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Towns and Villages in
The Cotswolds |
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You may view the information for ALL the locations in this area
by clicking HERE (the page may be very large) or you can view your
preferred location from the list on the left.
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Bourton-on-the-water - Photo:
Chris Collard
CCL |
The most famous
and visited
place
in the
Cotswolds |
Bourton-on-the-Water is probably the most
popular village in the Cotswolds.
Often referred to as the 'Venice of the
Cotswolds' due to the River Windrush running
through the centre crossed by several bridges.
The
village boasts many attractions to entertain
children of all ages.
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Burford High Street - Photo:
Peter Watkins
CCL |
Burford, often referred to as
'Gateway to the Cotswolds', it was the first
Cotswold town, before 1107, to be granted a
charter. Burford is an attractive town with a
steep main street leading down to the River
Windrush. Many of the buildings date back to Tudor
and Georgian times. Burford is well known for its
antique shops and is an ideal base for exploring
the Cotswolds. A lovely area for walking and
cycling. |
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Moving towards the heartland
of the Oxfordshire Cotswolds brings us to the area
dominated by the Wychwood Forest, which was once
an important royal hunting area as large as the
New Forest. To drive or
walk along the Evenlode Valley is to experience
life in a time warp with patchwork quilt fields,
drystone walls and golden stone houses and farms.
Charlbury, on the Cotswolds
Line, has a popular olde world small Brunel built
railway station, its fishpond and hanging baskets
bring back memories of another era. The railway
links, youth hostel and camp
sites make this an excellent centre for cyclists
and walkers. The Oxfordshire Way is nearby.
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Charlbury Fountain - Photo:
Clive Perrin
CCL |
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St. Peter's Church, Tewksbury Road, Cheltenham
- Photo:
Terry Jacombs
CCL |
Cheltenham was founded as a
spa town in 1716, when a spring was discovered and
believed to have healing properties. Tradition has
it that curious locals tried the waters after
noticing pigeons pecking at the salty deposits and
found them to be a cure for many 18th century
ailments.
The town received Royal patronage in 1788 when
King George III came to drink the waters. This led
to the rapid development of Cheltenham as a
fashionable spa between 1790 and 1840. The town
was patronised by a constant stream of noble and
royal visitors including Duke of Wellington and
Princess (later Queen) Victoria. Distinguished
literary figures taking the waters have included
Lord Byron, Jane Austen and Charles Dickens. |
The heritage of these bygone times when Cheltenham
was at its most fashionable can be seen in the
Regency architecture that adorns the town, with
the pastel shades and intricate ironwork features
of distinctive townhouse façades. Cheltenham is
the most complete Regency town in Britain and has
over 2,000 listed buildings of historic interest.
The oldest surviving spa building in Cheltenham is
Vittoria House on Vittoria Walk (1804). Two of the
best preserved spa buildings are The Rotunda at
Montpelier (now Lloyds Bank) and the magnificent
Pittville Pump Room in Pittville Park. Today's
curious visitors can still take the waters at
Pittville.
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Cheltenham is one of the few English towns in
which traditional and contemporary architecture
complement each other. From the neo-gothic styled
Victorian school buildings such as Cheltenham
College (1843 onwards) and Cheltenham Ladies'
College (1873 onwards), through to modern
commercial buildings like the Eagle Star UK
headquarters in Bishops Cleeve. Cheltenham also
has many fine churches including the medieval St
Mary's where John Wesley is said to have preached
from the old cross in the churchyard. |
Pittville Pump Room in Pittville Park - Photo:
Nigel Homer
CCL |
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Thatched cottage at Chipping Campden -
Photo:
John Smith
CCL |
The High Street,
Chipping Campden |
Chipping Campden, with its perfectly preserved
curving High Street, is perhaps the finest of
all Cotswold towns, set in a bowl of hills near
the escarpment at Dover's Hill.
Many of its most interesting
buildings date from the reign of King James I,
when Sir Baptist Hicks built the Almshouses and
Campden Manor, of which only the gateway lodges
and two ornate pavilions survive.
The magnificent wool church
has few equals in the County.
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Bliss Mill, with Chipping Norton in the
distance beyond - Photo:
Pam Brophy
CCL |
The highest town in
Oxfordshire and once a very important centre of
the wool trade, Chipping Norton was given a
charter by King John to hold a fair to sell wool.
