Colin had booked this trip over a year ago - we were travelling back to Dumbleton Hall where we got married exactly 19 years and 364 years ago in 2003. It was a pleasant drive to our first stop - the Cotswold village of Bampton - the main reason this village is different to all the other sandy coloured Cotswold villages in the area is that it is the place that all the external scenes of Downton Abbey were shot (besides Highclere Castle and a couple other country houses). This has pretty much made the village with tea room named after characters and tours and even a special leaflet produced so you can walk the trail and spot the locations. This is the church where many funerals and marriages were set. It’s funny that the little green in front of it is actually much smaller than it appears on television.
Afterwards we drove to Evesham which I had remembered as rather attractive and I thought it was the place that I visited with Karen and Charley (our flower girl) the day before Colin and I got married. I remembered it as quaint with nice shops but actually, apart from the centre near the old buildings, it was actually rather run down with old shops and tattoo parlours. It also started to rain which did not add to its allure so we decided to drive on to Dumbleton Hall and enjoy our room there.
The drive towards the house is just as impressive and we had a really nice room (4) overlooking the gardens at the back of the house - the daffodils looked pretty impressive. After the rain o fate day we decided to stay in and eat at Dumbleton and it was very nice but I heard back on some choices as we will be eating here tomorrow for our anniversary!
