Come along to the Grand Opening of Winchcombe Park.  The park will be opened by Adam Henson from BBC’s Countryfile on Saturday, 9 July 10am – 3.00pm.

Lots of fun for all the family, with Skatepark ‘Jam’ by Team Rubicon.  There will be coaching in the morning for children and young adults, (skateboards & helmets provided), followed by an afternoon, focused on fun, with competitions, music and prizes.

Why not make a day of it.  Bring a picnic and maybe chairs or picnic blankets.  Refreshments will be available to purchase including, Pud Puds, ice cream, sweets, milkshakes and lots, more.  Also, speciality coffee, tea, hot chocolate and non-alcoholic drinks.

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For more information about Winchcombe Park visit the town council website.

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The official OPENING DATE  for Winchcombe Park will be  Saturday 26 March. The new facility will offer a wide range of activities, as a place to gather, play, picnic, walk, skate, and exercise and will no doubt become an iconic destination for the whole community young or old.

Cllr Jim Mason, Chairman of Winchcombe Town Council, stated:

“The Park provides a wonderful community space that is essential to our quality of life and mental well-being. The facilities will provide an opportunity for fun and exercise for families and individuals with something for everyone to enjoy. Winchcombe has waited a long time for this park and its completion is an exciting moment for the town. The grass and planted areas have not yet established but we didn’t want to delay the opening any longer so the Town Council would like to request that visitors to the park try to stick to the hard landscaped areas, until the grass has established.”

The new park includes a Multi-Use Games Area (MUGA) suitable for netball and other ball games, a wheeled sports area for skateboarding, scooters and BMX bikes for all ages, an outdoor gym, a petanque facility, a zip-wire, a kick-about area, picnic area, circular path and much more. The Council has also considered the environment doing its bit to reduce the impact on climate change by planting over 70 new trees, designating wildflower areas and adding over 130m of native hedging.

Planning for Winchcombe Park has taken many years. Community involvement provided valuable insight on the design and allowed the public to determine park features and facilities. Unfortunately, not all of the community’s wish list has been deliverable but if future funding can be found, and after further public consultation, the Council hopes to provide additional facilities.

Winchcombe Town Council is planning a grand opening celebration in the spring (date to be confirmed).

For more information about the park and the future grand opening, please visit www.winchcombetowncouncil.co.uk

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Promoting green initiatives around the town, ‘Winchcombe Green Town’ is a group of like minded people striving for a green future.

For those of you who don’t already know, their aim is to encourage a green focus in and around Winchcombe and to find and implement local solutions that will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, improve the ecology and speed up the transition of Winchcombe to a more sustainable town.  It is urgent work.

Join the mailing list and help Winchcombe to become a sustainable town.

For more information  of events, meetings and green news in general, check out the Facebook page.

Sale Trail

As part of the Winchcombe Green Town initiative, a Sale Trail is being organised for Saturday 9 April

What is it? Basically it’s several yard sales taking place at the same time across the town, giving the opportunity for people to walk between individual sales, and picking up bargains. It’s a great time to de-clutter, and sell on your household goods to be re-used! The event is planned for  between 10am and 1pm. Participants can keep all proceeds, or donate to their own selected charities.

If you haven’t got a yard, you will be able to share space with other participants. We’ll put you in touch with them.

We will be producing a printed map of the town (courtesy of Winchcombe welcomes walkers), marked with the location, and we will wrap this in re-usable pouches to make them weatherproof. We would need some help in fixing them to suitable street furniture.

If you are interested, please send your address details via an e-mail to winchcombelive@gmail.com . We are also going to produce a Google Map with event locations on it.

In order to cover costs, we are requesting a donation of £2.

If you plan to hunt for a bargain, please take a carrier bag or wheelbarrow with you!

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It is unusual for Winchcombe to make the national news, let alone international media and TV, but the Winchcombe Meteorite’s arrival on the tarmac driveway of the Wilcock family in Winchcombe in February 2021 achieved just that.

The Wilcocks may have experienced a slight disturbance in the night on 28 February 2021, but that was nothing to the media maelstrom which followed.  The television cameras of BBC, ITV and Sky and reporters from many national newspapers roamed the streets of Winchcombe, looking for more news on this unique event.  Witnessed meteorite falls are extremely rare, and this one was rarer still because it was a highly unusual type of meteorite known as a Carbonaceous Chondrite, which scientists believe may have been responsible for bringing the building blocks of life to planet earth.

The Winchcombe meteorite was the first UK meteorite fall for thirty years and was the first ever Carbonaceous Chondrite to be found in the UK.  In all, just over 600 grams of meteorite material fell on Winchcombe and nearby Woodmancote.  Nearly all of the landowners who found pieces have donated their finds to science.  The main mass fell on the Wilcock family’s driveway and they have donated over 300 grams to the Natural History Museum in London.  It will be kept there and for decades to come it will be made available to scientific institutions from all over the world for research purposes.

Rob, Cathryn and Hannah Wilcock also wanted to share the meteorite with the local communities, and they have donated pieces to Winchcombe Museum and to the Wilson Gallery in Cheltenham.  Winchcombe Museum now has an excellent display dedicated to the meteorite, its discovery and its scientific significance.  Three pieces of the 4.6 billion year old space rock are on display there.

The Wilcocks are also keen to inspire budding scientists and have worked with the Natural History Museum scientists to deliver a schools outreach programme.  This will continue in 2022.  It is hoped that the newly refurbished upper room in Winchcombe Museum will become a popular venue for outreach of this type.

Rob, Cathryn and Hannah Wilcock on the drive where the meteorite came to earth

For further information about the meteorite visit our website.

