The river Leach, which forms the boundary between the two villages of Eastleach Turville and Eastleach Martin is fed by several springs further up the valley. The water is gin clear, shallow and constant and it made the perfect environment in the past for the farming of watercress. There is no sign of commercial watercress farming these days except for the occasional remains of a structure in the water designed to control the flow. I am sure however that if you were a forager you might expect to find watercress growing wild even today.

The two parishes were separate until 1935 when they were amalgamated which explains why there are two lovely parish churches within 180 yards of each other. These days the smaller church of St Andrew in Eastleach Turville is the place of worship for both communities. The church is perhaps the most interesting of the two.

Connecting the two villages for many centuries is an old Clapper Bridge. This is a type of footbridge found all over this country, usually where there was a ford in the river for vehicles and ridden horses and a dry bridge was required for people and packhorses on a leading reign. It is made of enormous slabs of stone stretched between stone pillars and is as firm and strong today as it has ever been. The nearby road bridge was built later, in the early 19th century to take carriages and eventually cars and lorries, but this Clapper Bridge is still seen by the locals as the connection between the two communities. It’s named Keble Bridge, after the family of John Keble who was curate here in 1815. His family had been lords of the manor since the 16th century.

Near Keble ridge is a heavy gothic wellhead, built in 1884, which will have provided the village with a convenient water-source, and on this hot day provided Widget with a means of cooling down.