Walking to Painswick Beacon and back

Come with us as we take our Corgi dog for a walk to Painswick Beacon and back.
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About me.
35 plus years as a bicycle mechanic and wheel builder, frame designer, rider, shop owner, owner of Smokestone bikes, event organiser and trail builder. And it would appear now I’m also a youtuber.

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Can hear a Woodpecker missed him well we’re out for a walk no bikes today thought we’d go on a bit of a longer walk with a pooch going from home up to our favorite spot painted with Beacon see what we can find on the way bit Mucky though yeah there a woodpecker up there somewhere tapping

Away yeah we thought for a changeable walk up bit of a longer walk and see what we can see on the way it’s a Monday morning it’s the 4th of March already of course it’s going to be we’re going to have a rather Mucky dog by the time we get home I think

SE on oh yeah she going to get across she’s not is she I’m going to have to lift her right give me a minute so yes we’re in a place called up to St Leonard’s just coming out of it actually up towards heading towards pish Abbey and it’s a few little foot paths

Across the fields there to cut us cut out the road we thought we’d uh walk up today rather than drive give somebody a bit more of a walk we supposed to get rain later this afternoon but at the moment it is lovely well we just um had to negotiate

And some guys who owns the farm he’s a bit of a nasty piece of work but he shut all the footpath off um so it might be a case we used to cycle down this way here for years and years and then he’s blocked it Earth put a private entrance

Put a gate and blocked it so you can’t come this way anymore it’s not an official Bridal way or anything it isn’t you know it’s not a legal route but it’s then we have ridden it for years but for walking you can’t seem to be able to

Find a foot path there’s signs to foot paths but it’s all blocked off so I think it’s a case of having a word with the rights away officer for this area and try to find out what’s going on if you ever do find blocked rways or

Foot paths that’s the way to go go to your rights of way officer and just uh report it because and also you need to use these places these rights away because they will go if you don’t uh keep using excuse me keep using them anyway yeah you’re supposed to come out

Here a bit of fun yeah foot path apparently comes out of there but it’s all got electric fences blocking it off down that way I see so I’ll have to W maybe walk back that way and just see if we can get out bit of bit of

Excitement so some of you may know I’ve been doing a bit about health obviously my health issues has made me think about these things and I’m especially concentrating on people sort of my age sort of 50 up and uh about food diet all the rest of it cuz obviously I want to

Keep doing what I’m doing and I see the results of other people’s Lifestyles even though they’re cyclists or they’re whatever they suffer the same sort of problems with heart and whatever and weight control and uh one of the things I have discovered is exercise when you get

Older you need to do a much slower Pace exercise not push yourself uh it’s not a good idea to max out all the time you might think it’s no pain no gain but when you get older it’s not you need to do you can still go out and ride you

Still go out and do all the things you want to do you don’t go at full ball all the time you need to do the sort of the 80/20 So 20% hard just to give yourself a bit of a a boost push your heart a bit but then

The rest of the time the 80% of your riding or your walking or whatever you’re doing should be done at a leisurely Pace like I’m doing now so whatever it is if it’s cycling the secret is to be able to if you can talk whilst you’re cycling then

You’re about the right pace and uh it’s quite important because what happens is if you overstress yourself as you get older you get a calcification of the veins around your body and uh this is what causes all the health issues heart attacks and things because your veins get less

Elastic and uh get calcium deposits and whatever stick to the side of your veins and then you end up getting heart problems but if you take life at a gentle steady Pace still keep active uh you don’t get this problem or you certainly get a lot less and then

Obviously there is diet so um I’ve been talking about diet a lot lately but there you go and the other thing is no stress obviously if you’re working it’s quite difficult to avoid it but yeah especially if you work for yourself self being self-employed is quite

Stressful I found the way to sort of uh help is to offload try not to do everything yourself do what you’re good at if you’re not good at something let someone else do it for you um I’m I’m hopeless with keeping records and bookkeeping and just keeping things organized I’m not an organized

Person I’m a created person so I can come up with ideas and I can make things happen physically very well very good at that but when it comes to recording the can’t the cost and the keeping track of um admin I am hopeless I can do a

Simple I can do it simply but I’m not very good at uh intricate spreadsheets and all rest of it each to their own I say try not to do everything some people say oh you can do anything if you put your mind to it that’s not true that is not true you can

