A snowy weekend in The Cotswolds
What a fantastic weekend for sledging on the Cotswold hills. The snow has lasted and it looks like more will fall in the next couple of days. The snow is so deep on the hills around us that neighbours had to use a quad bike to get out and about on Saturday afternoon.
The walk up to Broadway Tower (located at the second highest point on the Cotswold escarpment at 1024 ft/312m above sea level) via Coneygree Lane (the old main road to London opposite St Eadburgha’s Church on the Snowshill Road) in the snow and ice was worth the fabulous view from the top down across Broadway covered in its white blanket of snow towards the Vale of Evesham where there were huge patches of green where the snow had already melted.
Walking back down Coneygree Lane I wondered where the name had come from. Did it have anything to do with rabbits? A little research later - it seems that it does. A ‘coneygree’ was a Medieval domestic rabbit warren (to house rabbits farmed for their fur and for the table) usually found close to a manor or monastery. The coneygree, looked after by warreners, was built in a mound in a ‘pillow’ or ‘cigar’ shape with a flat top often surrounded by a moat (as rabbits will not cross water and therefore escape). Some examples still exist in England and next time I walk up Coneygree Lane I will keep an eye open to see whether there are any signs of them in Broadway.
escarpment. But as the scenes were filmed in July they had to use artificial snow! 
Snow last fell here during the first week of January and because of the extremely cold temperatures (-10 degrees centigrade at one stage) it lasted a couple of days before it melted away - just long enough to go sledging on the hill opposite. Our Dorset sheep, Lily (in the front of the photo), Abbie, Evie and Henry (at the back) didn’t seem to mind the snow either. Their compact woolly fleece certainly kept them warm.