The stone circles of Wiltshire, England

This past July, I hosted my first Type A Travel “Trip to Remember” with my spouse and a group of four other friends and fellow travel lovers. We spent about two weeks in England with stays in London and Windsor as described in these two previous blog posts: Living it up in London and Windsor and Royal England. The United Kingdom is a really lovely country to visit, especially for Americans, with the ease of a known language and shared history and culture. My spouse and I had great fun in London and we all enjoyed Windsor with its timeless beauty and impressive historical sites. Having spent time in Windsor was especially poignant as we watched the funeral proceedings for Queen Elizabeth II this past week. We’d intended to visit Bath next but had abandoned that plan as we were having so much fun in and around Windsor and wanted to enjoy another afternoon there. We left Windsor in the late afternoon of Friday the 8th of July and headed to the small historic market town of Corsham, in west Wiltshire. After an easy, but boring, hour and a half ride along the M4 motorway we pulled into this quaint and charming small town.

The charming Methuen Arms in Corsham

Corsham is close to Bath and staying there was part of the plan all along so the agenda change was not a problem. We’d chosen this town because of its convenient location to Bath and to the small village of Avebury which was also on our itinerary. Corsham is an absolutely charming and quintessentially English small town and has been featured in several movies and TV shows, including the wildly popular BBC series Poldark (seen in the US on PBS). The main street (called the High Street in the UK) is a pedestrian area full of small shops with the buildings all of a uniform color and stone construction. You really feel like you are stepping back in time when you are in Corsham! I’d chosen for us to stay at the Methuen Arms inn, a historic building dating back to at least the early 1600’s as a “public house” known then as the Red Lion Inn - it was absolutely charming. There was a convenient parking area behind the inn and from there you entered into a courtyard full of beautiful flowers, outdoor seating for the restaurant, and some of the rooms (where we would stay) around that courtyard. Inside the main building, there were multiple rooms for dining, a reception area, and two front rooms facing the main street and where the bar was located. We soon learned that the food here was award winning and it’s one of the main gathering spots of the town. After drinks and settling into our quirky and spacious rooms (but no air conditioning – a common thing in older British hotels - although we did have some fans), we had an incredible, though a little slow in service, dinner there.

My wonderful Shakshuka at the Methuen Arms

The quaint village of Corsham

Breakfast was included in our room rate and the following day we enjoyed a hearty one (I ate up every last bite of my spicy shakshuka and grilled sourdough bread) before heading out to Avebury, about 30 minutes away. Avebury is a very small village which sits mostly inside the world’s largest megalithic stone circle. The primary draw of course is the stone circle but there is also a manor house there which was featured on a short BBC series called The Manor Reborn. I loved this little series which followed the restoration of the manor house by the multiple artisans for the UK National Trust organization. Each room was redone in a different historical period and style and since it’s been redone, it’s a place where you can actually sit on the furniture and see the behind-the-scenes places. Much to my disappointment, the manor house was closed that day due to staffing shortages. The Avebury stone circle was not closed however and did not disappoint! I really enjoyed this site much more than the better-known Stonehenge (which we visited later). Other than its size, the major difference here is that the stones are out in the open and you can walk all throughout them, touch them and spend as much time as you like soaking in the mystical atmosphere. There are the remains of three circles, one larger outer one and two smaller contained within that, the stones are of various sizes and conditions, covered in moss and lichens in many places. After the site was abandoned, the village was effectively built inside the larger outer circle, with settlement possibly starting as early as the 6th century B.C. In addition to the manor house with its pretty gardens and the stone circle, there is also a small museum and the beautiful old St. James Church. The village has a few shops, many selling things like incense, crystals, and faeries, and a small pub. On our way back to Corsham, we passed by the Cherhill White Horse. In this part of England, there are many examples of figures (mostly horses) cut into the chalky soil on the sides of certain hills. This particular one dates from around 1780 but the history of the first one in Uffington may date to the Bronze Age.

The Avebury stone circle

The village, museum, manor house and gardens of Avebury

The Church of St. James, Avebury

The Cherhill white horse

We spent the rest of the day back in Corsham, starting with another fabulous Italian lunch (our second of three we’d have on this trip) at the fun and funky Mother & Wild restaurant, just across the street from the hotel. The restaurant is not Italian per se but the menu leans that way and they have an amazing selection of wood-fired sourdough pizzas, which is what we opted for. We each selected a different type so that we could sample and share a large variety of them and there was not one that fell flat, all were so delicious with really creative flavor combinations. After lunch, several of walked around town a bit and then made our way to Corsham Court for a short visit. Corsham Court is a lovely English country home and the seat of the Methuen family for eight generations, with the current Baron Methuen still residing there. With a history dating back to the Saxon kings of England, the current building originated in the 1580’s and saw major improvement by the famed architect and landscape artist Capability Brown. The home contains a large and very impressive art collection of Italian, Flemish, Dutch, and French paintings as well as period furniture and decorative arts. The Court is also home to the famous peacocks of Corsham who live on the estate but are known to roam throughout the town. Right outside the main gate of the grounds lies the pretty little St. Bartholomew’s Church. To round out this long day, we opted for dinner at the Methuen Arms again, arguably the best food in town, and I enjoyed a delicious salad of peas served several ways and a perfectly prepared seabass main course. It was a delightful end to a very full day.

The perfect lunch at Mother & Wild

Corsham Court (unfortunately no interior photos allowed)

St. Bartholomew's Church

We checked out of the hotel the following morning, a little sad that we only had 2 nights to enjoy this charming place, and began our slow drive to our final lodging location in Longstock, Hampshire. On our way, our first stop was to see the Caen Hill Locks along the Kennet & Avon Canal near the town of Devizes. This engineering marvel consists of 29 locks that rise up a hill 237 feet over a span of two miles. These locks are fed by ponds to maintain the water levels and help move barges up this steep hill. The area is now part of a park with a small barge-museum about the canal as well as a small snack shop (with very creamy ice cream). After this, we stopped at a second canal side destination, the Pewsey Wharf. Back in the heyday of the canal, this wharf would have been a vital connection for commerce for the local community. Today there’s the Waterside Bar & Bistro, a two-story pub with hearty food, including a massive fish and chips.

Caen Hill Locks and Pewsey Wharf

Our last stop of the day was the long-awaited Stonehenge. The famous UNESCO world-heritage site is located on the Salisbury Plain about 30 minutes from our lunch spot and managed by English Heritage. There is a quite nice visitor’s center with information about the monument, café, and an expansive gift shop. There are frequent buses which take you close to the actual site (it’s a bit of a walk) which was nice because it was very warm and sunny that afternoon. Our trip was just before the July 2022 heat spell that gripped England and gave it some of the hottest temperatures ever recorded there. Luckily it was not quite that hot yet but it was definitely warm. Once at the site, there is low fencing around the stones so you can’t get too close and there are a lot of visitors. Everyone walks around the stones in a circle and then gets back on the bus to the visitor center. Though highly structured and touristic, I must say though it was pretty magical to see in real life. The stones are huge and in remarkably good shape. It was very different from Avebury, much more “significant” and majestic in a way. It really would be fascinating to see it at the times of the year when the sun aligns with the rocks, easy to imagine the pagan rites and ceremonies. After a short but of time here, we headed on our way to out next stop, the tiny village of Longstock and the Peat Spade Inn. Our next adventures awaited.

The majesty of Stonehenge