Streams from a number of springs issuing from the southern end of the Cotswold Hills at Lansdown, Toghill and Cold Ashton in South Gloucestershire converge at Ashcombe Farm near Langridge and the Lam Brook then runs in a generally southerly direction past Ashcombe House and the villages of Upper Swainswick and Lower Swainswick.
Bladud or Blaiddyd was a mythical king of the Britons, for whose existence there is little historical evidence, but legend holds that he returned to Britain from Athens with leprosy and was imprisoned as a result, but escaped and went into hiding.