Do like challenges I guess but we all have our own abilities and we all have our things we’re good everyone’s clever we’re all clever you know a lot of people you’ll say oh this person’s been to this University and he’s very intelligent and super clever but you’ll find like I’ve experienced

We’ve had people come in like professors come in my bike shop and they’ll say oh I’ve got a I’ve got a uh I’ve got a broken wheel and you look at the bike and it’s got a puncher and he doesn’t know that it’s a puncher he thinks it’s the whole

Wheel’s broken but and he doesn’t know how to change an inner tube you know he this super intelligent person can’t change an inner tube on a bike which is the simplest thing going but that’s just one example you know of uh people being able to do

Various things he can do things I can’t do and vice versa that’s why we all use each other’s skills so saying you can do anything if you put your mind to it is not actually true at all um anyway let’s keep walking hey you can see the pond this

Used to be really beautifully maintained and there was all kinds of animals here peacocks and deer and lots of wildlife fish I guess the fish are still there but nothing’s managed anymore yeah I used to come past here on the bike and you hear the peacocks least heard you coming h

Never mind what can you do he yeah this is all fling as well this was all built by the lady who ran the Deer Park she invested quite a lot of time of money in this she built this cabin put a cafe in itely really good now it’s just left left to

Rot what a waste What a Way someone could live in that yeah it’s a real shame got an orchard it’s one of the few bits that does get looked after there’s a wall garden over there the monks use in the monastery that still gets after I

Guess there’s a lot of TR seems to be a hedge along here all the trees have gone and the ab is up that way there’s a cafe and gift shop to do with the monastery but it’s very basic not very welcoming the last time we went

In there it wasn’t too clever was it it was like going in school canteen I think they make perfume or I used to see um sign for perfume down there um some Bridgets and St Gabriels it says so must be another little part of the monastery not sure you lives there or

What just seen the um might be admin or something just seen Landrover come out with a looks like a maintenance chat what start to grow already I suppose it is just into March so I suppose we’re going to expect it there I see some spr B of sprting w garlic popping up original

Monastery Benedict what are they benedic tee monks Benedictine monks so that’s the only bit that’s still being used it’s a smaller Monastery there which is a bit of a no go there well you can go there to worship there’s a chapel if you’re that way inclined and you quite often see

Cars going there on a Sunday this is a regular ride up this not sure if you can see how steep this is but i’ I’ve film myself going up here a few times but it is pretty steep bit of a test on the lungs and the monastery graveyards up

Here always seems a bit feels a bit awkward to ride through but you have no choice or walk through a foot yeah it is a foot path yeah yeah we used to go around it but they’ blocked it off no we used to go rain down to the oh yeah yeah

Monastery we can’t anymore so you got cremations there and burials here look at this for instance Edna Dorene land age 103 C some people live to a ripe old age 81 102 they all live to a good age 81 75 82 there lots of people in their 80s so it must be

A whatever it is healthy lifestyle but there ladies is so wonder they were nuns or really now I should look it up really and find out a bit more interest information about it age 48 just see what it’s 81 benedic Ernest Benedict Davis 74 I’m pretty sure they’re mainly monks

And people from the monry anyway these these do back in the 60s yeah oh a tap oh that’s handy to know if you’re ever at ryen and you need a drink there’s a tap I never knew that was there that is really handy to know come hot weather if you’re really stuck so

Prish Abby in the graveyard’s got a tap very often fine I was told that by uh Andy Deacon that if you ever stuck for water just go to a church cuz they’ll always be attacked by a church to water flowers so yes is what I was saying in

The mon that goes that used to be the old way day and they shut it off mostly enclos are strictly private use foot paath through Cemetery which always seemed a little bit odd but that’s what they want that’s what they want right catching a bit we’re going up to the beacon

Now just remembered we used to do a no pedling Challenge from here or from the top of this path all the way down to the road at the bottom where we’ve walked up not allowed to Pedal all the way to the bottom so you can make it quickest it’s can be

Done I’m used to start up here just about to get to some steps and we came down the steps you didn’t used to be there just a steep Bank we used to ride down it and at the bottom was a little do we know was a hornet’s nest and we rode

Straight into it and one of the lads fell off and we couldn’t get his bike it was surrounded by Hornets so we just had to Brave it and rush rush in and get the bik and dragon out a few of us got stun yeah don’t never forget that just

