Walking and dining in The Slaughters

I know I’ve woefully neglected this blog this year – only because I’ve been too busy living life to write about it! – but inspiration has returned after a delightful evening in the Cotswolds with my friend Hayley last night. I will write more of a newsy kind of post and start working through my draft posts as soon as I can, but in the meantime I’d like to share a few photos from a beautiful spot called The Slaughters.

The Slaughters comprise two villages, Upper Slaughter and Lower Slaughter, and they do not, admittedly, have the most promising of names. In fact the etymology is nothing to do with killing animals; it comes from the Old English word ‘slough’, which means ‘wet land’. They’re built along a short river called the Eye, which very much gives both villages their charm.

Hayley and I met in Upper Slaughter and parked in the free parking on the Square. We began with a look at the ford. Interestingly, Wikipedia informs me that Upper Slaughter was one of the so-called ‘Thankful Villages’, i.e. one that lost no men in the First World War. As it then lost no men in the Second World War either, it’s actually a ‘Doubly Thankful Village’.

The footpath to look for is called ‘Warden’s Way’, and it takes you through a series of fields to Lower Slaughter.

It emerges behind the Old Mill, where a dog was cooling off in the pond and the warm evening sun cast a beautiful glow over the Cotswold stone. We visited the night before the village’s summer fete, and found the whole place attractively adorned with flags and bunting.

Me!

The church, too, was beautifully decorated with flower arrangements.

We dined outside at the Slaughters Country Inn, where the service left much to be desired but the atmosphere was the pleasant one of a Bank Holiday Sunday. The sun was well below the horizon by the time we’d finished dinner, so we had a fun walk back across the darkening fields using my iPhone as a torch. Now adding The Slaughters to my Rightmove alerts…!