Return to the Dark Side

Painswick is an ancient town, nestling in the Cotswold Hills in the County of Gloucestershire. Its wealth, like that of its neighbours, was founded on wool and the clothing industry. Gratitude for this bounty (and no doubt the hope of preferential treatment at the Pearly Gates) was expressed by the local gentry in the building of great churches, crafted from warm oolitic limestone. Painswick's is not one of the largest, dwarfed by the likes of Cirencester, Chipping Campden and Northleach, but it has an exquisite setting, surrounded by ornate table tombs and a reputed ninety-nine yew trees.

The woollen trade in this part of the country succumbed centuries ago to competition from the mechanised mills of Northern England and later from abroad. Now the town is a centre for retirement, arts and crafts and expensive dwellings for the affluent workers of nearby Cheltenham.

Right, that's the educational bit done.

I went to Painswick today to pick up a book. As luck would have it my visit coincided with a flurry of snow. The yew trees took on a delicate frosting and, despite the dull light, were worthy of a few shots with the Silver Snapper.

Two of my current themes were satisfied - a splash of red from the church clock and one I suppose I should call 'Mysterious Passages' or some such nonsense. I love these dark enclosed pathways through the yew trees and the striated effect from the snow was a bonus.