The Cotswolds is a beautiful area of countryside and honey-coloured stone buildings (a mix of Jurassic limestone with fossilised sea urchins), situated near the floral town of Cheltenham (Gloucestershire). There are so many stone walls that they would be longer than the Great Wall of China, if you laid them out. Known for the pretty town of Bourton-on-the-Water, other popular tourist attractions are Chipping Camden (where TS Elliot would take walks to inspire his poems) and the church in Stratford-upon-Avon where Shakespeare is buried.
Other counties that include parts of the Cotswolds are Oxfordshire, Warwickshire, Worcesteshire and Wiltshire. Some people say the city of Bath is included too. The capital town is Cirencester (where over 2000 children were evacuated from London during World War 2.
The word ‘Cotswolds’ is from an ancient English word (wolds) that means ‘gentle hill’. This area of outstanding natural beauty has way more visitors than residents, but a few rock stars burn out and retire here, as they can afford the price of a house here! Like Brighton Pavilion, the area was not bombed during the war, as Hitler wished to enjoy living here, if he had won the war.
The Rollright Stones are a group of around 70 Neolithic stones (5000 years old). Also called ‘the king’s men’, you can walk around them like tribes did years before, likely as a council circle. The modern form of council circle is restorative justice, where people (inspired by something similar in Hawaii) talk of how crimes have affected your victims, which helps to prevent the same happening again. For juvenile criminals, it has almost a 100% success rate to stop reoffending.
