Woodchester from Rodborough Common

II have been concerned about a sporadic engine warning light in the car which worryingly appeared again when we were on our way to the airport on Friday.  It was still there when we set off back from the airport on Sunday so I took the car to have a check of its computer.  On the way up the hill to Bisley where the garage is, the light went out. But I carried on and Rodger, the owner of the Green Shop garage, kindly did the test for me.  I am going to leave the exploratory examination that he suggested having until I return from our holiday in February.

I decided to take a drive and after a circuitous route I ended up on the top of Rodborough Common which is just across the Golden Valley from our house.  It is a favourite place for dog walkers having lots of varied footpaths across and around the various hillsides with fine views out over the Severn Vale.  I hoped to see some fieldfares which I have spotted in previous years at this time of the season because there are various bushes with assortments of berries for them to flock around and gobble up. Sadly I saw none, or very few other birds, except for lots of magpies and blackbirds.

So I wandered to the far side and looked down at the opposite hillside below Selsley Common.  My eye was taken by the colours and shapes of the woodlands and fields.  There were various collections of houses gathered into small hamlets at odd points in the valley bottom and ton the lower slopes.  

The house in this picture is the manor house in North Woodchester which is sited where the slope begins to get steeper and the woodlands predominate.  You might be able to spot the lake a little to the right of the mani house just in front of the woods.  To the left of the house is another wooded area which is actually surrounding the site of the old church and its graveyard.

It is of particular significance because in the graveyard is the site of the famous and celebrated Woodchester Roman Villa and its marvellous mosaic.  Sadly none of this is visible now.

Woodchester Roman Villa was situated at Woodchester near Stroud in the English county of Gloucestershire.
It is one of many Roman villas discovered in Gloucestershire and was occupied between the early 2nd and late 4th centuries AD. There is now nothing visible of the villa above ground and the site is occupied by a later churchyard. The villa's most famous feature is the Orpheus mosaic, the second largest of its kind in Europe and one of the most intricate. It dates to c. AD 325 and was re-discovered by Gloucestershire-born antiquarian Samuel Lysons in 1793. It has been uncovered seven times since 1880, the last time in 1973, but there are no plans to reveal it again. It depicts Orpheus charming all forms of life with his lyre and has been praised for its accuracy and beauty.
(from Wiki)