Castle Combe and a Hint of Ancient History
Episode 6 of our Hidden Wiltshire podcast is now live in which we explore the countryside around Castle Combe whilst giving the village itself a (reasonably) wide berth. It’s hardly hidden as the entire world know about it!
This area of Wiltshire is characterised by babbling brooks and deep combes, or bottoms as we like to call them here. The podcast follows a walk I did in July 2020.
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The Deverills North of the River Wylye
Episode 5 of our Hidden Wiltshire podcast is now live in which we continue our walk in the hills above the Deverills. We follow a walk that both Glyn Coy have done about which I wrote a blog in May 2020 for the Hidden Wiltshire website.
The walk takes up where the last episode finished in Brixton Deverill before climbing the hills to the north of the River Wylye.
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The Deverills South of the River Wylye
Episode 4 of our Hidden Wiltshire podcast is now live in which we explore the village of Kingston Deverill and the hills to the south of the River Wylye. We follow a walk that both Glyn Coy have done about which I wrote a blog in May 2020 for the Hidden Wiltshire website.
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Exploring Bratton and Edington
Episode 3 of the Hidden Wiltshire podcast is now live. In this episode we explore the beautiful and historic landscape around the Wiltshire villages of Edington and Bratton.
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The Story Behind the Image
Snow is rare where I live. When it finally arrives I try to be prepared. To have in mind scenes where the landscape is stripped back to its simplest elements. I know this place intimately. It’s the nature reserve where I’m a volunteer. I’ve titled this image “Pointless…”.
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Knook Castle and Imber
The first episode of the Hidden Wiltshire was more successful than we imagined with around 500 listens. We’d have been happy with five! People from all over the world listened to it - Japan, Canada, USA, UAE, South Africa, several European countries as well as all across the UK. We were astonished.
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New year, new venture
What can you say about 2020 that hasn’t already been said a thousand times? An unforgettable year but a year to forget. But on a personal level there were many good things about it. I gained a nephew and even a great nephew (not in that order!), I visited a part of the UK that has been on my bucket list for a lifetime and now, right at the end of the year and at the beginning of the next, a new venture. A new experience.
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Selling prints and another lockdown
I received an email from someone a few weeks ago asking if it was possible to buy a print of a photograph I had taken of a house that he had had recently bought. A friend of his had seen my photograph. I couldn’t think which image he was referring to and eventually I realised that it was on my Instagram feed. He also asked if he could see more examples of photographs I had taken in the west of England. At this point I realised that I had to knuckle down to a job I’ve been putting off since I built this website.
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Achieving a long held ambition
Normally the early autumn months would find me in France. However, in view of the current uncertainties of life, we decided not to go this year. Instead I realised a long held ambition to travel in the Western Isles of Scotland.
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Vernditch Chase and the Chalke Valley
My latest blog for Hidden Wiltshire recalls a recent walk in the borders of Dorset, Hampshire and Wiltshire. It is a landscape of spectacular and varied scenery steeped in history. It takes in long barrows, ancient earthworks, a Roman road and even a little mystery.
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Downland and canal tow path
If I had to choose my favourite part of Wiltshire the Pewsey Vale with its immense views from the chalk downland and the contrasting Kennet and Avon Canal would be high on the list.
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A visit to Castle Combe without entering the village!
As a long time resident of Wiltshire I’ve become fascinated by its ancient, as well as more modern, history. We have some of the world’s most famous monuments on our doorstep and many tourist honey traps. One such honey trap is Castle Combe, a picture postcard village of honey coloured stone cottages and its village centre Cross.
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Including several Wiltshire Bottoms!
Great Ridge is steeped in history. Its woods sit on a ridge at about 600-700 feet and form part of an ancient trackway that once led from the Kentish coast all the way to the Bristol Channel.
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The Ebble Valley
A couple of weeks ago, as travel restrictions in the UK eased, I drove the 20 miles to Ebbesborne Wake in the River Ebble Valley in Wiltshire to explore an area I haven’t visited for many years.
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Including the fruitless search for Medieval Shaw Village
In my last blog I mentioned the blogs that I write for the Hidden Wiltshire website where I’m able to combine my love of walking with that for photography.
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Writing for Hidden Wiltshire
As travel restrictions eased I’ve made tentative journeys further from home.
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The challenge of photographing on your doorstep
When I first built this website a month ago I had an admittedly short roadmap for a series of posts for this blog. But little did I know that the whole world would be turned upside down after just two posts.
Read MoreBut no two visits to a location are ever the same. The light will always be different. Some locations are so spectacular or have such an emotional connection that they justify repeated visits.
Read MoreIf anyone suggests to you that in this day and age of drag and drop even a novice can build a website, don’t believe them. Run away. Run away very quickly.
Read MoreAll images and content © 2025 Paul Timlett