Up along here yeah this is where it was the hornet nest was just here and we before these steps we just ran straight into it I think it was on an evening ride so it was dark I think but yeah we’re all trying to get the bike

Back yeah they put steps in it now so you can’t ride it anymore but never mind so we’re just crossed the road from the ABY and we just G up onto the beacon and got just buck up wood the thing that really pees me off is this pees

Everybody off but look at it it’s all kids just kids who Park up here and just sling all their why hly I thought the kids were supposed to be the environmental ones these days anyway love these Woods we I’ve built quite a few trails in here ridden here for 30 nearly 35 36

Years if you come to uh fat Fest or any of my rids it’ll include some of the trails in here and the all raw William Pub is up the top here which is now shut I think is’s no more not sure what’s going to happen to it yeah Great Woods few downhill tracks

At the top top of there there’s a little area on on the very top and it’s called The Magic roundabout that’s what we call it because there’s Trails going off and all different directions off the top of it and uh I guess it still gets used a

Lot I don’t really ride that stuff anymore just because I’m too old and fragile but there plenty of kids up here on ebikes I think riding it see quite a lot of eikers around here cuz uh the modern cyclists can’t ride uphill anymore or don’t want to so

Ebikes have taken over which is fair enough I suppose it’s progress in some people’s eyes not in mine let us continue spring is definitely in the air it’s quite nice to walk up we normally drive up here cuz we just a bit limited on time but today we thought no

Leave the car at home we’ll walk up it’s about 3-hour Loop and then we got to nip to our grandson’s house and feed his dog let it out he’s got a little puppy called Winnie Winnie the Pug not Winnie the Poo and uh and then walk home so it’ be quite a

Big loop probably about 8 or n miles which makes a change probably will get wet but who cares look at all these cars it’s quite nice to walk up you just need a bit more time obviously if you haven’t got time it’s um difficult to get up here quick enough

Cuz the important bit is up on here the Feelgood field does make you feel good you cannot beat the countryside where I don’t know obviously some people live in cities it’s very difficult but um if you can get into a park or anywhere where there’s some nature if you can do that every

Day it’s uh it’s worth its waiting it’s worth its effort I should say local conservation group’s been chopping down so many trees not quite sure why they have to but all this used to be Woods they’ve just chopped the lot down and burnt it seems a bit wrong to me not

Sure why they have to burn it all the one chap did say that if they didn’t burn it it made the grain too fertile cuz it would right away but in my eyes it’s natural just rots into the ground and keeps the carbon in the ground rather

Than burning it and releasing it into the atmosphere who am I conser conservation officer apparently knew more than know more about it than me things with Beacon restoration project quite sure it needs to be restored but there you go yeah there is a hill for I talked

About it before uh the hill for on the top the Kimber for 400 BC to 43 ad so it’s been up here a long time danger golf course yeah it’s common land there so there’s cyclist Walkers golfers all have access to it and uh it’s got interesting of a

Weekend when it’s busy cuz you have obviously a lot of everybody lot of Walkers lot of golfers we come up here every day so there’s sort of an etiquette you get to know someone’s teeing off or hitting the ball in your direction just St the away for a minute

But on a weekend it’s how people don’t get Club hit with a ball I have no idea cuz they’re all uh it’s a crazy golf course as well cuz it’s very small but you cannot see any of the greens it’s very hilly being a fort there’s

Lots of battements and so uh even though apparently the golfers say it’s listed as one of the easiest courses in the country because it’s so short the tees are short um it’s actually one of the hardest to play cuz you like I say you cannot see any other the greens or like

There’s a green down there and then where’d you go somewhere up here there’s oh there’s a pole in the middle there to give you a guide and orio you’re hitting towards each other so you have golfers tea in this way and then golfers tea in that

Way at the same time and they can’t see each other so it’s all good fun if you don’t know where I am now you never will this is pain with Beacon Golf Course is where we always go every day and uh so we’ve made it to the

Top it’s quite nice to walk up must a bit we walked up a few times years ago but not that often just wanted to give the car a rest for a bit just get fed up using the car for all these little trips plus this little Pooch gets a longer

Walk cuz very often we’ll uh come up and start a walk go back to she just doesn’t want to get in It’s Too Short think with those little legs you only want to do a short but you’ve done four miles already and you’re still full of

