Near Pipley Barn on Lansdown Golf Course, an unexpected and slightly unnerving sight greets Cotswold Way walkers — a life-sized metal sculpture of the Grim Reaper, complete with scythe and skeletal horse, silhouetted against the sky.
The sculpture was created by a local artist and references the Battle of Lansdown fought on this hilltop in 1643 during the English Civil War. The battle was one of the bloodiest of the war in the West Country, with heavy casualties on both sides. The Royalist commander Sir Bevil Grenville was wounded by a pole-axe while leading a charge, carried to Cold Ashton rectory, and died of his wounds the following day. Hundreds of soldiers from both armies perished on the exposed hillside.
“The Royalist commander Sir Bevil Grenville was wounded by a pole-axe while leading a charge, carried to Cold Ashton rectory, and died of his wounds the following day.”
The Reaper stands as a memento mori — a reminder that this peaceful golf course was once a killing field. It is one of the most photographed features of the final stretch of the Cotswold Way, catching many walkers by surprise as they crest the hill.
