India in the Cotswolds with Corinne Fowler and Raj Pal

Ramblings

BBC

Science, Nature, Society & Culture, Places & Travel

4.6 • 732 Ratings

🗓️ 13 November 2025

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Clare is walking in the Cotswolds with author Corinne Fowler and historian Raj Pal, whose family has roots in both Britain and India.

Corinne is leading the way, recreating and extending the “Indian Walk in the Cotswolds” walk she originally took with Raj for a chapter in her book Our Island Stories: Ten Walks through Rural Britain and its Hidden History of Empire. As they ramble, they reflect on how the British countryside is deeply connected to colonial history.

Beginning on the Heart of England Way at Bourton on the Hill, they pass Sezincote House, a Neo-Mughal estate built in 1805 by a former East India Company officer, take in the Church of St James in Longborough, before circling back to the Horse and Groom pub in Bourton.

Map: OS Explorer OL45 The Cotswolds - Burford, Chipping Camden, Cirencester, Stow on the Wold Grid Ref: SP 173 325 Near the Horse & Groom pub, Bourton on the Hill

Presenter: Clare Balding Producer for BBC Studios: Karen Gregor

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.
0:07.0	Hello, I'm Emma Barnett. For most of my career, I've been on live radio, and I love it.
0:13.3	But I've always wondered, what if we'd had more time? How much deeper does the story go?
0:19.2	I remember having this very sharp thought
0:21.7	that what you do right now, this is it.
0:24.3	This defines your life.
0:26.0	I'm ready to talk and ready to listen.
0:28.3	I'm insulted by how little the medical community is ever bothered with this.
0:33.9	Ready to talk with me, Emma Barnard, is my new podcast.
0:37.0	Listen on BBC Sounds. Are we going this
0:39.7	way, Corinne? Yeah, we are. Great. Just up to the gate and through the gate. Oh, look at that.
0:45.2	We are recording this on a bright, fresh autumn day. And up ahead of me, I can see the glowing red of an acer or a maple tree and there's a birch tree
0:57.8	on the right that has those sort of long hanging drooping branches like a weeping willow
1:02.8	I think it might be called a weeping birch we are in the heart of the coxswolds in gloucestershire
1:09.6	in fact on the heart of englandotswolds in Gloucestershire. In fact, on the heart of England Way,
1:14.0	which is one of the many footpiles and many routes that Corrin Fowler has explored
1:19.7	during the writing of a book, Corrin, that combines really your two passions.
1:26.5	It's called our island stories.
1:29.0	The two passions are...
1:31.4	Colonial history and walking in the countryside.
1:35.5	We will explore your themes more fully.
1:38.7	And also with us is Raj Powell,
	...

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