To the woods, the woods..

These are the kind of deciduous woods that provide a thick carpet of crisp leaves that children and child like adults can run through kicking showers of rustling leaves as they go... Is that an admission she says, you bet! The woods are part of the Coombe Abbey estate which is only a five minute drive from Brinklow. The estate is now owned by Coventry City and opened as a country park, some 160 acres. Originally two villages that were cleared when the Cistercian monks established their Abbey in the 12th Century. The Abbey went the way of them all at the Reformation in the 16th century an became part of and some landed gentry's estate. In 1923 the estate was sold off, over 6000 acres of it! Even by the standards of today's large commercial farming that is a great deal of land to hold especially as it was prime agricultural land for the most part. The main house is now an hotel and conference centre but the ornamental lakes and parkland are there for us plebs to roam and very nice it is too..