On Saturday 12th March, twelve walkers met on a clear and beautifully sunny day at Nuffield Church for the wells, elephants and warrior walk. A mixture of regulars, visitors from other ramblers groups and a couple of first timers. This was the second walk from Nuffield, superbly planned and led by Ruth.
Before leaving Nuffield we checked out the 12th century church and surrounds. Viscount Nuffield is buried in the grounds. Turns out he is England's greatest ever philanthropist who gave away 700 million pounds in todays money.
Born William Richard Morris he established Morris Motors after being born into a poor family. Sadly David Frost and his much younger son are also buried here.
We then followed the route of one of a very impressive Grims Ditch's before stopping for a break at our first well at Ipsden Church. Standing next to the well is a warrior from Xian, the home of the Terracotta Warriors. The church has a unique toilet, but that is another story.
The walk in the attractive Yew Tree Brow woods brought us to our lunch stop where we were surrounded by the bluebells breaking through the soil.
Onward to the Black Horse pub for a cuppa and drink and another toilet stop. The mens brought back memories from primary school.
The Maharajah's Well at Stoke Row was an unexpected sight and is situated next to the well keepers house - which is still occupied.
Next stop was the English Farm with some very impressive old barns. They are underutilised today but the timber frame was a sight to behold - as were the rather dangerous looking English Longhorn cattle. Long horns they do have.
Elephants? Yes, we saw at least four on our trip and we may have missed a few.
Thank you to Ruth for leading this walk and to Ian for writing it up.
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