Beans yeah we got up in the Lake District walking and she’s fine she’ll do 10 miles 10 or 12 miles it’s a strong little thing built like a tank H you say this used to be an Iron Age Fort so the Battlement which you can see on

The top there used to go all the way around here and there’s a little bit of it left there and then all this was was quar out all this here used to be flat now obviously it’s been quarried so it’s not quite as it was the middle area was there’s an aerial

Picture of it which I put up before on one of my videos which shows the the boundary in the a bit in the middle but can you imagine living used to live here in fought like a village just a wall Village basically yeah yeah seems all having no bike here we are

Just listening to what sounds like a helicopter or a thunder of a shanuk sounds like know where it is somewhere in the distance I reckon it’s really low yeah can’t see it yet loving memory of Mike Stumpy Winer of Madam’s wood go and look at that cup you sure that’s big enough yeah

Nice I let carry a couple of these these little seats these are really handy compact comfy just squashes up sticking your in your backpack whatever but they’re great for sitting on it’s quite warm sat on this got one each take it everywhere we go just

Uh keeps your bum dry and warm when you walk when you’re out and about just a job right baby budy I was just just saying if this was fat bikes this would be flat that’s what we need to here is an army of whole posy of fat Bo to ride through

This and flatten it down you don’t sink just roll it it’s great it could be a little bit muddy in a minute I rode up here the other day and it’s just absolute Quagmire where the hsees turned it up but fingers crossed destroyed out a bit that’s the road from Gloucester to pain

There yes it’s muddy trying avoid the road if we can it’s very busy should be all right Come on Mommy mmy not come on BB it’s just for you look only allow slow dogs and children down here yeah do we qualify I suppose you qualify as a child not sure I do

Come on baby oh good girl got a bit of a TI Mark going on it’s funny you know she cleans herself she’ll be by the time we get home she’ll probably be almost clean yeah it’s just uh we never wash her with any dog wash detergent or shampoo we

Just use water and just never wash your dog in hot water or warm water cuz they don’t like it um you might think they do cuz we’re humans and we’re soft but they’re not cuz they’ll happily jump in a lake of freezing cold water and not

Bat an oet so we wash her in cold water in as much as we got a tub that we stand her in and we just wash our belly and her legs cuz that’s the only bit that really gets dirty and never use shampoo cuz if you do they start to

Smell and she doesn’t smell at all CU she’s never ever been washed by her legs and her tummy in just plain water there’s so much stuff for dogs now because we’re treating dogs like humans clothes I better stock go on going on about dogs do coats stupid anyway get another rant about

Something right this is a top of watery Lane so a bit of Road that’s the top painswick to St painswick to gluster Road and then this is the favorite run down home um it’s a bit of a horsey stable was here and then just by this gate to

The left there’s a start of a track roadway that runs all the way to the bottom and up to S is where we started this morning and it’s a fantastic rundown it’s quite handy to send someone down first just to make sure because we’ve gone down here flat out and uh

Come face to face with horses so you can and actually we changed the badger as well one night in the dark it was just running in front of us and just wouldn’t get out the way it just kept going it’s a good run down it’s quite loose

And Stony and it’s the one I ride up I ride this I ride up this mainly youve don’t if you seen a few videos I’ve done lately I rode up this so you can see how rough it is this is the roughest bit just here it’s a great

Downhill you can see what this truck’s called watery Lane it’s just a river when it’s really raining this is great fun to ride up and down I love I do love riding it when it’s wet especially when it’s pouring the rain and it’s just a river if you’ve

Seen my videos you’ll probably seen me riding up and down little streams in rivers I’m like a 2-year-old brings out the kid in me and it just about dries a in the summer sometimes not always it’s not often it’s bone dry yeah I did a recent video and there

Was a tree across I think it was along here somewhere looks like they cleared itless we haven’t got to it yet yeah I remember years ago when we had the track at cranum um we drove up up this all the way to the top of the Land Rover can be done if as

Long as you don’t mind scratching your paintwork it was an old Banger of a Land Rover it’s not very Eco though is it not something sort of thing I do anymore I know others would but not me at that the wild garlic spray up it’s

Coming soon you got to smell it don’t if it smells yet oh it does you can smell it cool lovely cool love the smell of wild garlic course really does quite strong oh you want to smell that smell of garlic it’s really strong we have to pick some of that

