BURFORD
The beautiful town of Burford, on the River Windrush was the site of a fortified ford in Anglo-Saxon times. The town grew to be an important crossroads and very wealthy wool town and is today very popular with visitors (see Cottages in Burford).
The broad main street slopes gently down to the river and is lined with dignified old houses and ancient cottages and many shops all of which appear little changed since Tudor times as witnessed by the precarious angles the buildings have come to rest at.
There are wonderful little side streets to explore, old pubs, tea and antique shops aplenty. The 15th century parish church of St. John Baptist is magnificent and is another sign of byegone riches based on wool.
ATTRACTIONS
Exploring the streets, shopping, and dining in the many pubs, restaurants, and tea shops.
Our Cottages:
Candlemas(3 people), Corner Cottage(4), Pilgrims(2or4), Vine Cottage(2), Wysdom Hall(16),
CHARLBURY
The small Market Town of Charlbury (see Charlbury self-catering accomodation) is snugly situated in the Evenload valley well away from busy main roads. It looks across the valley to the fine 600 acre Cornbury Park estate almost Surrounded by the great woodlands of Wychwood Forest. The town started life as a small village in a clearing in Wychwood Forest. The town was made prosperous during the 18th century thanks to it's glove making industry. In the attractive town nowadays, there are many fascinating old buildings to see and many shops and country inns.
Whilst in Charlbury, pay a visit to Cornbury Park, owned by Lord Rotherwick, part of which is a National Nature Reserve where many forms of wildlife, including fallow deer, roam freely.
It is possible to walk eastwards from Charlbury, along bridleways running not far from the fine mansion of Ditchley Park. The meandering Oxfordshire Way also passes through the town. In addition there is a nice circular walk taking in the village of Finstock, part of Cornbury Park, and the villages of Chilson and Shorthampton.
Charlbury is know for its annual beer festival normally second week in July and Cornbury Park for its yearly music festival. The Cornbury Festival is a one-of-a-kind: an eclectic and eccentric musical carnival - a dynamic summer festival disguised as a country fayre - a lovingly crafted, top notch, very English open air party, tailor-made for the whole family.
Our Cottages:
Harvest Barn (12) Stonesfield Jacobs Yard (4) The Bartons Hedera Cottage (4) Ascott under Wychwood The Old Bakehouse (4) North Leigh
CHIPPING CAMPDEN
Chipping Campden is one of the loveliest small towns in the Cotswolds and a gilded masterpiece of limestone and craftmanship.The main street curves in a shallow arc lined with a succession of ancient houses each grafted to the next but each with it's own distinctive embellishments. (see Cottages in Chipping Campden)
As the name suggests (Chipping means market) and Chipping Campden was one of the most important of the medieval wool towns and famous throughout Europe. This legacy of fame and prosperity is everything that gives the town it's character.
Chipping Campden's church at the north end of the town, is perhaps, the finest 'wool' church in the Cotswolds, with a magnificent 120ft (36 metre) tower and a very spacious interior. The church is famed for having one of the oldest alter tapestries (pre-reformation) and largest brass in England.
Our Cottages:
Gable Cottage(Sleeps 7) Elmhurst(8) Lower Quinton
CHIPPING NORTON
Chipping Norton is the highest town in Oxfordshire, situated on the western slopes of a hillside that was once the site of a Norman castle. 'Chipping' is derived from ceapen, an old English word meaning market. Alternatively the meaning comes from the medieval word Chepynge meaning long Market Square as will also be found at Chipping Campden and Chipping Sodbury. There has been a market here since the 13th century and was a major wool-trading town in the 15th century; the great 'wool' church of St Mary, built in perpendicular style, testifies to its prosperity. The church has one of the finest interiors among the great Cotswold churches.
The lively little town has a vibrancy about it, but remains unpretentious and the everyday lives of those who live and work there have so far not been overshadowed by the effects of tourism - in other words its a 'real' Cotswold town with 'real' shops and fondly known as 'Chippy' to the locals (see Chipping Norton Holiday Cottages). It is also known, importantly, for having the last fish and chip shop for 30 miles in the Cheltenham direction!! And it is very good too!
Chipping Norton offers the visitor plenty of retail therapy including several antique shops and a wide selection of restaurants, Inns and Pubs.
