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Northleach, Church of St Peter and Paul, lithograph published by Vincent Brooks Day & Son c. 1875.

Medieval Oxfordshire - and the Southern Cotswolds

Overview Practicalities

Section:

Tour highlights

Varied survey of the major and minor medieval monuments of Oxfordshire and south Gloucestershire.
Beautiful drives through verdant landscapes.
One hotel throughout, a country inn in the historic market town of Burford.

Geologically varied and drained by the river Thames and its tributaries, Oxfordshire retains a remarkable group of medieval buildings. A bishopric was founded at Dorchester by St Birinus in 635, to be followed by the christianisation of the middle Thames valley over the next few decades.

Monasteries were established at Oxford, Cirencester and Malmesbury, while significant religious sanctuaries were set up on the river islands. The preeminent centre is, of course, Oxford – famed not so much for its Anglo-Saxon past as for its university and colleges. The university never had more than a handful of buildings of its own over the Middle Ages, having adopted the parish church on the High Street for its assemblies, though the construction of the Divinity School and outstanding gift of books by Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester (1390–1447), began a process which resulted in a spectacular series of buildings at the heart of the university area. The colleges, by contrast, invested in architecture on a huge scale from the outset, creating a series of set-pieces of which Merton and New College were to prove the most influential.

Outside the city, particularly to the south and west, Oxfordshire and the southern Cotswolds became hotbeds of architectural innovation, wonderfully embodied at great church level in the new choir and presbytery at Dorchester Abbey, and on a small scale at Ewelme and North Leigh. The area around Witney boasts a cluster of parish churches of national importance, while to the west lie the arrestingly well-preserved towns of Burford, Northleach and Cirencester.

Practicalities

Two sharing: £1,770. Single occupancy: £2,050.

Travel by private coach; accommodation as described below; breakfasts and three dinners with wine, water and coffee; all admissions and donations; tips for restaurant staff and drivers; the services of the lecturer and tour manager.

The Bay Tree, Burford: located in a historic Cotswolds market town, bedrooms are spread between the main house, garden rooms, and cottages. Due to the nature of the building, there are lots of stairs and some floors are uneven. Single rooms are doubles for sole use.

This tour involves quite a lot of getting on and off coaches and standing around and should not be attempted by anyone who has difficulty with everyday walking and stair-climbing. Average distance by coach per day: 48 miles.

Are you fit enough to join the tour?

Between 10 and 22 participants.