FOUR SHIRES v COUNTRYFILE
But the biggest surprise was after a few hundred yards I came across the track still in situ, together with the pulley system and remains of the winding hut that pulled the wagons up and down, the area is littered with rotting moss covered sleepers and a length of rail even sits alongside the main road.
Sadly this was not the focus of my trip but I will return and explore even more though I have suggested to Editor Jeremy that he writes a separate article all about it.
Anyway, off to find the Red Horse. I parked by the entrance of Sugerswell Business Park up above Tysoe, right on the county boundary, indeed I was sat in Warwickshire and my passenger was in Oxfordshire.
Opposite was a well signed footpath which after a few yards led to a circular area of tarmac which was one of the dispersal areas for planes based during the war at nearby RAF Edge Hill (us locals call it Shenington Airfield).
down to Tysoe
Malverns, the Black Mountains at Brecon and even the Rotunda in the centre of Birmingham.
There are some great places to stop and picnic, though not today when the forecast for tonight is minus ten. Tysoe is well worth exploring, nearly all the properties are built of local
Welch sat by the fireplace, turning to a customer at the bar he said “have you seen who is over there” at which point the customer, Oliver Reed said “yes, dear boy, I am buying them a drink”! Turns out they were filming The Three Musketeers at nearby Compton Wynyates.
Tysoe Green
As an aside last month (February) sees the 70th anniversary of the first jet aircraft flying from Edge Hill and the gliding club have an open day with several different events to celebrate it.
You have two choices to make, a bridle path to your right or a footpath to your left. I chose the footpath which drops quite steeply down through the woods. In places before you get to near the bottom it is worth stopping to take in the views, on a clear day you can pick out the
stone from the quarries up above and it boasts shops, a butchers, a school, a club, a lovely old Church and many other facilities and judging from the number of solar panels is self sufficient for electricity as well.
With impeccable timing I had arrived at the pub at lunchtime and enjoyed a swift half. It was too cold for a pint. One of the locals told me a great story about when he went in for a drink one lunchtime in the early 70s he was amazed to see Charlton Heston and Raquel
I had a good explore through both Middle and Upper Tysoe. There is a Lower one as well. Then I came to a footpath leading up to a windmill. I made a note to revisit and will try and get a glimpse of Compton Wynaytes on the other side of the hill. I back tracked through the village to just opposite the school where the signposted Centenary Walk takes you across the fields, this is Red Horse Country.
The Red Horse was carved into the side of the hill above Lower Tysoe and there are records of it from the 11th to the 19th centuries though it appears there have been at least five different ones in five different places. The people I spoke with in Tysoe had many of them and all in different places. There is a host of information on the internet and a couple of good books are also available, the one I was looking for was supposed to be in the trees immediately above Old Lodge farm which we pass by on the Macmillan Way which we join just below it. The trees here are quite dense and the
slope back up was hard work. But according to the reference book I was using I was somewhere between its back hooves and the tail. They say that when the trees are in leaf if you stand on the road below you can just about make the shape out.
The Macmillan Way brings you back out in the road where, believe it or not I nearly walked into the path of an oil lorry from RED HORSE fuels. Turning right on the road it was just a couple of hundred yards back to the car, you can be a bit silly like me and walk along the road with one foot in Oxfordshire and the other in Warwickshire. Yet again there was a massive amount to do and see, possibly too much for one day and all within a few minutes of Banbury Cross.
v
who lives in a house like this? MARCH 2012 v FOUR SHIRES 43
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