to escaping into the countryside without actually leaving a town.

If you’re reading this post, you probably know me, which means you won’t be surprised to hear I was excited that Evesham has a chain ferry; a boat which is propelled across the river by way of the chain to which it is attached.  This one, the Hampton Ferry, is only for pedestrians; more disappointingly, it was closed for the winter.  Sadly, this means you’ll have to go without my account of what would have been a thrilling experience.

I definitely got the sense that the local council was trying hard to make Evesham tourist-friendly, what with “quirky” signposts (“Decision time: toilets 50m and 500m”) and large “HAVE YOU SEEN?” signs directing you from one park to another.  This works up to a point, but I stayed a little too long, and got to the point where it was getting dark and the shops were closing.  At that point it felt a little scary (a crowd of teenagers approached me, but it turned out they just wanted to inform me that when I walked, my left foot goes in front of the right), and I retreated to the station.  Then again, I probably should have realised that going in parks after sunset is Not A Good Idea.

So yes, Moreton and Evesham are definitely summer places, that I visited in winter, but there was still a fair amount to see.  If you happen to remember this post in Trinity, they’re definitely a good shout for an escape to the country.