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You don't have to get your boots muddy to enjoy our walk down the Glyme Valley Way.

Instead, you can sit back for an "armchair walk" in the company of the Pipe and Deakin families of Banbury, who pioneered the trail for us.

³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Oxford journalist Simon Pipe turned their experiences into a special radio programme to launch the project to create our walking trail.

His lively programme - with music by local folk rock legends Fairport Convention and band members Chris Leslie and Ric Sanders - describes various adventures along the way and celebrates some of the valley's extraordinary history and character.

Young explorers on the Glyme Valley Way

Click on the link to hear how our young walkers followed a trail of flour, hunted ghosts at Nether Chalford, hitched a ride on a horse and cart with one of Church Enstone's great village characters, and sailed improvised boats down a series of wild meanders just below Cleveley.

A Glympton, they set off a prince's security alarms and ended up in the village stocks, but went on to discover a dinosaur and an ancient earthwork, before romping in the flooded watermeadows at Wootton.Ìý Naturally, they got wetter than intended.

The final day's walk took them into the mock mayor's parlour at the Black Prince pub, where they found out about the ancient custom of electing a "lord of misrule" - and chucking him in the river, robes at all.

At Blenheim, they found a forgotten haunt of English kings… and then climbed, all eleven of them, into a hollow tree.

As their journey revealed more and more of the valley's history, they realised that creating a trail would be a great way to mark the county's 1,000th birthday as part of the Oxfordshire 2007 celebrations.

Our pioneers were Simon, Ant, Rosie, Molly and Flora Pipe, and Nigel, Louise, Annabel, Eliza, Joe and Tom Deakin.