2022 – England – The Cotswolds – honeycomb coloured manicured villages with Romans on the side

It’s mid August and we spend a long weekend exploring a bit of the Cotswolds. The area lies about 1.5 to 2 hrs drive north west by west of London, its very rural by nature, lots of history and pretty villages by the score . We stayed in two villages, the first was called “Cold Aston” and the cottage we rented for 2 nights was an L shape attachment to the next door Plough Inn – brilliant. The second for another 2 nights was in the village of Bledington , where we stayed in the village pub the Kings Arms – perfect!!

Overall we had a fantastic time in the Cotswolds, and the 4 nights we had there was enough to get a good taste of the area but there is so much more to see and explore another time. We found that there were a number of “tourist hot spots” often with lots of eateries, shopping opportunities eg Edinburgh Wool Co., plus must see attractions – model villages, wildlife parks , art exhibitions, etc etc. So places like Bourton on the Water, Stow on the Wold, were magnets for some visitors, whereas we preferred often to drive through or avoid them altogether and headed for less busy destinations.

Its worth mentioning that in the less popular places really good car parking facilities were available, none too full and we were there in August holiday time. The fees charged seemed reasonable too at about NZ6 for up to 3 hours.

Cold Aston

We had a “Cotswold 41 year reunion” planned with two other couples and lucked upon a cottage to rent for the weekend in this village, very much off the tourist track but beautiful nonetheless. ( It is 41 years since all 6 of us were together in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia where we lived and worked 77- 81). It is clear that many of the houses in Cold Aston were holiday homes, just a fact of life for such a pretty part of England that is so relatively close to London. The fact that the cottage was attached to the pub – The Plough Inn – good beers, excellent but relatively plain food – a real bonus as none of the 3 couples had visited the Cotswolds previously and we had chosen the village a bit blind, so to speak.

Hopefully these pictures convey a little of the village itself, its gorgeous Cotswold stone houses, garden walls, manicured gardens and the stunning massive ancient sycamore trees at each of the road junctions into the village. Mid August even in a dry summer was spectacular but spring, autumn and winter colours would equally be impressive.

Bledington

Choosing Bledington as our next destination was a bit of a hit and miss exercise. It took us to the northern side of the Cotswolds and a different area to explore, but an opportunity to indulge for a couple of nights in the full service of the Kings Arms. It was the Kings Arms that sold Bledington to us, definitely a step up in the restaurant fare – both breakfast and dinners. Overlooking the village green, with adjacent farm buildings, houses and the church tucked around the corner, its a great location. Incidentally, often a thatched roof will have an “animal signature” of the thatcher – we found some super Bledington examples:-

Walks in the Cotswolds

One of the things that for us continues to make the UK stand out as a destination is the plethora of walking trails available all over the country. The Cotswolds are no exception to this and we had two good days with lovely walks. On the Sunday we visited the busy village of Broadway, plenty of tourists there, lots of quite classy accomodation, but we were headed to the Broadway Tower that overlooks the village and surrounding countryside. Designed by Capability Brown as a “Saxon Castle’ the “Folly” – Broadway Tower opened in 1799 and is a part of the estate that now runs it, a deer park, a nuclear bunker, and a very good cafe and gypsy coffee wagon! Oh and excellent very clean toilets. We did not go into the Tower, nor the nuclear bunker, but had a super walk ( approx 6km) with stunning views.

As an aside to the Broadway walk we found the nearby village of Stanton, a true “chocolate box” Cotswold Spring village ie where springs emerged from the limestone, pretty as a picture and apart from us two Kiwis and 6 American tourists – it was deserted. We hope these above pictures of the village and church do it some justice.

On Monday, post an excellent Kings Head breakfast, the Inn had provided info on 3 circular walk options from the Inn – short – 3km, medium – 8km and long – about 12 km and we chose the medium option. Once out of the village it was all on cross country foot paths on farm land or through woodland, and excellent. We met just one person and two dogs all the way around!.

Batsford Arboretum

Of all the many places to visit in the Cotswolds we found the Batsford Arboretum, that was adjoined to the impressively Elizabethan styled Batsford House, built in the late 19th C. We had a great morning wandering around the rare trees, Himalayan Pines, Giant Redwoods and Japanese maples plus scores of others, influences from a previous owner’s time in the Foreign Service in Tokyo. A good little cafe and shop were useful for lunch – an ideal excursion.

Cirencester aka Corinium

We left the Cotswolds on Tuesday morning to head back to West London, but with time to spare decided to check out the town of Cirencester and its Roman Museum. During the Roman occupation of Britain, circa 40AD to 430AD – Cirencester was the effective capital of the West Country and the military garrison there extended its control into Wales. The Corinium Museum is a small museum by many standards, but it takes a visitor through a journey of early settlement in Cirencester ending with the Roman occupation. Its great, we spent about 2 hours there and then explored the centre of the town, St John the Baptist Church , the old streets surrounding and the Charter Market Square

The Church is magnificent, well I thought so, and do like a “good church”.. The Charter Market is held on a Monday and Friday, so sadly we missed that but Cirencester was well worth the morning we spent there and we loved the “boxing horse & hare” statue in the market place by the coffee van!