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Living in a 400 year old Cotwold Cottage

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Specially Chosen Cotswold Press Articles from around the World

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Specially Chosen Cotswold Press Articles from around the World

Special interest articles about the Cotswolds published in the World Press
04/15/2007
Lords of the Manor
When I called Lords of the Manor to book the table, the French voice on the phone tactfully suggested that jeans and trainers would be inappropriate for the dining room. I couldn't agree more I'm so over jeans and trainers. A dress code that might have come across as incredibly square a year ago, suddenly sounded quite hip. Lords of the Manor is the restaurant in the hotel of the same name in the village of Upper Slaughter, near Stow-on-the-Wold. It's the quintessence of Cotswold..........
04/15/2007
England's Cotswolds Peaceful, Charming
PAINSWICK, England -- The main road through this picturesque village says a great deal about the timeless quality of the Cotswolds, a region of low, rolling hills in England's West Country. A vision of tranquil English village life, the street is lined with charming, centuries-old stone houses and a half-timbered post office that dates from the Middle Ages........
10/10/2006
The Pudding Club - A Paean To English Puddings In The Cotswolds
But, as food preferences evolve, Britain’s great puddings, even the sweet variety, were being overlooked in favor of Black Forest cake and strawberry cheesecake. In 1985, to preserve this important piece of culinary heritage, Three Ways House Hotel, a historic hotel in the low hills called the Cotswolds in the county of Gloucestershire, 90 miles from London in southwest England, established the Pudding Club. The goal: to preserve the pudding from drifting into obscurity.......
09/02/2006
The Cotswolds and beyond
What turned out to be one of our 'funnest' trip in years, unfortunately started out in a very stressful manner. But that's life. So let me tell you how it all began:
My partner Dianne Marie and I arrived at Heathrow Airport outside London, some 13 hours after leaving San Francisco. We immediately rented a car and attempted to drive to The Cotswolds. Yes, I said "attempted," because it took us forever to get there.


09/13/2006
Mindful of politics, culture in England
ED JONES is editor of The Free Lance-Star. He can be reached at 540/374-5401 or at edjones@freelancestar.com.


GLANCE AT THE stone walls inside the little old church in Sherborne, England, and you'll notice a roster of vicars who have graced the pulpit there. The list goes back 900 years.

But it was a reference of more recent vintage that caught my eye last week as I strolled around the sanctuary. A needlepoint pad for kneeling worshippers offered a simple but touching message: "God bless America. Stand beside her, and guide her. September 11, 2001."

That evening, as my wife, Peggy, and I were watching the BBC news in our rented cottage in the Cotswolds, 75 miles west of London, we heard about a survey that found that most Britons think it's time to put distance between their country and the United States in the war on terrorism.

Those sentiments surfaced as newspapers and TV reporters swarmed around the Labor Party infighting that forced Prime Minister Tony Blair, George W. Bush's most loyal and articulate ally in the post-9/11 period, to promise to step down from office within the next year. Blair, the fresh, boyish leader of the Brits a decade ago, has become stale..........

08/30/2006
Reading to avoid ignorant-American status
ED JONES is editor of The Free Lance-Star. He can be reached at 540/374-5401 or at edjones@freelancestar.com


I'M NOT PROUD of it, but I might as well confess. I recently purchased my very own copy of "British History for Dummies."

Now granted, there are many areas of expertise in which I would quickly qualify as a dummy. Plumbing and cooking are two that come to mind.

But being a dummy on British history hurts.

After all, I took a course on the Tudors in college. I subscribe to The Spectator, a weekly opinion journal from Britain that keeps me on top of politics across the pond.

I once had an electronic subscription to The Times of London. I still read an array of newspapers and magazines about the Church of England.

But as my wife, Peggy, and I prepare for a short trip to the Cotswolds, that rolling slice of England three hours west of London, I still feel like a dummy............

01/04/2006
All of Stratford's a Shakespeare stage
The Free Lance-Star


By MARY ELLEN BOTTERTHE DALLAS MORNING NEWS

Hamlet proclaimed, "The play's the thing."

The Royal Shakespeare Company will prove that's true.

The troupe is sponsoring a yearlong festival at Stratford-upon-Avon, William Shakespeare's hometown, at which all of the Bard's 37 plays plus his sonnets and long poems will be performed.

It will be the first time that all of the works will be presented in a single event.

The festival will open on Shakespeare's birthday, April 23, and continue into April 2007..............

05/26/2002
Walk Along River Thames Left Indelible Impressions
After spending the better part of last month in England, walking along the River Thames, a few random observations (mostly ecologically inspired) seem in order this week. So, with a tip of the hat to author Bill Bryson, who was encountered out there in a Cotswold field, here are some of my own "notes from a long, long river.".......
 

BLOGS BY WALTER WENTZ

Walter Wentz and Charlie

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Living in a 400 year old Cotwold Cottage

A friend asked me what it was like living in a 300 year-old house in a Cotswold village. I cannot answer that. I live in a 400-year-old Cotswold Cottage. A 400-year-old Cotswold Cottage has a number of special qualities you will not find in a 30-year-old house in Southern California which is where I come from. First of all, unlike the California house, it cannot stand earthquakes.  The ding-bat California house is very light and somewhat flimsy. Thus it just wiggles and jerks when the earthquakes hit. The only thing that comes down in the quake is the brick chimney which is built much like a Cotswold cottage. My English house would never survive a 3.0 on the Richter Scale. The Cotswold cottage has other advantages.

First of all it impresses Americans, most of whom love olde-worlde buildings You see, my Cottages on the upper part of the High Street in Broadwayhouse was built a couple of centuries before the United States even existed.

When I purchased my house it was, shall we say, a dump.  Thus I removed all the clapped out plumbing, wiring, and heating. Next, my builder tore the plaster off the walls in the front of the house to reveal lovely yellow cotswold stone which he then cleaned and pointed. To 'point' is simply to put fresh mortar between the old stones. It looks terrific. The rest of the house got new pipes, wiring, and central heating.  It was then replastered and repainted, save for the living and dining rooms. New doors were installed. The old shed in back was replaced with a new two-car garage.  The house lost none of it charm, in fact it gained a bit. It did become much more comfortable.

The above story applies to many homes in Broadway. We 'carpetbaggers' (an American expression for outsiders which came out of the Civil War) have done much to maintain the property in the English countryside. We have given the property what the English call 'added value'. In a few cases we have saved it. Of course the real joy of living in an English village is not the house but the people. We have a sense of community here that I have never before experienced.  Fall down in Broadway and somebody will pick you up. That, however, is a tale for another time.

Walt and Charlie


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Living in a 400 year old Cotwold Cottage