Thursday 21 July 2011

The Welsh Way

Having just had the honour of Fairford's Sub-Postmaster bestowed upon me I find myself travelling from Bibury to the beautiful town of Fairford on a daily basis.  For part of the journey I go along part of the Welsh Way, which was the route taken by Welsh cattle drovers to London.  The demand for beef in the capital was particularly high during the late eighteenth century and Wales was a valuable source of cattle. 

The 'Welsh Way' is a lane which leaves the Gloucester-Cirencester road before Duntisbourne and passes through Barnsley and Ready Token to Fairford and Lechlade, eventually joining the Ridgeway near Wantage.  It is still suitable for cattle droving [though I'm not sure anyone does], as it has very wide and verdant verges.  I often imagine a herd of shiny Welsh Blacks meandering down the lanes with Corgis snapping at their heels and the melodic cursing of the Welsh drovers. 

http://www.welshblackcattlesociety.com/index.php/breed/history-of-the-welsh-black.html

2 comments:

  1. I wonder when the last Welsh Black was driven from Wales to Smithfield? Doing it one more time sounds like an idea for one of those quirky non-fiction books...

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  2. Hi Richard,

    I am amazed that there is a web site for just about everything these days, how did we poor mortals ever manage before???

    The idea of cattle droving sounds like a great one, especially if we could trade it for taking all the cars off the roads!!!

    Are you sub-postmaster for both shops now then?

    Yvonne

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