This later changed to a Mop Fair for the hire of
servants and this tradition of street fairs is
still held each year in September. There is a
small lively Theatre in Spring Street, and the
town is well known for its antique trade. |
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Cirencester, the ‘Capital of
the Cotswolds’ possesses an exceptional variety
of attractions of which the Parish Church, the
Corinium Museum and Cirencester Park are
outstanding.
Cirencester Park which comes
right into the heart of the town is the venue
for a number of equestrian events including polo
which takes place every Sunday throughout the
summer.
Look also for the fine wool
merchants' houses clustered around Coxwell
Street and Thomas Street.
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Dollar Street,
Cirencester |
Cirencester
offers an
excellent range
of shops and has
regular sales of
crafts and
antiques in the
Corn Hall and
Bingham Hall
throughout the
year. Brewery
Arts provide
workshops for
resident
craftsmen and a
wide range of
goods is sold
through the
gallery shop.
They also put on
a
variety
of events,
classes and
entertainments.
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Fairford has a delightful
quality of spaciousness given by the meadows on
the banks of the River Coln and the Croft, to the
rear of the High Street. The Church of St Mary is
renowned for its unique set of 28 painted glass
windows that tell the story of the Bible.
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St. Michael's Gate, Gloucester - Photo:
David Stowell
CCL |
Gloucester began with Glevum,
a Roman fort which guarded the lowest Severn
crossing and the legions' routes into Wales; it
became one of the four coloniae of Roman Britain.
Anglo- Saxon Gleawcester was a royal burgh or
fortified town in Alfred the Great's time and had
its own mint. The Norman and Angevin kings often
made it their residence and it was here that
William the Conqueror decided on the Doomsday
survey.
The city has long been an inland port and has its
own harbour master. Archaeological excavation has
revealed the site of a complete Roman forum, which
must have covered about 2 acres. The site of the
basilica or administrative building has been
discovered as well as the flanking colonnades on
the east and south sides. Fragments of an
equestrian statue of an emperor have been
collected and identified and also the bronze
tassels of his saddle and the plinth of the
statue. The excavation has apparently confirmed
the hypothesis that there were two Roman
occupations. The principal finds are in the City
Museum. |
The city's main thoroughfares still follow the
Roman roads and meet at the Cross. In Eastgate
Street stands the Guildhall. Nearby in Brunswick
Street is a memorial to Robert Raikes, who founded
the Sunday school movement in St Catherine Street.
New Inn in Northgate Street was a timbered 15th
Century pilgrims' hostelry; the interior has been
modernized but it preserves its courtyard with
surrounding balconies. Another ancient inn, the
Raven Tavern in Hare Lane, has been saved from
demolition by private subscription. It was once
the home of the Hoares, who sailed in the
Mayflower to New England. At the bottom of
Westgate Street is an old l6th Century gabled
house built by Thomas Payne, a mayor of
Gloucester, and nearby are the 15th Century St.
Bartholomew's Almshouses.
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Also in Westgate Street is
a 16th Century timber-framed house reputed to
have sheltered Bishop John Hooper before he
was burnt at the stake in 1555 in the reign of
Mary Tudor. It now houses one of the best folk
museums in the country with comprehensive
collections of everything to do with early
trades, crafts and industry as well as
exhibits of historical interest. The medieval Church of St Mary de Crypt
in Southgate Street has been much restored. It has
a peal of eight bells cast by Rudhall, the famous
Gloucester bell founder. Inside the church is the
font where George Whitefield, the preacher, was
baptised. He was born in the city and attended the
St Mary de Crypt Grammar School next to the
church. |
Church of St. Mary de Crypt in Southgate
Street - Photo:
David Stowell
CCL |
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Gloucester Cathedral - Photo:
Nick Robinson
CCL |
The cathedral is still the chief glory of
Gloucester. Its Norman plan and structure were
preserved as the body of this magnificent church,
to which the work of later periods was added. It
therefore affords an illustration of architectural
development which can hardly be bettered any-
where in Europe. The Norman pillars of the
174ft-long nave up to the stone screen remain as
they were during the first building period of 1080
to 1100. The east window is the largest medieval
stained glass window in England. |
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Lechlade is well known as the
highest navigable point of the Thames and provides
a complete contrast with most Cotswold towns,
having more in common with the towns of the Thames
Valley. Kelmscott Manor, the home of William
Morris and Buscot House, an 18th century mansion
owned by the National Trust lie just over the
river in Oxfordshire. |
Ha'penny Bridge, Lechlade - Photo:
Martin Clark
CCL |
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Redesdale Hall in the centre of Moreton-in-Marsh
- Photo:
David Stowell
CCL |
Moreton-in-Marsh straddles the
Roman Fosse Way and was at one time an important
local linen weaving centre and coaching town.
