Cotswolds self catering accommodation, England
How this holiday makes a difference
Environment
There are many areas of SSSI around my property which are of great value to encourage plants and animals of historic interest to keep a foothold on our planet.
Lance House gained its name from the woodland 50yards from the front door, Lance Coppice. This coppice is a small part of ancient woodland , now a nature reserve called Lower Woods. This has 280 hectares of the total 300 hectares as SSSI. Lower Woods name was originally used to contrast these woodlands in the clay vale with those upper woodlands on the Cotswolds. Inglestone Common joins Hawkesbury, Assley and Harely Commons as a 300 acre site on the edge, and inside as rides, of the Lower Woods Nature Reserve. The Commons have recently gained funds from the Higher Level Stewardship to enable the commons to be better managed and keep the historic grazing of these lands in good order as scrub has spread too far. I have led the fight to enable this funding to come to the Commons.
For a few years I have welded the discarded shoes from the horses and have made many interesting sculptures and useful garden items. Many of the walkers that pass my house look over the garden fence to see the dragonfly, frogs, mushrooms and snails that sit by my pond - both in nature and ironwork.
Community
Having lived in the area for over 30 years and being a Parish Councillor I know my local community well. There are varied businesses who welcome people from other areas, the local pubs have on many occasions been reported to me that they are the most welcoming that visitors have ever been in.
Two years ago I decided that I must join the new age of broadband, but when I approached BT I was quoted £285.000.00 for a line. This did seem a lot of noughts. On surveying my neighbours on Inglestone Common and found half of the Common (geographically) were without broadband facilities. I then got together the Commoners and managed, over 18 months, to bring pressure on BT. Success, BT laid extra lines and this enabled 10 homes to receive broadband at a cost of about £20.00 per household.
I am a board member on the Cotswolds Conservation Board who do a good deal of ground work to keep the landscape true and also realise that people do live and work in these areas. The Cotswold Wardens mend broken gates and stiles and other landscaping problems and this keeps open our landscape for explorers.
Landscape
Over the years I have ridden (on horse back and bike) and walked much of the locality and can offer a wide choice of routes and attractions to enable visitors to enjoy my little area of England.
There are some lovely sights and sounds in Lower Woods that I have walked amongst with the children. Picnics down by the Knapp (a small river running through the woods), watching the deer and owls prowl on the open Commons, visiting the Castle a former badger set, trying to find the Ingle Stone, listening to the skylarks and nightingales from the house. There are some very rare plants (Adderstongue Spearwort only found in two places in the country) and bats by the house.
In the centre of Lower Woods there have been in the last few years archeological digs which have unearthed remains of a large Roman house. Many of the local houses are from the 15th. Century. There are lots of interesting local stories about people and places which have been published by our local history society.
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