The Adams UK Transect: A Country of Villages

No further than every 5 miles, and often much less, along any road in England there will be a village, usually with a rather quaint name. Moreton-in-Marsh, Chipping Campden, Wormington or if in Wales, Llwynmawr in Llangollen. No, I never picked up on how to pronounce a leading double-l. Bill Bryson’s fictional “Little Dribbling” isn’t far off the mark as there are many “upper” and “lower” or “lesser” and “greater” qualifiers on place names. Lower Earley is a suburb of Reading. A place name which sounds like two adjectives. Two or more villages, often in close proximity, will differentiate themselves with these qualifiers. Sometimes the relative sizes will have changed since the names were assigned, but you may be sure that the names were not and will not be changed. The closely spaced villages combined with a much more relaxed attitude about public access to private land, makes hiking from village to village along footpaths a popular outdoor activity in the UK. Reportedly, this level of access is still in effect as a holdover from much earlier times when most travel was along such footpaths or oxcart roads. There are a variety of sheep-resistant gates in fences and walls along these paths intended to maintain order, livestock-wise. Most are relatively idiot-proof meaning they do not require the user to close or re-secure anything. We have encountered tight mazes or switchbacks, stepladder-like constructions over walls and even some turnstiles like one might negotiate at a subway stop. Even so, we often observed sheep grazing or lazing along the roadway verges and our driver, Pip, was very cautious in those situations. We often encountered hikers at rest stops and pubs in the villages where we stopped. In addition to serious footwear, including thorn-resistant leggings, many carried one and often two high-tech walking sticks and were often accompanied by canine companions. Dogs are much more acceptable in public spaces including pubs than is usually the case in the U.S. The dogs usually lie under the table and pay little attention to their surroundings, nor did we see any begging for food. We rarely heard a dog bark and never saw one that wasn’t well behaved even in crowded places or when encountering other dogs. The same goes for most of the owners, for that matter.

And there were sheep everywhere we went other than city centers. When riding we were seldom out of sight of sheep, hundreds at once and of various shades, busily nipping away at the grass just beyond the roadside stone walls and others appearing as tiny white dots far up on the ridges. At the latest count, the UK had over 32 million sheep out of a global population of over a billion making it the seventh most populous nation, sheep-wise. By way of comparison, the UK has a population of just over 64 million people and there are 11 US states that are larger than the entire UK. I refer you to the Wikipedia page regarding sheep. More than you ever wanted to know: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep#Economic_importance

Practically every village can be counted on to contain two features. One will be an old stone church and the other is a pub. Larger villages may also have a tea room and where there are notable tourist attractions we found various gift and woolen goods shops and maybe other dining options such as a Chinese take-away. Reportedly, curry has overtaken fish and chips as the most popular take-away choice, but the Chinese shops were usually more noticeable to us. Whenever we were on the road during what would be considered a rush hour, the traffic in and near the villages was usually rather heavy. Possibly, the villages function much like our suburban housing developments and residents are commuting to jobs in nearby urban centers.