On a pleasant winter's morning 13 members and 2 guests left the National Trust village of Coleshill following the River Cole to Strattenborough Castle, which proved to be a facade added to the farmhouse as a romantic landscape feature by the Earl of Radnor in 1792.

Following tracks across farmland we spotted a hare and a group of roe deer before returning via Flamborough Woods and the Capability Brown style parkland of Coleshill House.

Unfortunately the house was seriously damaged by fire and had to be demolished.  It was used during the war for training the men of the British Resistance, in anticipation of a German invasion.

Starting off in the winter sun

Coleshill village and "castle"

Roe deer in the distance and Walter makes friends with some horses

Time for the group photo

Making our way back from Ashen Copse Farm

Crossing Coleshill Park on our way back