Our Cottages:
Blackbird Cottage(sleeps 4) Hillside Cottage(5) The Gate House(6)
LECHLADE
The small Cotswold market town of Lechlade is situated at the southern borders of the Cotswolds where the Rivers Coln and Leach join the Thames, and Inglesham, just above Lechlade, marks the head of its navigation. For centuries Lechlade was on one of the main trade arteries west from London, by both road and river. Leisure boats have replaced the trading vessels for Lechlade is now a favourite mooring place (see Holiday Cottages in Lechlade).
The town of Lechlade is dominated by the spire of St. Lawrence's Church. The spire was descibed by the 16th century antiquary John Leland in his famous Itinerary 'as a pratie pyramis of stone'. The interior is handsomely proportioned with high clerestory and a magnificent chancel roof with carved bosses. It was the churchyard at Lechlade that inspired the poet Shelley to compose his Summer Evening Meditation, and there are few better places to stop awhile than this quiet corner.
Our Cottages:
Grafton Manor Wing(Sleeps 4 or 5), Stonecrop(5).
MALMESBURY
Malmesbury is an ancient market town, dating from the fifth century, and a place of pilgimage since the early times of Christianity in Britain. The town is the oldest borough in England, having been granted its charter by King Edward, son of Alfred the Great, in 924. The first king of all England, King Athelstan, grandson of Alfred the Great, made Malmesbury his capital in AD925. Malmesbury also boasts having England's oldest hotel, the Old Bell has been offering bed and board since 1220.
The town offers a wealth of 17th and 18th century buildings, many of which are now host to bright and friendly shops and inns. The town is famous for its 7th century abbey and the Abbey Gardens including its extensive collection of roses. With the abbey as dramatic backdrop its five acres feature more than 10,000 plant varieties spread between formal gardens dotted with fish ponds and a wilder section that cascades into a valley cut through by a tributary of the River Avon.
Our Cottages:
The Forge (Sleeps 4)
MORETON IN MARSH
Moreton-in-Marsh is one of the principal market towns in the northern Cotswolds situated on the Fosse Way and now served by the main line railway from London. It grew up in the thirteenth century as a market town with a wide main street, narrow burgage plots and back lanes (see Moreton in Marsh Holiday Cottages). There still is a busy Tuesday market with about 200 stalls attracting many visitors.
A traveller's town for at least 1700 years, it was used as a coaching station before the coming of the Oxford to Worcester railway in 1853. There are several pubs, inns, hotels, tea shops and restaurants to choose from.
The high street has many elegant eighteenth-century inns and houses including the Redesdale Market Hall, a Victorian 'Tudor' building of some distinction. The oldest building is likely to be the sixteenth-century Curfew tower on the High Street. It's bell was rung nightly until 1860 to remind people of the risk of fire at night. The Parish church of St. David was originally a chapel of ease for Bourton-on-the-Hill and in 1858 was rebuilt in medieval.
Our Cottages:
The Cottage(Sleeps 6) Applegate (2) Rose Terrace (4) Stockbridge Cottage (6)
NAILSWORTH
Nailsworth is a small but thriving and very welcoming town once noted for it's involvement in the Cotswolds wool trade, but is now a happy and friendly centre for a wide variety of local interests (see Cottages in Nailsworth). It lies in a wooded valley on the A46, just over 20 miles north of Bath and 18 miles south of Cheltenham and is said to have the largest number of working water wheels per square mile in the country. Nearby are Badminton and Gatcombe Park, both word famous for their horse trials, and High Grove, the home of Prince Charles, is a few miles away near the historic town of Tetbury.
Local amenities include riding , golf at Minchinhampton, tennis, fishing and even gliding at the Cotswold Gliding Club at Aston Down. There are many fine walks in the area and the Cotswold Way, one of the best walks in England, covers 105 miles of the most beautiful scenery in the country. Westonbirt Arboretum is close by and apart from it's many beautiful walks through 600 acres of wonderful countryside, with no less than 18,000 specimen trees and magnificent displays of rhododendrons, azaleas and magnolias, it hosts a variety of concerts, festivals, plays and other entertainment.
Nailsworth boasts six good quality restaurants and in the immediate area there are many pubs and inns of great character, some with well established restaurants but all providing good pub food. Local shopping ranges from a famous, first class delicatessen with fabulous fish counter, to antique and craft shops, a modern art gallery and a pottery and many small individual and specialist shops with a wide variety of goods.
