Rolling Hills and Honey Stone: The Cotswolds
The Cotswolds stretch across much of Gloucestershire, rolling hills dotted with villages where time stands still. Covering 800 square miles, the name is a blend of Cot (sheep enclosure – ie. dry stone walls) and Wold (a hill). So the name literally means ‘sheep enclosure on a hill’.
England’s largest National Landscape also covers parts of Oxfordshire, Warwickshire, Wiltshire and Worcestershire – which has Broadway Tower, from where you can view for 60 miles across 16 counties!
The Cotswold Way National Trail stretches over 100 miles, giving stunning views of the countryside from Chipping Campden to Bath. Walkers who love a challenge could try Broadway Tower.
Follow the Countryside Code to keep all creatures safe. Keep dogs away from steep banks, mushrooms (and other toxic plants/trees) and on leads during nesting season (and near barnyard friends and wild ponies).
How to upright an overturned sheep
If when out walking you see a sheep on its back (due to pregnancy or rain-soaked wool), just firmly right it back (or it will die) then stay with it, until the rain has drained off.
Bourton-on-the-Water
This village is beautiful, but there are concerns over ‘TikTok visitors’ who descend to take selfies with beautiful backdrops. But leave litter behind, having no appreciation of local nature and heritage.
Bibury is smaller and quieter, with a line of old weavers’ cottages besides a green bank and stream.
Other places here are:
- Stow-on-the-Wold (with antique shops and bookshops)
- Chipping Campden (fine stone buildings and an old church)
- Burford (on the Oxfordshire edge)
Castle Combe (England’s prettiest village?)
If you love a proper English village, Castle Combe is as good as it gets. Hidden amid the Cotswolds in Wiltshire, it has honey-coloured cottages that date back centuries, with thick stone walls and steep roofs.
This village has strict laws to preserve it from modern ugliness! Banned things include street lights (so take a torch at night!), aerials and large new-built homes. It features one of the oldest working clocks in England, yet has no face (medieval workers would listen to the chimes, to tell the time)
Today, the village is only home to around 50 people in the centre, with over 100 buildings having Grade II historic listing status, and most buildings are several centuries old.
Keeping the Cotswolds litter-free
Volunteers accompanied a Green councillor to recently conduct an all-night litter pick along 26 miles of a popular Cotswolds footpath. It resulted in them collecting nearly 2000 items of rubbish over 14 hours.
Items found included soiled underwear, human faeces, feminine care products and hundreds of plastic items. What was appalling was that they also found many discarded coffee cups and fast food packaging, despite there not being a single outlet in the nearby area. The councillor said it was clear that people had actively bought items with them, to discard in the countryside.
If you see discarded litter, it’s the council’s responsiblity to remove it on public land. So report it to Fix My Street. If on public land, councils can serve litter abatement orders to force landowners to clean up the mess.
