The Cotswolds, England (Dec 2017)
The Cotswolds is a huge area in south central England, stretching over six counties. It is known for being very picturesque, with gently rolling hills, green meadows and historic villages, with buildings all made from the same style and pale coloured Cotswold stone.
Despite having spent so much time in England over my lifetime, I had never visited the Cotswolds, although have often heard people describe its charm and beauty. In December 2017 while on a holiday with the extended family in Poole, Dorset, I organised a mid-week trip to see what all the fuss is about. As the children didn’t want to come with us, preferring to stay in Poole with their grandparents and cousins, we had limited time. So I hatched a plan to visit the lower part of the Cotswolds for an overnight stay, then drive through Oxford back to Dorset the next day. Steve and I left our base in Poole in our rental car as soon as it was light, around 8.15am on Wednesday 20th December, heading north up the A350 through Shaftesbury.
Castle Combe, Wiltshire
Before I started researching, I had no idea which were the best parts in the Cotswolds or which villages were popular to visit. As I began surfing the net, the name Castle Combe popped up a few times, being labelled as the “prettiest village in the Cotswolds” and described as a “chocolate box village”. It sits at the southern part of the Cotswolds, in Wiltshire, so when planning our route I decided we would head there first. After a brief stop along the way for some fuel and a cup of tea at an awful ‘Little Chef’ we arrived at Castle Combe around 11am. It certainly lived up to its reputation. It really is pretty! I wasn’t too sure why it had the name Castle though, as there was no castle as far as I could see. I read later there used to be a 12th century castle about 1/3 of a mile north of the village.
We drove down the hill into the main square and realised there was no available parking, despite being very quiet with not many people about. So we drove back up the hill and parked alongside the woods. It was only a short walk, a couple of minutes, back down the narrow main road into the valley and heart of the little village. We admired the rows of beautiful little houses along the main street, all built in the same style and out of the same pale caramel coloured and weathered stone. There was a little stone market cross / square and village pump in the middle of the village, with a couple of pubs nearby and a small church. We wandered around for a while, looking at the gorgeous little houses and ventured a little further down the road where there was a bridge over a little stream.
We also went inside the old church (St Andrews), admired the stained glass windows and architecture, then wandered around the misty, damp grounds, trying to read some of the gravestones and imagining life in this little village from decades and centuries earlier. Nature calling, I crossed the road and went into one of the inviting pubs to use their bathrooms, ducking my head and crouching my five-foot stature as I went up the windy narrow staircase. The people in the olden days must have been really tiny! I would have liked to stay longer in the warm pub with its fire places, however we had to make a move as I had planned a few more places for us to visit that day.
Malmesbury, Wiltshire
After Castle Combe we drove over to Malmesbury Abbey. This village was much larger, with lots of streets, shops and people. We almost got lost driving around to find parking. It didn’t take too long before we found a large parking area, conveniently situated behind the town shopping precinct. As we walked through a little arcade, we were pleased to find we were across the road from the old Abbey. Stopping quickly to take a photo of the market cross, we made our way to the Abbey grounds.
The Abbey was built in the 12th century, but the history of the site dates much earlier, back to the 7th century. It is a beautiful Anglican church on green grounds with a graveyard in front. Once inside the Abbey, it seemed much smaller than it appeared from the outside. We learnt this is because the spire and the west tower had collapsed so those parts of the building are not used. We walked around the pews admiring the floors, intricate arches and ceilings, and the stained glass windows, before making our way back through the graveyard and little arcade to our car.
Beverstone Castle, Tetbury, Gloucestershire
Next stop was Tetbury to find Beverstone Castle. We had difficulty finding the castle at first, on a quiet road on the outskirts of Tetbury – we drove past it. When we finally found it and drove in through the gatehouse, through the estate and grounds, we discovered most of the medieval castle was in ruins however a small part was still occupied. As it became apparent people were living in there (by the cars parked out front and a few kids toys around) I suddenly felt bad driving in and wandering around trying to take photographs. I realised I was trespassing so we quickly went back on our way. Clearly I hadn’t done my research well enough as I later looked it up again and read that it is privately owned and not open to the public. My bad! Perhaps they ought to put a sign up out front? I wonder how many people they get driving onto their grounds not realising they are on private property?
