A modest wooden bench near Cold Ashton commemorates Cyril Trenfield, the co-founder of the Cotswold Way alongside Tony Drake. While Drake is remembered with a dramatic metal memorial near Painswick, Trenfield's tribute is characteristically understated — a simple seat where walkers can rest and enjoy the view.
Trenfield was a prominent Cotswold Warden and Ramblers campaigner who, together with Drake, first proposed the route in the 1950s. He worked tirelessly behind the scenes, attending meetings, writing letters, and lobbying councils to secure public access along the escarpment. Where Drake was the public face of the campaign, Trenfield was its quiet organiser.
“He worked tirelessly behind the scenes, attending meetings, writing letters, and lobbying councils to secure public access along the escarpment.”
The bench faces south towards Bath — the final destination that Trenfield and Drake envisioned as the trail's end point. Sitting here in the last miles of the journey, walkers can appreciate the decades of quiet determination it took to create the path beneath their feet.
