Touring the COTSWOLDS JIM WATSON Touring the COTSWOLDS Jim Watson Lychgate, Bisley CITY BOOKS • BATH • ENGLAND First published 2019 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or recorded by any means, without prior written permission from the author Text, illustrations and maps © Jim Watson 2019 City Books, c/o Survival Books Limited, Office 169, 3 Edgar Buildings, George Street, Bath BA1 2FJ, United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0)01305-266918 email: [email protected] website: citybooks.co/survivalbooks.net British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN: 978-1-909282-91-9 A Cotswold doorway 2 Contents 1. Chipping Campden to Moreton-in-Marsh 6 5. Bourton-on-the-Water to Burford 66 2. Winchcombe to Broadway 22 6. Burford to Bibury 80 3. Chipping Norton to Stow-on-the-Wold 38 7. Bibury to Northleach 94 4. Stow on the Wold to Bourton-on-the-Water 52 8. The Birdlip Round 110 Naunton from the B4068 3 Tour 1 WARWICKSHIRE Tour2 EVESHAM Ilmington 7a CHIPPING Tour 3 M5 Stratford- CAMPDEN upon-Avon Tour 4 A44 WORCESTERSHIRE 8 Tour 5 1 BROADWAY Tour 6 M50 A435 Blockley Tour 7 Stanton TEWKESBURY A438 Tour 8 Stanway Snowshill A44 MORETON- 9 IN-MARSH County border Bourton-on- A34 Ford the-Hill Cotswold Way Temple STOW-ON- A44 A46 Guiting THE-WOLD NOTE: WINCHCOMBE All maps in this 10 CHIPPING GLOUCESTERSHIRE Guiting Power NORTON book are schematic Naunton CHELTENHAM Bledington OXFORDSHIRE and not drawn to 11 The Slaughters scale. BOURTON-ON- Great THE-WATER Rissington GLOUCESTER A46 A436 Hampnett Withington A361 Yanworth Sherborne Severn BIRDLIP Chedworth NORTHLEACH BURFORD River 12 A435 Painswick Little Shilton Miserden A417 A433 Barrington 13 Fosse WayBIBURY Bisley Eastleach STROUD A429 Sapperton Filkins A417 Fairford CIRENCESTER Bath A46 Bath A433 Tetbury Letchlade 4 Introduction The Cotswolds are unique, a timeless landscape of tranquil many of which are included in the tours. Each route is around country lanes, rolling hills and deep wooded valleys. Its small 20 miles in length which allows time for visiting attractions, towns and villages are places of warm, honey-coloured stone, strolling round villages and sampling the unrivalled range of steeped in history and with an undefinable ‘Englishness’ that gastronomic delights the region has to offer. makes you immediately feel at home. The favourite haunt of Bear in mind that traffic on main roads such as the A40 royalty and the landed gentry for centuries, and now also of and A429 can be heavy in summer, especially at weekends, latterday show-biz ‘celebrities’ and rock stars, the region has no although the routes in this book are mainly along quiet back precise boundaries. There are those who argue that it extends roads and lanes. However, some country lanes are quite narrow as far south as Bath, but for me its essence is concentrated and passing oncoming vehicles is often a matter of negotiation. most richly within the county of Gloucestershire. This is all part of the Cotswold experience and should be This book takes you on eight tours of prime Cotswold country, enjoyed and appreciated. visiting tourist hotspots and secluded villages with ancient Take care and happy motoring! churches, while enjoying expansive views of magnificent countryside. The Cotswolds are also foodie heaven these days, attracting Rugby 2019 top awards, often for restaurants or inns out in the countryside, Hampnett 5 TOUR 1 Chipping Campden to Moreton-in-Marsh • 20 miles Chipping Campden – Hidcote Boyce – Ilmington – Charingworth – Ebrington – Paxford – Blockley – Bourton-on-the-Hill – Moreton-in-Marsh. This tour begins at Chipping ATTRACTIONS Campden, one of the great set piece 1 Kiftsgate Court Gardens Cotswolds towns. We head north to 13 6 2 Hidcote Ilmington two world-famous gardens and on 1 7 3 Mill Dene Garden to Ilmington, most northerly of the 2 4 Batsford Arboretum Hidcote Cotswold villages. Returning south Boyce we climb Windmill Hill for expansive 5 Sezincote B4081 views before descending through Most of the attractions have small Ebrington open farmland to Ebrington, with shops and cafés or tearooms 8 its multi award-winning inn and VILLAGE INNS Charingworth thatched cottages. We continue 6 Red Lion, Ilmington B4035 south to Paxford, which despite 7 Howard Arms, Ilmington being only a small hamlet boasts a 8 Ebrington Arms, Ebrington high-end menu at the local pub, The CHIPPING Paxford 9 Churchill. Blockley is a large village, 9 Churchill Arms, Paxford CAMPDEN once the centre of a prosperous 10 Great Western Arms, Blockley 19th-century silk industry and an 11 Crown Inn, Blockley excellent place to park and explore. 