Througham Court, in Bisley-with-Lypiatt

I had to visit the farm shop to stock up on bird food, eggs and fresh vegetables and fruit, and then go to the nearby Green Shop to check my car tyre pressures, as you do. These premises are both on the edge of the village of Bisley high up above Stroud on the flat lands above the Cotswold escarpment.

As the weather had improved and become drier I decided to go for a short drive along the narrow single track old lanes to Througham, a hamlet with no shops about a mile and a half away. I looked for scenes to photograph and wandered very slowly watching the fields, hedgerows, stone walls and various copses and small woodlands. 

I turned down a lane towards Througham itself and passed the farm where I stayed for five months in the hot summer of 1975, my first ever visit to the Cotswolds. I was working with my new friend at the time, Georgie G., who was an old friend of the owner of th farm and the large farmhouse and converted barn. I had a wonderful time there and grew to love the area so much that I returned regularly until I moved to Stroud permanently in 2003.

In the hamlet were a couple of stone cottages, the farm manager's house, an elegant manor house and Througham Court, the 'big house' of the hamlet. It was built in the early 17th century and is now a Grade 11* Listed building (the listing can be viewed on this Historic England listing).

I parked nearby and wandered along the lane. I've always admired parts of the stonework of this building and particularly its stone roof gutter outlets. They might just be visible in my picture overhanging the road. The current owner is now a garden designer and occasionally the extensive grounds on the far side, leading down the hillside towards the river, are opened to the public. I must try to visit them.

At the far end of the house are a series of stables, which now seemed unoccupied unlike in my former visits, and an old barn which has become a workshop. I nearly blipped a view into one of its windows where I could see several old carpenter's planes and other tools on a bench. Maybe I will return to blip them another time.