The hidden world of the upper Thames Valley has much to offer and is only a short distance from the tourist hot spots of the popular Cotswolds.
There are a variety of ways to explore the historically rich area in Oxfordshire, either by car, campervan, river barge or simply on foot.
On a recent trip we spent time around the market town of Faringdon, walking the many footpaths linking a hidden world of hedged meadows, locks, remote churches and villages.
Three interesting spots near the Thames are Kelmscott, Buscot Park and Buscot Village, together forming a compact triangle, and all legacies of far-sighted Victorians – a wealthy Australian gold miner; the man who started the Arts and Crafts movement; and a titled landowner.
Our first stop was at Kelmscott village and a focus today of followers of the Arts and Crafts movement whose influence from 1870s has infused art, architecture and design globally.
Kelmscott Manor, the late Elizabethan farm house set back 200m from the river, was the summer home of William Morris, founder of the movement. Morris had a fairly unconventional marriage, co-leasing the house with his friend, the pre-Raphaelite painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti, who was his wife’s lover.
The manor is open to the public during the summer. The old limestone house recently underwent restoration after floodings and is a living memorial to the work of Morris and his associates, with a beautiful collection of his possessions. The exquisite gardens backed by a small stream and meadow are also worth a visit.
The Morris family left their mark on the village with the Morris Memorial village hall and the arts and crafts-styled cottages lining the small road to Kelmscott Manor.
Before leaving Kelmscott, stop by at the Plough Inn for lunch and a pint as this 17th century inn was the watering hole of Morris and his artistic friends.
From Kelmscott, take a footpath through the fields leading to a footbridge over the Thames, and then cut across fields to Eaton Hastings, the site of a medieval village. Today all that is left is the 11th century church.
Dedicated to St Michael and All Angels, the church is worth a detour to see the stained glass windows of the Archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael by William Morris and the window dedicated to St Matthew by his friend Edward Burne-Jones.
A short walk and we cross the A417 and enter Buscot Park Estate owned by the National Trust. Here a new vista opens, with a landscaped park fronting a lake leading to Buscot Park, a late 18th century Italianate house and the home of the present Lord Faringdon. When we visited, the grounds were open and we walked through the woodland, the extensive “pleasure gardens” and the quadrant centred “Four Seasons” garden, its axis pinned by a central lily pond, fountain and statuary, with rows of tall hop hornbeams fanning out. Beyond, paths lead to a formal Italianate Water Garden.
The owner of Buscot Park, a London financier ennobled as the first Lord Faringdon, commissioned this garden. Considered the premier example of this Italianate landscaping in the UK, it contain stairways, paths, basins and a central canal with a dolphin and cherub fountain.
Buscot House also houses the Faringdon Collection, an eclectic collection by the Faringdons of pictures, furniture and ceramics.
The National Trust’s strong presence in the area extends to our final stop, Buscot Village, the creation of Robert Tertius Campbell, who created a model industrialised agricultural farming enterprise here.
Campbell made his fortune on the Australian gold fields and after arriving in England, set about dredging the river at Buscot lock, installing water wheels to irrigate the surrounding farmland. He laid out a rail line to bring sugar beet to a spirit distillery he built near the river.
Unfortunately his endeavours came to naught, he overcapitalised, the distillery closed down and he was forced to sell.
A walk through the farm and village built by Campbell to house his workers transports us back to Victorian England. Today most of these listed farmhouses and cottages are owned by the National Trust and include stable blocks, a village hall, parsonage.
All three men obviously loved this part of the Thames Valley, for Campbell and the first Lord Faringdon are buried at Eaton Hastings while William Morris and his family lie close by in the churchyard of St George at Kelmscott. - Sunday Tribune
l Check out www.buscot-park.com and www.kelmscottmanor.org.uk