Bourton on the Water, Gloucestershire
We drove on, planning to stop for a late lunch at The Thames Head Inn at Cirencester since it had great reviews on TripAdvisor. Unfortunately when we arrived around 1.45pm the car park was completely full. So we kept going until we reached Bourton on the Water. This was another lovely village. Again, all the buildings made from the same pale caramel coloured Cotswold stone. We drove around the village twice looking for the public car park, noticing there were still some remnants of snow piles about, from a snowfall the week before.
After we parked up, we walked through the laneways into the village, following the signposts and looking for the Motor Museum. Unfortunately we discovered it was closed for winter. Though we weren’t too disappointed as we found the Waterfront Tea Room nearby instead, advertising they sold Lavazza coffee (which pleased Steve) and cream teas (which pleased me). So we went inside, found a perfect spot by the window, nice and warm, overlooking the stream and bridge outside. After our afternoon tea we walked back over the little bridge across the stream, looking at the ducks and admiring the large Christmas tree in the middle. Then we browsed in a couple of the little shops, where we ended up buying some gifts and souvenirs.
Next we drove over to Broadway, about 20-30 mins away.
Broadway Tower, Worcestershire
A few months earlier I was watching a travel show on TV at home in Sydney covering a journey through the Cotwolds and the presenter stopped off at Broadway Tower. I decided I had to go there so it was this TV show (I can’t for the life of me recall what it was called) that inspired me to plan this trip.
Broadway Tower is a folly on Broadway Hill, built in 1798 near the village of Broadway, in the county of Worcestershire. We arrived as it was getting towards dusk around 3.45pm. The sky was turning a lovely orange and pink – we were remarkably lucky as it had been cloudy all day. We tried to buy tickets to the tower from the café in the car park but the lady told us it was closed and had closed at 3pm. “That’s funny” I mumbled to Steve, “the website said it’s open until 5pm and so did the sign in the car park”. The ladies told us we could still go up and walk around the tower so we headed on up the path towards to tower.
As we walked across the grass, over the small hill and along the pathway through the slightly muddy ground, we saw a herd of red deer grazing in the field near the base of the tower. I walked over to take a closer look with my camera, while the stag of the herd looked up and kept his eye on me. Steve said he could see a man working in the gift shop inside the bottom of the tower so he walked over to check it out. The man asked if we wanted to come inside. He said they were open for another half hour. How bizarre! We told him the ladies in the car park told us it was shut but we would love to come up. So we paid him our GBP5 entry fee (each) and climbed up the narrow and steep winding staircase inside – about 3 floors, until we reached the open air roof top. Once there we admired the sunset and 360 degree views. Although it wasn’t exactly a clear day and the light was fading we could see quite far, across several counties. They say on a clear day you can see 16 counties. I had no idea how many we could see but it really was a long way!
On the way back down we stopped on each level to view the museum items on display. One level was dedicated to the war era, another to the Morris & Co fashion/home designer. We ended up on the ground level in the gift shop just as it was closing time, so we quickly bought a couple of souvenirs. By now it was almost dark and was getting cold so we quickly headed back along the pathway to the car park.
Sudeley Castle, near Winchcombe, Gloucestershire
Next we drove over to Sudeley Castle for their ‘Spectacle of Light‘. I had stumbled upon this event when browsing the web and from the description it looked like it was going to be really good. We followed the GPS wondering where on earth we were being taken as we drove along empty, dark country lanes and arrived through what appeared to be a back gate to their car park just before 5pm. The carpark looked very busy and I was worried we wouldn’t get in as I hadn’t booked tickets online, due to not knowing what time we would arrive. However as we got to the entry, they assured us we could buy tickets at the door for the next entry session. We paid our entry fee, GBP35 for the two of us, then spent the next hour wandering at our own pace through the gardens around the 15th century castle. We were really impressed at the different displays of lighting in different colours to choreographed music. The light and sound show really made our visit to the castle’s gardens that extra magical.
