Highland cow loving buttercups on Marking Day

Today is Marking Day on Minchinhampton and Rodborough Commons, when the animals are released back onto the grassland, having been forced indoors or onto inferior grazing land. The owners of the cattle must have the ancient Commoners' Rights which are 'attached' to their local properties, either of housing or farming land. From now until October they will be grazing across the open land and through the village streets.

These Commons are now owned by The National Trust who manage them to maintain them as traditional Cotswold grassland, rich with wild orchids, cowslips and buttercups. The roaming cattle, horses and a donkey graze profusely but because there is such an extensive area covering many square miles it never becomes over grazed, but it does prevent the growth of any secondary scrub and woodland.

I was glad that Marking Day coincided with the new rules on driving and exercise, so that I could go up to the hilltops tom park near Tom Longs Post at the centre of the common, where five small but important local roads meet. When I got out of the car I saw a herd of highland cattle mingling with some other breeds and wandering over the Roman Bulwarks towards the village of Minchinhampton.

As I walked towards them I heard skylarks singing and saw a few ascending and descending. They are ever present on this same grassland. After taking this picture, I was greeted by the owner of the house behind this stone wall, who had come out to admire the scene. We had a long chat and I found out he and his extended family had lived there for many generations, right back to the time that it was a malthouse attached to a windmill, that has given the house its name. He was a sprightly man of 89 who says he still cycles into the village most days! We agreed that when life returns to a more normal way later in the year, I will return and he will show me the two floors of cellars directly beneath his house which were essential parts of the malting process. That will be interesting. He also told me that another quite distinctive highland cow, which was already there munching on vegetation adjacent to the stone wall, comes back each year to graze on that particular patch!

Edit:
The owner mentioned there was a painting of the original windmill in the local museum, Stroud's Museum in the Park. You can see the painting here. (If you right click on the picture, and 'Open the image in a new window', you get a higher resolution image which you can enlarge reasonably well). 
I think it is a very accurate depiction of the landscape including gap in The Bulwarks (the earthwork/linear mounds which are Roman in origin) through which the wagons have obviously entered the yard. You can see The Old Lodge (the new name after conversion to a pub, near where I parked), cows grazing, Doverow Hill, the Severn Vale, the River Severn and on the far side is the hillfort tree clump on May Hill, in the Forest of Dean.