Stow on the Wold Gloucestershire

8.15am 7.2 miles in 59 mins 38 seconds

Week to date mileage 22 miles

Month to date mileage 106

Average weekly rate 29.8 miles

Average monthly rate 129

Year to date 885

Lifetime 10478

For our last 2 days of our holiday we moved on to a small market town in the Cotswolds called Stow on the Wold. Luckily when we booked this youth hostel we chose a town on a hill 800 feet above sea level which therefore hadn't suffered like many of its nearby neighbors from flooding. Another good youth hostel this being 17th century and situated on a pleasant Georgian square.

The youth hostel was once part of the next door White Hart Inn to which we of course had to visit. Whilst we were there having a nice beer called Summer Ale there was a flurry of activity with a large number of constant arrivals. Mostly men with shoulder bags and they started to talk about taking on other teams from other pubs with sticks. It all sounded as if we had arrived in a different country but it became clearer when they departed out of the back of the pub and started lobbing sticks at a ball set on a post a bit like a coconut shy. Very popular apparently in these parts is a game called Aunt Sally. From looking up Aunt Sally on Google it appears this game may have originated during the 17th century civil war and was played by soldiers and would explain its local popularity. Stow like many local places here can claim that Charles 1st stayed here. The Kings Arms apparently was used by the King during his battle at Naseby .

Being in the Cotswolds the houses are built with the mellow yellow stone. It also has he oldest inn in the country called the Royalist Hotel which has been an inn since 947 AD. It was noticeable that a number of the local pubs were now serving Greene king presumably due to their expansion plans buying smaller breweries and pubs in the midlands to get a foothold here.

On my run I certainly realised I was on a hill and my run took me up and down a three quarter mile hill. I also took in an off road path along the Gloucester shire way. My run also took in the nearby village of Maugersbury.