While there seemed to be a lot of people there, the event was managed really well, allowing restricted sizes of groups to enter every 15-30 minutes. So it didn’t feel too crowded as we walked and stopped to take photos along the colourfully lit paths with other couples and families of all ages. There were even little vans selling mulled wine, cider and hot chocolate around the gardens. We giggled as we heard a loud American lady behind us remarking how lovely her cider was and asking her friends what was in it (she had no idea it contained alcohol).
As we were leaving, there was a Salvation Army band playing Christmas carols. We reluctantly made our way out towards the car park through the last part of the display – huge trees with dangling little crystal balls reflecting lights every direction, while classical music played from hidden speakers. We felt really lucky to have timed our visit perfectly for this event as it’s only held once a year, on selected evenings throughout December.
The Horse & Groom at Bourton on the Hill, Gloucestershire
It was now pitch dark and I hate driving English country roads in the dark. Headlights coming towards me dazzle and blind me and I will never get used to the narrow country roads with high hedges on the sides and no shoulder to pull into when avoiding an oncoming car. Luckily most of our drive was through wider ‘A’ roads and there wasn’t much traffic about as we headed towards our final destination of the day. Thank goodness also for the car’s inbuilt GPS, which helped us find our accommodation at The Horse & Groom, Bourton on the Hill, near Moreton-in-Marsh. As we pulled up at the beautiful building, softly lit, looking just like its picture on the web, I breathed a sigh of relief, as reality isn’t always in line with the sales pitch. We checked in at the bar, then headed to our room upstairs by the garden (room 5). Our room was beautifully decorated, as well as lovely and warm, with a decent sized, modern ensuite. We freshened up, cleaned our muddy shoes and went downstairs into the pub’s restaurant around 7pm for some dinner. We were starving since we hadn’t had a proper lunch, just the afternoon tea earlier at Bourton on the Water.
As we entered the restaurant we encountered a slightly awkward moment when confronted by a small dog owned by the guys who worked in the pub. I had seen a note on their website saying dogs were allowed in the main bar area, as so many English country pubs allow these days, but didn’t expect to see one walking around the restaurant area while we ate… Steve isn’t a fan of dogs being around food areas while eating, so we asked apologetically if it was possible they could keep it in the bar area while we ate. After assuring us she wouldn’t hurt us as she was a rescue dog, they kindly accommodated our request. So we sat down, had a beer and cider and ordered our meals.
The menu looked really good and it was hard to choose. We decided to start with some delicious hummus, bread and olives (annoyingly I dripped olive oil down my cream top); then for mains I had a delicious pork belly while Steve enjoyed a venison stew, washed down with a bottle of red wine. We couldn’t help overhearing a couple which came in after us as they were ordering: first they asked for hummus, to be told it was sold out, then they asked for venison stew – it was sold out! Appears we’d had the last of both, so were lucky we timed our entry to the restaurant when we did.
It really was a deliciously large meal. We were so full and tired from our day of adventure we couldn’t finish it all. While earlier I’d had visions of us sitting in the bar by the fireplace with some drinks after dinner, we were struggling to keep our eyes open, so ended up heading back up to our room around 8.30pm and crashed.
We woke up the next morning to another overcast day, feeling well rested. It was Thursday 21st December. Solace. The shortest day of the year. It was chilly with grey skies outside, but there was no snow unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on which way you look at it – whilst snow looks beautiful, it would have certainly restricted our travels. We lay in bed until 8.30am before getting ready for breakfast, which was served in the bar area from 9-10am. I ordered a big English breakfast. Considering I don’t normally eat breakfast and had a big meal the night before I had no trouble finishing my scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, mushrooms, fried tomato and fried bread! As the couple from the restaurant the night before entered the bar I giggled as I wondered if they were going to order the same breakfast meal as us, to be told it was sold out again. It didn’t happen though. Then we wriggled our eyebrows at each other as we noticed them sitting in silence reading their iPhones.
