Back in Chipping Norton
Just a quick refresher for those whose memories about these things are as selective as mine. Chipping Norton (Chippy to the locals) is a lovely working town in the Cotswolds. The Cotswolds are located about 2 hours west of London. They get their name from the unique Cotswold rock, of which most of the traditional buildings are constructed. You can see the yellow-colored stone on most of the existing traditional buildings.
Chippy is an old medieval town laid out on a hillside. Its roots go further back to 1000, but little is known about the town from that time. Most of the town’s known history dates only as far back as 1700. It has always been an industrial success based on its location, fertile lands and hillsides allowing it to effectively defend itself. The medieval town was a “wool town”, producing some of the highest grade and most sought-after wool in the countryside. Fast forward a few hundred years and you find evidence of a highly successful woolen mill, locomotives to carry the wool to markets far and wide, development of other goods like copper and iron and the start of a brewing business founded to “fuel” all the mill and railroad workers. These were all key ingredients in Chippy’s success story.
Which brings us to the name, Chipping Norton. Chipping in this case has nothing to do with golf. Chipping means “market” and Norton means “north settlement” to indicate its location in the area’s royal geographic boundaries. Indeed, Chipping Norton was a very important marketplace in the north settlement of the area’s gentry. So that’s it for your historical refresher course (until next year, when we hope to revisit Chippy once again). Come on, people, I needed some filler here!
Some of the things we did last time, we repeated. We revisited Hook Norton brewery (of course we did!) where we got up close and personal to some of the shire ponies that the brewery still employs to deliver the beer (only 3 such breweries left in the UK),
and we visited English gardens and many neighboring towns, all as lovely as the last. The gardens in England are phenomenal bursts of color and endless beauty! Even our favorite fish monger, Roger’s, had a beautiful garden planted in the front of his store.
We almost visited the Motoring Museum until we saw the price of admission – we settled for a picture outside!
We found a great new coffee shop, The Rustic Bean, which makes the best Capuccino this side of Rome and the staff were incredibly nice. Everything possible is repurposed, sustainable and “green” focused. Made my “tree hugger” heart soar with happiness!
We also saw 2 movies at the Living Room Cinema, aptly named as you sit on your own personal sofa with your glass of wine while you enjoy the movie.
We ate at our favorite restaurant in Chippy, a wonderful Italian bistro called Alberto’s. Val and Clare are still making fabulous, affordable food and serving great Italian-based wines. While we were there, Clare ran a marathon and Val started training for an Ironman. So, they are busy and slightly crazy! We enjoyed their company and great food. We ate there 3 times and were not disappointed, ever. We think we have made some real friends and hope to meet up with them in Munich in August.
We attended the local community theater, The Chippy Norton Theater 
and saw a brass band that was excellent! It is called The Hackney Colliery Band.
Colliery represents a type of traditional music founded in the coal mining communities in many English mining districts. In the 19th and 20th centuries, almost every colliery (coal mine) had a colliery band. Bands were sponsored by the local mining communities and were a source of great pride for the working men who played in the band and the community who attended their performances. These were brass bands with brass and percussion instruments. Although all UK coal mine pits are closed today, a number of these colliery bands still live on and enjoy world-class fame. Some colliery musicians can be found in the London Symphony Orchestra, for instance. And did you know that the Star Wars main theme, song and lyrics, is written by the world famous Grimethorpe Colliery UK Coal Band!?!
The Hackney Colliery Band is a modern version of traditional music, and we were lucky they were playing in the little community theater of Chippy. It was a great experience and lots of fun.
We ate at a few new restaurants/pubs where we had some absolutely amazing food.
The Blue Boar, where we ate the night we saw the Hackney Colliery Brass Band, struck a real chord (no pun) with us. The Blue Boar was a real treat. We expected pub food and were surprised to find 1st class, elevated dining! I had a chorizo/sun dried tomato stuffed chicken breast (it was so tender, I could cut it with a fork) accompanied by perfectly done vegetables. Jim had a filet of sea trout dish that was also impressive. Coming from the sea, it resembled a salmon filet rather than lake trout we are more accustomed to in the US. For dessert, homemade ice cream, chocolate, vanilla, salted caramel and strawberry; 1 scoop of each please!
We also tried a new pub, Chequers where we enjoyed a proper pub burger with chips and some of the best tomato basil soup I have ever tasted. Gus also pours a mean Guinness to accompany that burger. Live music almost every night as well.
Alberto’s, Blue Boar and Chequers are all top-notch foodie pleasers and our top 3 favs in the area.
