![](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/footsteps.jpg?w=860\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u00a0Colwinston\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n At the beginning of our walk, we took a slight diversion to visit the Old Ford Project, an environmental enhancement scheme involving the village\u2019s Ancient Well, Clapper Footbridge, Watercress beds, woodland hedges, Colwinston Brook and Springs. Unusually for the Vale of Glamorgan Colwinston village has steep slopes at its centre. The watercourse is now underground but rises to the surface in prolonged wet weather.<\/p>\n The Michaelmas Well is one of three wells which provided the village with water until 1935 when the main water supply was brought to the village. There are 24 steps to the bottom of the well, with recent rain only the top step could be seen but a local resident told us that there were sixteen steps visible after the hot dry summer of this year.<\/p>\n There was a ford across the stream a short distance from the well. Until the early 1900\u2019s when the old ford was covered for traffic the clapper bridge was the only dry path across the stream for pedestrians. It is an 18th century structure, one of several in the Vale. A pond fed by springs has been excavated to provide more habitats for wildlife and it is hoped watercress.<\/p>\n We returned to the centre of the village to begin our walk and soon passed the village War Memorial which was erected at the village green in 2014. Colwinston is a \u2018Thankful Village\u2019 \u2013 one of only three in Wales which suffered no fatalities in World War I. However, four men were lost in World War II, one of them Agatha Christie\u2019s son-in-law, Colonel Hubert Prichard.<\/p>\n One house had an exuberant Christmas garland around the whole of their double porch entrance, with door wreaths, small reindeer, and lanterns; it all looked splendid. We spotted several Victorian wall-mounted post boxes still in use on the walk, one on a house called \u2018Ramblers\u2019 which we thought appropriate but realised it probably referred to roses rather than walking!<\/p>\n There are ten Grade II listed buildings in the village, all dating from the medieval or post-medieval period. They include a thatched house, \u2018the Old Parsonage dating from the 16th century which has a Gothic or Tudor arch and is one of only two in the Vale with a latrine in the form of a small closet next to the fireplace.<\/p>\n Now we walked through fields and crossed the A48 at the old Colwinston village milestone \u2013 Cowbridge 3 miles, Bridgend 4 miles, London 173 miles – only to find the next stile blocked, a nearby gate was an easy substitute.<\/p>\n It was a cloudy but reasonably clear day, and we could see the long line of wind turbines on the hills, quite a few rotating. A red kite appeared overhead and seemed to \u2018stay with us\u2019 for the rest of the walk soaring high and occasionally swooping quite close to us. Would you ever get tired of seeing this marvellous bird?<\/p>\n Now we were walking on grass again and spotted a buttercup flowering, not bad for December. We passed a huge solar panel installation and found a pile of logs so stopped to eat lunch; glimmers of sunshine appeared. Some of the logs had a very pretty, thin, pure white, fungus growing on them. As we set off, we met a flock of sheep with square shaped heads, even the ewes looked masculine, and the ram was solid muscle.<\/p>\n Now we walked through Troes and turned south to return. At times it was quite dark but then the sun would come out for a while and brighten everything. Nearing Colwinston we came to \u2018Charlie\u2019s Shop\u2019, – open 9-5 so after checking he was open, we finished the walk and drove back up the road for a few minutes to enjoy a piping hot cup of tea next to a wood burning stove, very cosy and he had lots of local eggs for sale.<\/p>\n Walk 6.9m 400ft Map OS151<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0Colwinston\u00a0 At the beginning of our walk, we took a slight diversion to visit the Old Ford Project, an environmental enhancement scheme involving the village\u2019s Ancient Well, Clapper Footbridge, Watercress beds, woodland hedges, Colwinston Brook and Springs. Unusually for the Vale of Glamorgan Colwinston village has steep slopes at its centre. The watercourse is now underground but rises to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[38],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6cWjO-3kw","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":14362,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=14362","url_meta":{"origin":12804,"position":0},"title":"So Much To Be Getting On With","author":"Alan Williams","date":"7th June 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"THE VILLAGE GARDENER So Much To Be Getting On With As always there is so much to be getting on with in our gardens. Regular watering is another task to add this time of year, along with weeding and feeding. All this is essential to make the best of our\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Village Gardener"","block_context":{"text":"The Village Gardener","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=77"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13196,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=13196","url_meta":{"origin":12804,"position":1},"title":"THE VILLAGE GARDENER","author":"Alan Williams","date":"3rd July 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"THE VILLAGE GARDENER \u00a0 Two expats, Sean Connor and Penny Wise, give their thoughts on aspects of gardening. Sean Connor 1. Consider turning a small area of your front garden into a veg patch, it will create interest and, if kept well, will be an asset. 2. Do not overdose\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Village Gardener"","block_context":{"text":"The Village Gardener","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=77"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4623,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=4623","url_meta":{"origin":12804,"position":2},"title":"Things to Do This Month","author":"Alan Williams","date":"26th May 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"The Cherry blossom on the village green in early May was just fantastic. You would be hard pressed to find a nicer village view anywhere than that from the corner of Vennwood Close by Ty pica farm house, looking towards the church. A lot of effort has been going on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Village Gardener"","block_context":{"text":"The Village Gardener","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=77"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15858,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=15858","url_meta":{"origin":12804,"position":3},"title":"The Foraging Season Is Upon Us","author":"Alan Williams","date":"31st July 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"THE VILLAGE GARDENER The Foraging Season Is Upon Us We are reminded again of the changing weather patterns, as we witnessed the third heatwave of the year in the UK by the 2nd week of July. The long dry spells and longer wet spells are becoming the norm as highs\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "New Items for August 2025"","block_context":{"text":"New Items for August 2025","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=424"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6482,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=6482","url_meta":{"origin":12804,"position":4},"title":"Your Programme for September","author":"Alan Williams","date":"28th August 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"RHS to do list for September. Divide herbaceous perennials Pick Autumn raspberries. Collect and sow seed from perennials and hardy annuals. 4 Dig up remaining potatoes, before slug damage ruins them. Net ponds before leaf fall gets underway. Keep up with the watering of new plants. Start to reduce the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Village Gardener"","block_context":{"text":"The Village Gardener","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=77"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/garden.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":14424,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=14424","url_meta":{"origin":12804,"position":5},"title":"The Humble Hoe Is Your Best Friend","author":"Alan Williams","date":"7th July 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"THE VILLAGE GARDENER The Humble Hoe Is Your Best Friend\u00a0 The humble hoe is your best friend when it comes to keeping weeds under control during the Summer. On dry days just run the hoe between your flowers or veg beds. Not doing this at least a couple of times\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Village Gardener"","block_context":{"text":"The Village Gardener","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=77"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12804"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12804"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12804\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12807,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12804\/revisions\/12807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Picture1.jpg?resize=500%2C348\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Picture3.jpg?resize=224%2C388\")
A tall chimney north of Gelliaraul farmhouse, Llangan, dominates the landscape. It is Grade II listed and has three distinct levels and an arched opening a couple of feet above the ground; possibly some sort of oven associated with the nearby quarry. Arriving at Llangan we found their public phone box was a book exchange and contained a defibrillator, good idea we thought until we saw a sign \u2018Sorry this defibrillator is out of order\u2019. We passed the church, walking through the graveyard, where there is an old cross and noted that the church looked as if it had been doubled in size at some point in its past.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Picture2.jpg?resize=600%2C230\")
<\/p>\n
\n
\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"