Our Cottages:
Batemans (Sleeps 4 or 5)
NORTHLEACH
The Cotswold town of Northleach in Gloucestershire is located at an important crossroads, just off the roman road, the Fosse Way (A429) 10 miles north-east of Cirencester and 10 miles south-west of Stow-on-the-Wold. Northleach was at one time a great market town, celebrated throughout Europe as a major centre for the Cotswold wool trade. The fifteenth-century church of St Peter and St Paul, paid for by the wealthy wool merchants, was built with stone dug from the quarry in the town itself and what is now the Market Square.
PAINSWICK
Painswick is quite often referred to as the Queen of the Cotswolds due to it's fine buildings of pale grey limestone. These are a reflection of the town's former prosperity during 300 years of activity in the cloth industry. St. Mary's church is largely of the 15th and 16th centuries but the spire was not added until 1632. There are 99 yew trees in the graveyard which were planted around 1792. It is said that every time a hundredth tree is planted it dies.
Painswick is a town that contains many notable houses built in the prosperous seventeenth century and has lots of little streets to explore and quaint shops to discover.
On the outskirts of the town the well known Rococo Gardens can be found in a hidden 6 acre valley. The gardens are the last sole survivor from the brief early 18th century period of English Rococo Garden design.
STOW ON THE WOLD
Stow-on-the-Wold is a delightful market town (see Cotswold Cottage in Stow-on-the-Wold) and along with Moreton in Marsh, perhaps the best known of the small Cotswolds towns. It stands exposed on a 700 feet high hill at a junction of seven major roads, including the Roman Fosse Way. At the height of the Cotswold wool industry the town was famous for it's huge annual fairs where as many as 20,000 sheep were sold at one time.
The vast Market Square testifies to the towns former importance. At one end stands the ancient cross, and at the other the town stocks, shaded between an old elm tree. Around the square the visitor is faced with an elegant array of Cotswold town houses.
Stow is an important shopping centre and has many fine Antique shops, Art galleries, Gifts and Crafts and is a centre for Walking the Cotswolds countryside.
Our Cottages:
Clematis Cottage(Sleeps 2), Glebe Cottage(4) St Kellams (4)
TETBURY
The town of Tetbury is proud of it's 1300 years of recorded history since 681 when Tetta's Monastery was mentioned in a charter by King Ethelred of Mercia. In the Middle Ages, Tetbury was an important market town for the Cotswolds wool trade and the town centre is still dominated by the splendid pillared Market House built in 1655. The town is known as an 'architectural gem' as many of the wool merchants houses still look as they did 300 years ago. (see Tetbury Holiday Cottages)
Tetbury is well known for it's many antique shops and its close proximity to Prince Charles's residence of High Grove.
Our Cottages:
The Forge (Sleeps 4)
WINCHCOMBE
The ancient Saxon town of Winchcombe is situated in a beautiful Cotswold valley mid-way between Broadway and Cheltenham (approx each 15 minutes away by car). The name Winchcombe means 'valley with a bend', and today the town still retains street which curve gracefully along the 'combe'. The inns, restaurants, tea rooms, and shops set among Winchcombe's three main streets are full of the character of times past.
LOCAL ATTRACTIONS
Sudely Castle with beautiful gardens. Queen Katherine Parr is entombed here.
Cheltenham racecourse at Prestbury Park is a big attraction for National Hunt fans, and the Prescott Hillclimb Course hold motoring events at various times throughout the year.
The ancient abbey at Hailes is a few miles out towards Broadway and the the stone age 'long barrow' burial ground at Belas Knap is located on the hill overlooking Corndean a few miles out on the road to Andoversford. A short walk from the road and worth it for the magnificent views.
WOODSTOCK
The Oxfordshire Cotswolds Market Town of Woodstock is a pretty place about 10 miles north of Oxford on the A44 to Broadway and Evesham (see Woodstock self-catering accomodation). It boasts many charming streets, inns, and tea shops. Woodstock is most famous for the close proximity to the ancestral home of the Churchill family, Blenheim Palace. Thomas Chaucer (thought to be the brother of Geoffrey Chaucer) and famous for being Speaker of the House of Commons, resided here for some years, whilst in later centuries Woodstock was noted for its glove making.
Our Cottages:
Laughton's Retreat(Sleeps 4), Harvest Barn (12) Jacobs Yard(4), Oak Tree(4), The Gallery(4)
ATTRACTIONS
Shopping for art, antiques, and crafts.
Visit to the magnificent Blenheim Palace.
Visit to Sir Winston Churchill's grave at the village of Bladon a few miles away.