The inscription on the plaque attached to this stone includes this rather meandering sentence:-"This stone which was reputed to stand on the spot where a horse was struck by lightning and to be its gravestone, was removed from a field at Haydon End Farm approximately a quarter of a mile to east of this point soon after the second world war and laid against the field boundary for over 40 years."
Marsh marigolds on some boggy ground near the river Ray and along the Timberland Trail. The river Ray (below), a tributary of the Thames, rises south of Swindon, flows through the west of Swindon making its journey north where it joins the Thames just east of Cricklade.
Purton's Timberland Trail is a lovely walk which starts in the village of Purton and finishes at Moulden Hill and Lake. Just before the reaching river Ray, the Woodland Trust has planted a new wood, Berriman's Wood as part of the Great Western Forest.Our walk back took us through some fields (as one of my companions was a skilled map-reader). At one point a buzzard appeared in the sky and seemed to be flying away from us but then glided around. It soared against the sun as I watched and seemed to hover above us for a while - something of a thrill for me who has lived most of my adult life in a city and town.
