Woolly says – With chores done and the glamping site gleaming and ready for its next guests, Jo had requested a good walk for Alfie the Dog having found what looked like a rather nice lake nearby. Having looked into it further I discovered several more things of interest, so it seemed only right that we went to see what the small market town of Newent had to offer.

Newent is a civil parish about 10 1⁄2 miles (16.9 km) north-west of Gloucester, once a medieval market and fair town, its site had been settled at least since Roman times with the first written record of it appearing in the 1086 Domesday Book stating that the Lord of Newent was Edward the Confessor. It was also the birthplace of Joe Meek the record producer and songwriter who was born at 1 Market Square. He produced the 1962 number 1 hit ‘Telstar’ by The Tornados. He is buried at Newent Cemetery under a black granite tombstone, something that I intended to check out.

With the human following the sat nav directions which included driving down an incredibly small country lane I was slightly bemused when we pulled up in a grassy parking area next to a cute thatched cottage and surrounded by trees, not the town I expected but as we were here, we let Barking Boy out of the car and headed into the woodland.

I’m not sure how we ended up at what turned out to be the Queen Elizabeth II fields either, but it made a lovely walk for the mutt amongst the trees before climbing back into the car and attempting to actually find the town.

Woolly says – A further five minute journey and we swept into the town’s main car park. As we wandered along the main street admiring the timber clad buildings and pausing to look at the George Commercial Hotel and Posting House, originally a coaching house on the post road to South Wales. In 1822/23 the coaches to Gloucester and Hereford left from the George and in 1876 the Ledbury-Gloucester mail coach called at the George. In the same year (1876) the Inland Revenue office was located there. With all that going on it must have been an incredibly busy place to be.

Opposite was the Church of England Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary a Grade I listed building dating from the 13th century, with its incredibly high steeple. As my carer attempted to take a picture that included all of the steeple, I tried the door only to be met with resistance, closed, I sighed and decided to look around the graveyard and see if I could find Mr Meek.

Although there was not sign of him there were some lovely gravestones so I contented myself with wondering what these people had been like and how they might have lived in the small town.

We headed back onto the High Street passing a golden post box and reminder of the late Queens golden jubilee before arriving at the small town square which should be where the timber framed Tudor market hall was, it wasn’t, a beautiful sculpture of a horse, undeterred I climbed onto his back and asked him where the market hall was.

Valegro the Olympic gold medal winning horse had his bronze statue unveiled in 2020, known as the dancing horse for his dressage skills he together with rider Charlotte Durjardin and trainer Carl Hester, won the individual Gold medal at both London 2012 and Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympics as well as Team Gold in London and Team Silver in Rio. It was a beautiful piece and just the right size for Woolly.

Woolly says – Having elicited no answer I climbed back down and looked around me finding only an area covered in tarps and scaffolding, surely not I thought but as I slid under the covers, I realised that the 1668 grade II building was infact in the process of being preserved. So that you can see what it looks like we have added a picture of it in all of its glory.

Trying to keep my disappointment to myself we crossed the road and headed into the lane known as The Shambles, a small selection of shops with lots of bunting seemed very jolly and was also the home of the Museum of Board Games which I raced towards before realising that there was a notice on the door advising us that due to staff problems they were closed, what was it with this town, did they not know that thigs needed to be open! In an effort to cheer me up Jo led the way into a small café and provided me with a large scone with lasing of butter and jam to cheer me up.

Once finished and with as much jam removed from my fur as possible, I led the way into the town park and the actual lake that we had supposedly started at much earlier.

With the ducks snoozing on the banks or their own little floating homes it made a pleasant walk even better were the sculptures, a lovely fish and badger caught my eye.

But even better was the ginormous tree trunk that had been caved with its Green Man, birds and little entrances it was wonderful.

Happy with the day even with the lack of church interior, market square and board game museum, I liked the small town, and they did have the most wonderful scones which is always a good recommendation for a place.