With my brother Mike, we are driving from the Lake District in NW England to the southwest part of the country. This has included a stop in the Cotswolds area west of London, in the ancient, hilltop market town of Minchinhampton. We were delighted to stay for a night with Hilary (our first cousin once-removed) who just celebrated her 90th birthday. Her youngest son, James (our second cousin), and his partner Ming also came over for dinner, so it was a great pleasure to see them and catch-up with all of their family’s news.



17th-century Market House in Minchinhampton

With many of the yellow sandstone buildings so typical of the Cotswolds, Minchinhampton has a population of around 2,900. Mike, Randall, and I enjoyed walking around the town where the main square has a War Memorial, and a 17th-century Market House, given to the town in 1919 by the Lord of the Manor, Lt. Col. H. G. Ricardo, and restored in 1944. A market is held there every Thursday. Nearby is the parish church, with its unusual tower. The original spire was pulled down for safety reasons in 1863 and the stub was completed with a crown-like "coronet" structure.



Minchinhampton village center with the coronet-tower of the church beyond

Mike has a particularly soft-spot for Minchinhampton because the small town has three golf courses, the most famous of which is “The Old Course”, located on Minchinhampton Common. This Common is a Site of Special Scientific Interest and consists of 580 acres (230 ha) managed by the National Trust for the recreation of walkers and golfers. The Common is also used as grazing land for the cows of local farmers in the summer. On the Common are long parallel ditches and mounds which formed part of a large Iron Age fort. There are outstanding views from the Common, west over the Severn estuary into Wales, and east to the Golden Valley and further into the Cotswolds. Before leaving Minchinhampton, we enjoyed a brief walk on The Common with Hilary.



A walker and her dog on Minchinhampton Common with view to the Severn River beyond

Sadly, Mike had neither the time nor the energy to play a round of golf. Since the development of his medical problems in Mexico in early 2015, he underwent surgery back in the UK to try to alleviate the effects of his enlarged prostate. While this helped somewhat, more than 12 months later, he is still suffering from periodic bouts of exhaustion and ill-health possibly the result of a form of prostatitis (deep infection or inflammation of the prostate). Randall and I were thrilled to find Mike energetic and in particularly good spirits when we arrived in Grange and we enjoyed some lovely hour-long walks with him. The unpredictability of the down-turns in his health have made him reluctant to commit to many visits or activities with other people, including golf, which must be very constraining and frustrating for him.

Randall and I were very glad to be able to share our trip south with Mike, so that he could travel without the fear of becoming stranded somewhere unable to drive himself home. In addition to visiting Hilary, we stopped briefly in Taunton to see our Aunt Lys. At 94, she is still living in her own apartment but now has daily help as her short-term memory is failing. We soon found ourselves answering the same questions several times but it gave us the opportunity to develop better answers each time, and we would not soon forget her own repeated comments and concerns. Regardless of these sad signs of dementia, it was wonderful to see her and she seemed genuinely pleased to see us.