Just outside Painswick, a distinctive metal weather vane memorial marks the contribution of Tony Drake — one of the two founders of the Cotswold Way. In the early 1950s, Drake conceived the idea of a long-distance walking route along the Cotswold escarpment, inspired by the 1949 National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act. Cyril Trenfield joined the effort in the late 1960s, and together they campaigned for decades.
Drake spent decades campaigning, mapping, and negotiating with landowners to create the route. He walked every mile of the proposed path himself, often multiple times, to find the best line through the landscape. His tireless work with the Ramblers' Association and local authorities eventually bore fruit when the Cotswold Way was designated as a National Trail in 2007.
“Drake spent decades campaigning, mapping, and negotiating with landowners to create the route.”
The memorial, created by a local blacksmith, features a walker's silhouette pointing the way forward — a fitting tribute to the man who showed thousands of walkers the path along the Cotswold escarpment.