10 12 Horse & Groom, Bourton-on-the-Hill 11 Quiet country roads and lanes now give way to the busy A44, going VILLAGE SHOPS & CAFÉS Blockley 3 14 through delightful Bourton-on-the- 13 IImington MORETON- Hill and passing two more major 14 Blockley A44 4 IN-MARSH horticultural attractions, Sezincote A44 and Batsford Arboretum, before 12 Bourton- ending the tour at the market town on-the-Hill of Moreton-in-Marsh. 5 6 Leisure TOUR Centre Kiftsgate Court Gardens School 1 Chipping Campden to Moreton-in-Marsh P Free Grevel House Market Hall St James' Town Hall Church Jacobean gateway Almshouses The pay car park in The Square rapidly fills. Park at the roadside P with consideration. Free parking at Pay the school is available during school holidays and at weekends. Market Hall on High Street Chipping Campden Town Hall Situated high on the escarpment, and street, each with its own distinct design but also part of the loveliest of all the Cotswold towns, Chipping wondrous whole. Many date from the 14th century and their Campden is famed for its architecture, honey-coloured stone still retains the glow of prosperity history, feel-good character and hospitality. and well-being. The town dates back to the 12th century Campden’s bijou Town Hall occupies an island site when it was an important trading centre. on the edge of the small square. It’s of uncertain age During the late Middle Ages, Cotswold wool but parts date back to the 14th century. The building was a famous commodity throughout Western incorporates two buttresses, the only remaining Europe. parts of St Katherine’s Chapel, built in 1180. Make time for a stroll up and down the A plaque on one corner marks the beginning elegant High Street where, apart from the (or end) of the Cotswold Way, a long-distance parked cars, everything is worth a look. footpath that follows the escarpment all the way to Substantial buildings line the mile-long Bath, one hundred miles south. 7 Grevel House 1 Chipping Campden to Moreton-in-Marsh North-west side of High Street The striking Market Hall in High Street, for many years and made their fortune in was a gift to the town by Sir Baptist the wool trade. Hicks in 1627 as a shelter for traders Across the road from Grevel House selling butter, cheese and poultry. Its stands The Woolstaplers’ Hall, built a simple design – five open arches long few years earlier by another wealthy by two wide – and uneven floor of well- wool-trader, Robert Calf, as a place for worn stones provides us an authentic merchants to gather and buy staples of glimpse of what life must have been like Cotswold wool. Market Hall in a 17th-century Cotswold village. High Street boasts fine examples Hicks, a wealthy textile merchant, was An earlier resident, William Grevel, of Tudor, Jacobean and Georgian Member of Parliament for Tavistock and built Grevel House with its gargoyles, façades, but artfully hidden behind them Tewkesbury, and in 1626 was made sundial and slender bay widows around are state-of-the-art hotels, boutiques Viscount Campden. 1390. His family had lived in Campden and yes, even ordinary shops! South-east side of High Street 8 Food & Drink 1 Chipping Campden is particularly Chipping Campden to Moreton-in-Marsh well-blessed with eating and drinking establishments. This is only a tiny guide on what the town has to offer: Campden House gateway The Kings Hotel overlooks the Sir Baptist Hicks, a founder of the square and offers brunch, lunch, East India Company and one of cream tea or full evening meal. the richest men in the country, was The popular Eight Bells Inn in the town’s greatest benefactor. He Church Street provides a genuine built Campden House in 1613, a old English experience with open flamboyant italian-style mansion, fires and candlelit tables plus a which was destroyed by the Royalist choice of local ales and ciders on Hicks family during the Civil War tap and the finest seasonal produce. (1641-51) to prevent it falling into Housed in a five-hundred-year- the hands of Oliver Cromwell’s old building, Huxleys boasts a Parliamentarians. The Jacobean wonderful terrace overlooking the lodges and gateway fronting open town square. It's an intimate café fields are all that remain today. and wine bar with old oak beams, a Hicks further ensured his legacy by roaring log fire in winter and comfy donating the pulpit and lectern in St leather sofas. James’ Church, where he is grandly Buttys at the lower end of High interred in the family chapel. Street prepare fresh sandwiches, There was a Norman church on this breakfast baguettes and salad boxes site before 1180 but it took another made while you wait. 300 years before St James’ began For something completely different to look anything like the archetypical try Michael's Mediterranean, a Cotswold wool church it does today.