Slightly off message. I’m just back after a walking weekend in the village of Stockbridge, Hampshire. The weather was excellent and on Saturday, Mrs Grayee and I walked alongside the glorious River Test and across country to the Hill Fort at Danebury (also very impressive) and then back to the village.As we walked back to the hotel in Stockbridge we come across an old Drovers inn (see photo - now a private house with a traditional thatched roof). I was astonished to see in bold large letters right across the front of the building words in Welsh “GWAIR TYMHERUS - PORVA-FLASUSCWRW - CWRW DAA - GWAL CYSURUS”. These words were an early form of advertising dating back to when the inn catered for Welsh Drovers - the words translated as 'Seasoned hay, tasty pastures, good beer, comfortable beds'.
Stockbridge is a really pretty traditional English village where it seems like everyone you meet is polite, wears a Barber jacket and out walking with a friendly wet Labrador.
I was feeling just a little smug after our 8 mile odd tramp through the countryside. Yet for centuries some of my forefathers had walked from Wales to Hampshire (then onto Southampton or Surrey and back home again – 600 miles?) every year to bring Welsh black cattle to English markets. The cattle would have been fattened up on the local pastures and meadows after their long journey. Before the railways the Welsh had been cattle and sheep drovers to England (the first cowboys?) since at least the 13th Century.
Since the "Drover House" is no longer open I would nowadays recommend the “Grosvenor” Hotel (another Welsh connection?) for “comfortable beds” and the “Three Cups Inn” for tasty produce (if not pastures) and for sure - “good beer”. I am afraid that I cannot comment on the local “Seasonal Hay” but I am certain it is also very good.
