Autumn/Winter Cotswold Lion - Cotswolds Area of Outstanding ...

Making the gradeGrade II listing of Bourton-on-the-Water Model Village celebrates local craftsmanshipEarlier this year Heritage MinisterEd Vaizey gave Grade II listed statusto Bourton-on-the-Water ModelVillage on the recommendationof English Heritage – the firstmodel village to be grantedsuch status. The highly unusualaccolade formally recognisesthe rarity, craftsmanship andhistorical value of the much-lovedfamily attraction, preserving andprotecting it for generationsto come.While most model villages aroundthe country date from the 1950s and1960s, the one at Bourton opened in1937 to celebrate the Coronation ofKing George VI. Its creator, a formerlandlord of the Old New Inn behindwhich it stands, hoped to capturesome of the newly booming marketin motor tourism.The model village is also rarebecause, unlike most miniatureworlds, it is an exact replica of thevillage it calls home. Eight craftsmentook five years to build it on a 1/9thscale, using authentic materialsincluding locally quarried limestoneand miniature Cotswold stone slates.Deborah Williams, Head ofDesignation for the West, at EnglishHeritage, says, “As one of the firstmodel villages, and with suchexcellent craftsmanship, this charmingcreation fully deserves Grade II listing.Its value is greatly added to by thenumber of listed buildings the modelvillage records and the fact it isset within the grounds of a GradeII listed pub.”Current Old New Inn landlordsVicki and Julian Atherton employ afull-time stonemason and gardenerto look after the model village.“Maintenance is constant, andalthough little changes structurallyin the real village due to so manybuildings being listed, shops canchange ownership and we have toupdate signs in the model village,”says Vicki.There are 118 National HeritageList for England Designations inBourton-on-the-Water, comprising114 listed buildings and fourscheduled monuments. Across theCotswolds AONB as a whole thereare more than 10,500 designations, ofGrade I (exceptional interest), GradeII* (particular importance) and GradeII (special interest).“Listing marks and celebratesspecial architectural and historicinterest,” says Deborah Williams.“It brings the building or monumentunder the consideration of theplanning system so that somethought will be taken about itsfuture.”The AONB boasts a rich rangeof listed buildings that reflect itsdistinctive character: from wonderfulexamples of vernacular limestonearchitecture/stone slate roofs inBroadway, to grand edifices likeGrade I-listed Sudeley Castle; fromimpressive monuments to industrysuch as Grade I-listed DundasAqueduct carrying the Kennetand Avon Canal, to Grade I-listedSezincote House, Moreton-in-Marsh,with its array of Grade I/II-listedgarden features – grottoes, fountains,orangery, temple – bespeaking moreleisurely pursuits.Unsurprisingly, given theCotswolds’ rural nature, there are wellover 1,500 designations for farmingrelatedbuildings and features,including Bradford on Avon’s GradeI-listed 14th-century tithe barn and,less well known, a Grade II-listed18th/19th-century sheepwash atArlebrook.Dozens of listed estate cottagesfrom Sherborne to Badminton,churches, inns, mills and manorspaint a picture of traditional countrylife. Not even the smaller detailsare overlooked in listing, whethera Festival of Britain bus shelter atFarmington (II), a Victorian letterbox,Painswick (II), or an 18th-centuryprivy, West Yatton (II).Bourton-on-the-Water ModelVillage is open year-round,www.theoldnewinn.co.ukGreat Cotswoldians: Luke Howard (1772–1864)In 1802 an unknown amateur meteorologist shot to fame when he invented what became the basis of the cloudclassification system still used to this day. But Luke Howard’s ideas all began with daydreaming in the CotswoldsHoward, a modest 30-year-oldQuaker pharmacist, presented hisgroundbreaking paper, ‘On themodification of clouds’, to a Londonscience club. It took just an hour,but by the end, he had introducedhis audience to new theories onthe formation and lifespan ofclouds, and a new, descriptivenomenclature that divided cloudsinto three main families: cirrus(Latin for a curl of hair), cumulus(meaning heap) and stratus(meaning something spread).Additionally, Howard named fourfurther cloud types, like cirrocumulusand cirrostratus, explaining how cloudforms might unite and pass fromone family to another. As RichardHamblyn, author of The Inventionof Clouds, says: this language ofthe skies “would give weight to theweightless forms of the air, institutea transformation of outlook andexpression, and alter for ever therelationship between the world andthe restless, overarching sky.”Born in London in 1772 to asuccessful businessman, RobertHoward, and his wife Elizabeth,Luke was sent at the age of eight toHillside Academy, Burford. Over hisnext seven, formative years at thestrict Quaker establishment, he spentas much time as possible outdoorspursuing natural history: an escapefrom tedious hours of detested Latingrammar.Another consolation he foundwas staring at the Oxfordshire skiesthrough the windows of his lodgings,observing cloudscapes drifting andshape shifting. Such sky watchingwould become a life-long passion,and in 1783 in particular the youngschoolboy witnessed something thathooked him on the study of weatherand climate.For the whole summer of 1783was filled with strange phenomenaacross the world: unhealthyhazes, sulphurous smells, violentthunderstorms and, excitingly, thenight skies of Europe – and theCotswolds – dazzled with the lightsof the aurora borealis. Howard avidlydescribed it in his journal. In fact, the‘universal Perturbation in Nature’ hadbeen caused by dramatic volcaniceruptions in Japan and Iceland castingmillions of tons of ash and gases intothe stratosphere.Howard had been born at the righttime, into the era of Enlightenmentand scientific inquiry, when mindssought patterns in Nature, to explain,name, classify and list. Following thegreat stir of 1783 and his schooldaysgazing skywards, he pursued a careerin pharmacy that took him away fromthe Cotswolds. But his abiding interestlay in meteorology and he kept dailyrecords of the weather.And so Howard produced his 1802paper identifying clouds: the visiblemanifestations of hidden atmosphericCumulus cloud.activity. Others before him hadattempted to classify clouds, but nonewith such clarity and lasting impact.In the coming years Howard’sideas, which he continued to refine,reached around the world. He mayhave hated Latin grammar, but hischoice of Latin rather than Englishnames helped his classificationsto travel without confusions oftranslation, and that meant everyonecould record and share with precision.Howard was among the firstmembers of what is now the RoyalMeteorological Society and his studieson clouds, weather, climate andseasons encouraged the science ofmeteorology to take off. This providedinspiration to poets like Goethe andShelley, as well as England’s greatlandscape artist and painter of clouds,John Constable. Later pioneers wouldbe moved by his achievements too,including Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort,of Beaufort Scale fame.Today few people outside theworld of meteorology remember LukeHoward’s name, though cumulus,stratus and cirrus are familiar. Nexttime you watch clouds drifting acrossCotswold skies, spare a thought forthe Burford schoolboy.6Issue 29