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Winchcombe Town Council is delighted to announce the inclusion of Winchcombe as a Gateway Town in the ‘Cotswold Gateway Project’. One of a number of Cotswold towns, Winchcombe is the ideal starting point for walking and cycling routes in this Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Cotswolds National Landscape has worked with local communities to create ten Cotswold Gateway locations, from which people can follow walking and cycling routes to explore the surrounding countryside.

As a Gateway Town, Winchcombe offers visitors an opportunity to discover hidden corners, epic views, historic sites and a rich diversity of wildlife on waymarked, circular walking and cycling routes in the beautiful Cotswolds.

Six walking and four cycling routes, each of varying lengths and character, have been established as part of the project which has been  coordinated by the Cotswold Conservation Board.

With all routes starting and finishing in Winchcombe, it is hoped that the initiative will attract many new visitors to the town with it’s wonderful individual  shops, eateries and many local attractions including the historic Sudeley Castle.

The walks and cycle routes are listed below:

Gateway walking routes – details can be found on the Walking Panel situated on Abbey Terrace

1 – Winchcombe to Sudeley Castle (approx 2 miles, 1 hr, easy)

2 – Winchcombe to Langley Hill wood carving (approx 4.5 miles 2.5 hrs, moderate)

3 – Sudeley, Kenelm & Monks Hole (approx 4.75 miles, 2.75 hrs, strenuous)

4 – Winchcombe to the source of the river Isbourne (approx 6 miles 3 hrs,moderate)

5 – Winchcombe to Belas Knap Long Barrow (approx 5.5 miles 2.75 hrs, moderate)

6 – Farmcote to Hailes Abbey (approx 7.5 miles 4 hrs, moderate)

Gateway cycling routes – details can be found on the Cycling Panel situated in Back Lane Car Park

1 – Winchcombe to Cleeve Cloud, (12.5 miles, 435m ascent)

2 – Winchcombe to Guiting Loop, (15.5 miles, 512m ascent)

3 – Winchcombe to West Wood, (18 miles, 547m ascent)

4 – Winchcombe to Dirtybridge, (20.5 miles, 560m ascent)

For a longer stay in Winchcombe, why not treat yourself a relaxing Cotswold break and check out more routes  on our walking and cycling pages.

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Did you know, the Cotswold Wardens have created an ‘all terrain mobility scooter’ route along the Sudeley Valley to the Salt Way, Roel Gate and return via Waterhatch.  The route has been funded by the Countryside Fund as a special project to mark the 50th Anniversary of the Cotswold Voluntary Wardens. Support has also been provided by Winchcombe Walkers Are Welcome, Winchcombe Country Show and Experience Winchcombe.

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One of the most romantic gardens in the Cotswolds is celebrating a milestone this summer.

The beautiful Secret Garden at Sudeley Castle was re-designed 20 years ago to celebrate the marriage of Henry Dent-Brocklehurst – son of the current chatelaine of the castle, Elizabeth, Lady Ashcombe – to Lili Maltese in 1998.

Now, two decades on, many of the planting features are still enjoyed by visitors to Sudeley Castle and its award-winning gardens.

The Secret Garden is so-called for its intimate and sheltered nature – being hidden on one side by a large yew hedge and on another by a stone wall, complete with buttresses.

It can be found through an archway of roses alongside St Mary’s Church – the final resting place of of Queen Katherine Parr, the last of Henry VIII’s six wives.

It is overlooked by a huge, 200-year-old cedar of Lebanon tree, and is adjacent to the castle’s pheasantry – home to one of the largest collections of rare-breed pheasants in the world.

Little is known about the Secret Garden’s history prior to the 20^th century. It was first re-planted following the marriage of Lord and Lady Ashcombe in 1979. Lady Ashcombe wished to create a ‘secret garden’ as a celebration of their marriage and to house four 18^th century cherub-like garden ornaments from Lord Ashcombe’s own garden – which can still be seen today.

Then, when Henry Dent-Brocklehurst married Lili Maltese in 1998, it was decided to re-plant the garden, introducing more vibrant, exotic colours to give it a more modern feel. The couple and their three sons still enjoy the garden when they return to Sudeley Castle each summer.

“It really is an enchanting garden,” says Lili. “It’s wonderful to see it in full summer bloom and thriving, four decades after it was first created. I love its cottage-garden charm and the simple elegance of flowers such as the foxgloves, alliums and irises.”

The garden is bordered by raised beds which evolve throughout the year – in spring it is a sea of more than 2,500 tulips and in summer the beds spill over with flowers, shrubs, ferns, and climbers of varying height and colour.

Among its secrets are two mature purple smoke bushes, one at each end of the garden, and a large, old Judas tree, Cercis siliquastrum, which has been trained against the wall and offers delicate pink flowers which grow directly off the bark. The garden also offers a variety of daisies, roses, blue salvias, penstemons, Russian sage and clematis.

Scent plays a large role in the garden – visitors can enjoy the sweetly-scented ‘fragrant daphne’ and the highly-fragranced white flowers of the philadelphus shrub, which is said to smell similar to orange blossom and has led to it being called ‘mock orange’, although the plants are unrelated.

Stephen Torode has worked as head gardener at Sudeley Castle for the last four years. He said: “I’m very fond of this garden, it has a serene and peaceful feel. I think it surprises people as they don’t always know it’s here – it is perhaps the hidden gem of Sudeley Castle.”

He added: “One side of the garden is south facing – sunny, dry and warm – while the other is shaded by the yew hedge. This, combined with changes in the soil throughout the garden, gives us the opportunity to work with a range of plants which might not otherwise flourish in one garden.”

The Secret Garden flowers right up until October, if weather permits, after which time the Castle’s team of gardeners will be hard at work preparing it for next year.

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