We left just before 10am after checking out. In daylight we discovered the village was tiny, not even big enough for any shops, with just the main road running through it. The village was home to some beautiful 17th and 18th century cottages and buildings; the well-rated pub we had stayed in seemed to be the main attraction.
Stow on the Wold, Gloucestershire
First we drove on to Stow on the Wold, which turned out to be another gorgeous Cotswold village, all the buildings built using the same cream-golden coloured stone. We spent an hour or so, browsing around the shops in the village and buying a few xmas presents and souvenirs. It was quite a busy village with lots of shops, people and cars about. The highlight for me was the Cotswold Sweet Company little shop, selling old fashioned sweets and lollies, some I haven’t seen for many years, ones I remembered from when I was a very young girl.
Oxford, Oxfordshire
Next we drove on to Oxford. Not too sure where to go first and after driving around twice, we decided to stop at Westgate for some Christmas shopping. An outdoor shopping centre, mainly with clothes shops, we soon found it lacked inspiration and was very cold, so we didn’t stay long.
I hadn’t done much research on Oxford so I wasn’t sure where we should go next. I remembered my father bringing me here with my sister when we were children to show us Oxford University where he studied in the 1960’s. So I decided to try to look for Oriel college – a name I’d remembered him talking about as his college. We drove over to the older part of town, looking for the university area. Again we ended up driving around in circles, through the one-way system twice, trying to find somewhere to park. We began to realise why there were so many bicycles around. Finally we found a parking spot on the street near where we wanted to be.
We got out to walk around and stumbled upon the beautiful Bodleian library. We walked around the block, through the quadrangle, admiring all the old architecture and thinking of past episodes of Lewis that had been filmed around the area. Eventually after wandering around some nearby streets, we found Oriel College, part of Oxford University. We also accidentally stumbled upon the Bridge of Sighs while walking back to the car.
We contemplated finding a café for some lunch or drinks but still didn’t feel like eating after our heavy breakfast many hours earlier.
Around 3.15pm we decided it was probably time to leave Oxford to head back to Dorset. Unfortunately we got stuck in traffic getting out of Oxford, first in a 30-minute traffic jam, then again on the motorway at Winchester. The GPS sent us on a detour through Andover and Winchester so whilst the route was a little more scenic than the motorway, we didn’t get back to Poole in Dorset until around 6pm.
As I reflected on our journey later, while I had enjoyed exploring the old part of Oxford town, seeing all the beautiful, old architecture of Oxford and was glad to have found my dad’s old college, I felt our time in Oxford was a little disappointing. Perhaps this was because I hadn’t really planned what to do and see so I couldn’t help feeling I was missing something. Maybe it was because of my childhood memories I was comparing it to. Or perhaps it was because we had such a lovely day the previous day – where every place we had visited was stunning and memorable. In any case, I was glad to have visited Oxford again but don’t necessarily feel the need to return in a hurry.
My tips:
- Visit mid-week if you can, it’s likely to be less busy with tourists.
- Winter is also a great time to visit, not only because it’s less crowded but there’s something about the cold, damp air and winter lights that makes the countryside and villages seem more magical.
- Sudeley Castle’s Spectacle of Light’ is only on in December and has early bird bookings online now for their 2018 event. As it’s getting popular, I’d recommend booking.
- Accommodation options are plentiful. I highly recommend The Horse & Groom at Bourton on the Hill, for its comfort, cleanliness, size, charm, cost and delicious food.
- Getting around by car is easy, as there’s good signage everywhere. However parking is not so easy. Be prepared to be patient and factor time into your schedule for looking for spaces.
