EXPLORE THE NORTH COTSWOLDS
Just some of the beautiful towns and villages, within easy reach of Adlestrop
BIBURY
Bibury is a charming, typically Cotswold, village just a short drive from "The Capital of the Cotswolds", Cirencester.
Bibury was once described by William Morris (1834-96) as "the most beautiful village in England". In fact, Fox News says that Bibury is one of the world's most picturesque villages, and an article on the Huffington Post website (1st May 2014), titled "The Most Charming Towns In Europe You'll Want To Visit ASAP", mentioned Bibury. There's no doubt that Bibury is featured on many lists of most beautiful Cotswold villages.
And the cottages of Arlington Row are often referred to as the most photographed and beautiful cottages in the country.
BROADWAY
The beautiful and historic Cotswold village of Broadway is a memorable place to visit and a perfect base from which to tour the local area and enjoy the stunning walks. The pretty High Street is lined with horse chestnut trees and includes a mixture of period houses and picturesque honey coloured Cotswold stone cottages which have lured visitors for centuries.
BURFORD
Burford’s famous High Street sweeps downhill towards the River Windrush, its three-arched medieval bridge and its impressive church, both sides of the street flanked by an unbroken line of ancient houses and shops.
Little has changed over the centuries, Burford is popular with visitors, both for its beauty and history but also for its shopping, especially antiques, and for the wide variety of places to eat, with restaurants, pubs and teashops. Here you can stay in a hotel frequented by King Charles and Nell Gwynn, dine where Nelson dined or visit England’s oldest pharmacy, a chemist since 1734.
CHIPPING CAMPDEN
Chipping Campden is one of the loveliest small towns in the Cotswolds and a gilded masterpiece of limestone and craftsmanship. The main street curves in a shallow arc lined with a succession of ancient houses each grafted to the next but each with its own distinctive embellishments.
Chipping Campden was one of the most important of the medieval wool towns and famous throughout Europe. This legacy of fame and prosperity is everything that give the town its character.
Chipping Campden's church, St. James, at the north end of the town, is perhaps, the finest 'wool' church in the Cotswolds, with a magnificent 120ft (36 metre) tower and a very spacious interior. The church is famed for having one of the oldest altar tapestries (pre-reformation) and largest brass in England.
CIRENCESTER
Cirencester, often referred to as the Capital of the Cotswolds, was the second largest town in Britain during Roman times.
Today the former Corinium Dobunnorum is home to more than 18,000 people and a destination for the thousands more who live in surrounding villages. In later years it was a very prosperous medieval wool town.
Cirencester's market square is dominated by the cathedral-like Parish Church of St. John Baptist (one of the largest in England). The large south porch with its impressive fan vaulting was built about 1490.
MALMESBURY
Atop a perfect flat hill encircled by the River Avon at the southern entrance to the Cotswolds, sits Malmesbury, said to be the oldest continually inhabited town in England. Malmesbury is rightly called the "Queen of Hilltop Towns" being England's oldest borough with a rich history over 1000 years.
Officially Malmesbury can be traced back to the fifth century, but modern excavations have revealed the remains of an Iron Age Fort, which casts the settlement possibly as far back as 500 BC. Malmesbury is also home to England’s oldest hotel, the Old Bell, which has been offering bed and board since 1220.
OXFORD
A visit to Oxford, which dates back to Saxon times, is a trip into the brains of a nation. Tour the hallowed halls of the university and follow in the footsteps of Prime Ministers, poets and the one and only Harry Potter.
Take a guided tour of Oxford University’s Bodleian Library .
Explore the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology - the first purpose-built museum in England, which opened in 1683. Or wonder at the anthropology collections at the incredible Pitt Rivers Museum.
PAINSWICK
This beautiful, historic wool town, sitting in regal hilltop splendour near Stroud, is known as ‘The Queen of the Cotswolds’. It is one of the best-preserved settlements in the Cotswolds, built from mellow honey-coloured stone quarried from nearby Painswick Beacon.
Sitting halfway along the Cotswold Way National Trail, the small town of Painswick is surrounded by marvellous walking country and is a great base for walkers. Painswick Beacon has magnificent views across the Severn Valley to the Welsh mountains.
STOW ON THE WOLD
Stow-on the-Wold is the highest of the Cotswold towns standing exposed on 800 feet high Stow Hill at a junction of seven major roads, including the Roman Fosse Way.
At the height of the Cotswold wool industry the town was famous for its huge annual fairs where as many as 20,000 sheep were sold at one time.
The vast Market Square testifies to the former importance of Stow on the Wold. At one end stands the ancient cross, and at the other the town stocks, shaded between an old elm tree. Around the square the visitor is faced with an elegant array of Cotswold town houses and shops.
TETBURY
Tetbury is the second largest town in the Cotswolds. It is the home of HRH Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales, and the Duchess of Cornwall and, was an important market for Cotswold wool and yarn during the Middle Ages. Today, it is better associated with boutique shops, great food, and its Royal Connections.
Tetbury with over 1300 years of recorded history lies on the site of an ancient hill fort, on which an Anglo-Saxon monastery was founded, probably by Ine of Wessex in 681. The centre has many fine stone buildings in various styles indicating the architectural fashions of the last 400 years. Many of these fine houses were originally built and financed by the wool-staplers on the proceeds of the sale of wool. Tetbury has never manufactured cloth as it does not have continual running water to service mills.