While we were in Chippy, the weather was truly spectacular. We discovered a hiking trail, 2 miles in total, with some impressive elevation and lovely meandering path through lots of wooded areas and a cow pasture. We literally stumbled on the cow pasture because the path abruptly ended, requiring you to cross the pasture to get back on the trail. The gate to the pasture warned that there was a bull, several babies and nurturing moms in the pasture so cross at your own risk! But we carried on, navigating enormous cow pies and the ever-watchful eyes of the mama cows. The bull was no worry – he was off chewing grass. Not sure you can read the sign….
Signage warning of bull and mama cows in pasture…
The trail was lined with “kissing gates”. A new one on us. According to Wiki, a kissing gate allows people, but not the sheep or cows, to pass through. The gate is a half-round partial enclosure, with the free end of a hinged gate confined between its arms. You enter the enclosure, then move the gate across the opening to exit on the other side. Quite clever!
The term kissing gate comes from an older meaning of the verb to kiss, meaning to touch lightly or closely, referring to the way the swinging gate “kisses” the surrounding curved enclosure as it moves. A sexier explanation suggests that the confined space brought two people closely together, encouraging a kiss. I tried to get Himself to come into the gate with me so I could steal a smooch, but no PDAs for Jimmy Flynn, even if it was only the cows watching! (Public Display of Affection)
Me in the “kissing gate”
On this trip around we visited the Cotswold Wildlife Park & Gardens. The Park was started in 1970 at Bradwell Grove, the family home of the man who started the wildlife park. More than 40 years later, the park is home to 250+ species and home to one of the UK’s largest zoological collections. It also boasts some of the most beautiful garden landscape I have ever seen.
The Park provides many education programs, numerous endangered species breeding programs and several vital conservation projects in the wild. All of the animals living at the Park live in an environment designed to mimic their homes in nature – generally, no cages. It was a really enjoyable afternoon during which we logged about 13,000 steps walking from one animal habitat to another. And, the weather was perfect. Highly recommend a visit if ever you find yourself in the Cotswolds in the non-winter months. Enjoy a few photos of the animals! Note, the little “lump” on the ground under the camel is actually a new baby camel!
The other fun thing we did was join a Pilates class while we were there. We both got into Pilates back home. On the way to Mass our 1st Sunday in town, we saw a lawn sign advertising reformer Pilates classes. So, we signed up, took 6 sessions and met a wonderful man, Dan Bouda, a personal trainer and Pilates instructor, who operates Triumph Fitness in Chippy. If ever in Chippy and you want to stay with your exercise commitment, look up Dan. He is an amazing trainer and Pilates instructor and a genuinely nice human. He is also raising 4 teenagers, which surely explains the need for Pilates in his life!
I know it sounds crazy, joining a Pilates class or going to the movies while on holiday. But for us, these adventures are all about living like a local and hopefully, leaving an Aloha footprint in our efforts to live local. We get to experience what simple things, like going to the movies, is like in other countries and that for us is just good craic -:)
While in Chippy, we celebrated Jim’s birthday in proper style. We went to Chequers Pub, of course. I’m not much of a baker, as many of you know, so I bought Jim his favorite kind of cake – Guinness – and we celebrated like old rock stars!
Jim’s “BIRTHDAY CAKE”
We ended up in a real live phone booth that actually worked! You could use your credit card to place calls. Again, I tried to get Himself to join me in the phone booth, but no dice! Remember back in the day when you’d try to get as many of you and your friends as possible stuffed in a phone booth??? hahahahha
It was so funny as it reminded me of the days when I needed to call home to say I’d be late for dinner and had to rustle up a dime from one of my friends or calling collect to say I’d be coming home a “little late”. Calling collect to announce that you would be late for dinner was not a great way to start the conversation with mom or dad, for sure!
So here’s a fun little story about trying to live local. The place we are staying had a big refrigerator in its garage. The top had multiple bins, like vegetable bins and side shelves for things like jars. Just like you’d expect the top half of a refrigerator to look like. So, Jim puts our pop and water in the bins. Oops. The refrigerator top is actually a freezer! guess what happened to the bottles of pop?? Yep, explosion! I mean, who invents a refrigerator where the large vertical top half of the appliance is actually a freezer and the tine little bottom part of this thing is the fridge?? Living local, trying to live aloha….Needless to say, the mess we had to clean up was quite significant. Lesson learned!
But I digress… Our 2 weeks in Chippy has come to an end. Tomorrow it’s off to Luton Airport for a short flight to the Auld Sod for our 3-month adventure in Ireland. But we turn the page to Aloha Ireland, I have to leave you with my favorite Cotswold roadside signage…. Humps for 275 yards Falling down laughing…..
Cheerio!