Although not one of the principal Markets during
the heyday of the Cotswold wool trade,
Moreton-in-Marsh now claims the largest open air
street market in the Cotswolds. Every Tuesday,
thousands of visitors arrive by coach, car and
train to browse around the 200+ stalls. |
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Northleach High Street - Photo:
Nick W
CCL |
The old town
is dominated by the church of
St Peter & St Paul |
Northleach, home of the
Cotswold Countryside Collection Museum which
occupies the 18th century House of Correction,
also has a splendid perpendicular church with
some interesting monumental brasses.
The town has largely escaped
the commercial pressures of the 20th century and
is a delightful example of an unspoilt wool
town.
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Market Place cross and sundial,
Stow-on-the-Wold - Photo:
David Stowell
CCL |
The stocks at the market place in the
autumn |
Stow-on-the-Wold stands
about 800 feet up in a hilltop position and is
the highest town in the Cotswolds.
The centre of Stow is its
great market square which was the scene of two
annual sheep fairs and now has a number of
elegant Cotswold houses and coaching inns facing
onto it.
The Church of St. Edward was
used as a prison for Royalist captives in the
Civil War and has an interesting Crucifixion
scene in the Dutch style as well as two
pre-Raphaelite stained glass windows in the
clerestory.
Stow is now known as a
centre for high quality specialist antiques.
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A steep old town once famous
as the country's most important centre for the
manufacture of broad- cloth. It still supplies
most of the world's requirements for
billiard-table cloth and has a flourishing dye
trade.
Its scarlet dyes are world
renowned. Some of the 18th-century woollen mills
witness to this important past. Piano manufacture
is now included in the activities here.
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Parish Church of St. Lawrence through the
morning mist - Photo:
Peter Kwan
CCL |
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Tetbury Market Place and Town Hall - Photo:
Gordon Kneale Brooke
CCL |
Tetbury is proud of its 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 Cotswold wool
trade.
The town centre is still
dominated by the splendid, pillared 17th Century
Market House or Town Hall and the Parish Church of
St. Mary The Virgin. Many of the wool merchants'
houses look much as they did 300 years ago.
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The town has great charm and
has rightly been described as ‘an architectural
gem’. Tetbury is now famous for its many and
varied antique shops and for the marvellous
arboretum at Westonbirt. |
View from first floor of the town hall -
Photo:
Kenneth Allen
CCL |
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The town of Witney is world
famous for its blankets. Much of the architecture
of the town reflects the past prosperity of the
woollen trade and the firm, ‘Earlys of Witney’
still manufactures blankets today.
The beautiful Church of St.
Mary the Virgin with its 150ft spire stands at the
end of Church Green. From here, a row of
almshouses and the Buttercross can be seen. At
nearby Mount House are the remains of the Palace
of the Bishop of Winchester.
Other historic buildings
include the Corn Exchange, the 17th century Town
Hall and the exterior of the Blanket Hall. A small
market is held twice weekly in the Square.
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Millennium Stone at Woodstock - Photo:
Alan Iwi
CCL |
Woodstock is a charming town
with excellent hotels, tea rooms and restaurants.
Shopping is a delight in Woodstock with its many
antique and specialist shops.
A Georgian flavour is apparent
from the architecture of the centre with the
notable Town Hall and nearby buildings. The garden
where the first Blenheim Orange apple tree grew is
marked by a plaque.
The 5 holed stocks, complete
with Stonesfield slate roof are in front of the
County Museum at Fletchers House. Walk through the
Triumphal Arch into the magnificent grounds of
Blenheim Palace. |
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