Fergus and Bella climbing a hollow way

I took the opportunity of a cross country route to get from one place to another and my day has been non-stop as anticipated.  After my early morning doctor's appointment I needed to drive to Bisley to pick up stocks of sunflower seeds for the birds in our garden while I am away.  They come in 13kg sacks so Helena couldn't fetch them.

I drove out of Stroud up the Slad valley, turned down the slope to cross the valley near Elcombe and then I followed the ancient lane past Swift's Hill towards Catswood.  When I reached the point at which the lane ceased following the line of the valley and turned abruptly up the slope, I parked on the edge of the woodland through which this hollow lane has evolved over the centuries.  

Hollow ways or lanes are fairly common where paths cross the outcrop of varying rock types as the steep slope changes.  How they are formed is not exactly clear but it involves the wear from the constant movement of animal and human feet, and eventually wheeled vehicles as well as the flow of rainwater downhill.  Sometimes the sides of the hollow can be thirty or forty feet high, often inside woodland and are not always straight. Behind me when I took this picture the banks are like that. further down the slope the hollow way zigzags down the hillside in places.  The tarmac road is a relatively recent addition probably marking when carriages would have tried to ascend and descend these slopes on a regular basis.  The tarmac itself was probably first laid after the 1930s.

I stood there taking a couple of pictures, which I've intended to do for many years.  I spotted this man and his dog ascending and took a couple of long shots. When they reached my position on the road we said hello and spent the next twenty minutes in conversation.  Fergus and his dog Bella live about a mile away in a hillside cottage in a delightfully remote setting below Catswood and The Sydenhams at the top end of the Slad valley.  

We talked about the hollow way and Fergus wondered if I knew that it was known locally as King Charles' Way (I had heard of this some years ago) because it was a route which the King took in his travails during the  Civil War. This route is actually renowned as having been an ancient trackway since before Roman connecting Wales, across the Severn at Gloucester and on to Cirencester and the east of England.

I like to imagine the intrepid travellers negotiating these steep slopes often with herds of sheep and cattle taking them to market, or even in coaches and carts.  

It was interesting to meet Fergus and we had several friends in common, so perhaps we will meet again.  I definitely will come back here to explore  the rest of the woodland and follow the hollow way to the bottom of the hill and then across the valley to Bulls Cross, another junction of ancient tracks on the ridge opposite.