That’s something else we want have to go at we got a book on foraging and we need to start foraging cuz all of this stuff half of it can you can eat instead of going into the supermarket and buying a bag which contains the same thing you

Might just go and forage and get it yourself all kinds of things you can eat she’s cleaning herself up some sheeps hello sheeps it’s good thing about BB she does not not interested at all in sheep not IA tends to run away from them which is good so here’s running with water

Thankfully I’ve got waterproof socks on CU these boots these shoes not boots these trainers are not waterproof at all waterproof socks got some delve waterproofs feet are lovely and toasty well it really is wet isn’t it yeah you smell that those garlic leaves God really lovely you use the leaves yeah you can

Use the leaves yeah that’s what we yeah I just on my oh don’t worry about that you can’t smell it yeah but I everyone’s it’s so common now no BS annoyed about garlic breath I go bre do you like garlic breath it’s not great to smell but I

Used to work with someone that’s all he did was that he had um garlic and chilies and everything every day he had a wife she was thae so he had tie curries every night like Christ you could you could um he could melt P he could melt plastic from 3 fet his breath

That it’s coming you’re just saying look at it what a beautiful day we’re definitely going to do this more often Sheila used to run this used to run up and run down but we’re going to definitely going to walk more and leave the car at home I

Think just make time and we can um watch the seasons change that’s really good if you go walking you can see stuff like these little things spraing next time we come they’ll they’ll be that little bit longer and just great I just love this is the

Best time of the year now I say it every year early spring is wonderful seeing everything waking up although we have really haven’t really had a winter to speak of about a week I think cuz there is talk of of trees and things not being able to produce a lot

Of fruit in the coming year because they don’t get a chance to to rest and recover from the growing season supposed to have a winter of rest and the tree gets ready to produce fruit and stuff for the following year so it’ll be interesting

To see I know last year 2023 we had tons of fruit I can’t have something like it it’s warm and wet so it’s really growing you come in a country the UK is becoming a country where you can grow things that would used to be grown in Spain and

France and because the climate warming you can now grow it here Vineyards and wonder how long before we’re growing olives oranges and that sort of thing orange groves things that of stand a lot of water in the winter and uh heat in the summer CU Winters are definitely going to be wetter

Now right nearly at the bottom should hit the tarmac in a bit there’s a really cool house that’s been built down here I’ll show you in a minute and this has been built over the last 10 years I suppose just look at it surpris it’s not been on Grand Des

Signs started up there there used to be an Old Stone House here and they’ve knock that down and built that in the garden you got like a Cottage Garden area and then the rest of it’s lawn um hell of a place yeah lovely place to live but

We’re not far away we go past here all the time you want a bit of gymit workout there’s a garden gym on another topic related to what I’m doing I don’t know if I mentioned to this but I used to have Vio barefoot shoes shap light your foot and I did a

Review on them and I love them but the waterproofness went and I looked around at other shoes in the meantime I wanted to do something where I was a bit more of a running come lightweight walking shoe but with the same principle same shaped foot shoe shoe so I bought these

Ultras that’s a brand called Ultra and they are incredibly comfortable they’re still flat there’s no buildup on the hill so your so’s flat to the ground which I love but they’ve got a lot more cushioning under the sole and um they’re made for trail running so they’re super

Grippy very light uh not waterproof obviously hence I’ve got my waterproof socks on but um I’ll put a little um picture of them so you can see what they are but they do they do make a waterproof boot which I am contemplating getting but you need to try them on and

Thankfully Ultras can be bought in a shop so you can go and try them on there’s a really good shop in chelham uh runner’s needs I think I don’t know I put a link to the shop it’s really great shop um I think it’s runner needs and uh theah High Street in ch

They stock everything running wise and hopefully they can can get in these other boots which I want to try cuz they’re waterproof yeah I often wonder whether this is drinkable there’s water that runs out of this hill all the time it permanently Runs Out Of The Hill I do wonder whether that

Drinkable but I I guess I no looking at that probably not someone else could get water actually thinking about it there’s a stable up there so it’s probably not drinkable there’s animals stable certainly somewhere you could get water put some filtration filter it and drink

It so we’re coming to the bot of watery Lane now not quite of the road yet actually yes that’s the end there where the 30 sign is and here we are backing up to St Leonard’s just going to nip R to see our grandson’s dog as I

Mentioned and then uh we’ll be off home for some Lunch