Overview
The Cotswolds famously encompasses some of the loveliest countryside in England. Loveliness belongs not only to the countryside but also to the buildings that go with it – viscerally pretty villages, farmsteads, manor houses and market towns.
An essential ingredient of the winning formula is the building stone, seemingly 80% honey and 20% lichen, extruded from the hills on which they stand and sculpted by generations of masons who honed their craft with instinctive good taste. The vernacular is timeless and utterly beguiling, though it incorporates some of the grandest and proudest town houses in England. Some could almost have been designed by Andrea Palladio himself – and some practically were, the designs transmitted to Gloucestershire artisans through the innumerable copycat pattern books which buoyed up English provincial building for a couple of centuries.
Parish churches are a particular glory of the Cotswolds. Mostly mediaeval, they range from the diminutive, artless and additive – often blessedly under-restored and un-modernised – to the great churches in the larger villages and towns with soaring arcades, acres of glass, elaborately sculptured tombs and towers and spires to rival any in the country.
Where did the money come from? Wool. Prized as the best in Europe by the Merchant of Prato in the fourteenth century, wool and cloth manufacturing was the basis for solid prosperity from the Middle Ages to the Industrial Revolution – when the water power of the hills and valleys pushed the region to the forefront before the advent of steam power knocked it back again.
Thus the Cotswolds slumbered, ripe for discovery as a rural idyll by the bicycle-mounted aesthetes and romantics of the late Victorian era.
Day 1
Broadway. The tour starts at Moreton-in-Marsh railway station at 2.15pm. Leaving luggage on the coach, visit Broadway Tower, an 18th-century folly placed there by ‘Capability’ Brown. Follow the Cotswold Way on foot into Broadway; all seven nights are spent here.
Day 2
north Cotswolds. A morning visit to the 4,000-year-old Neolithic burial chamber of Belas Knap, the finest long barrow in Gloucestershire, followed by a walk along the Cotswold Way (3 miles) to Sudeley Castle, famous for its honeyed stone and magnificent gardens. After a break for lunch there is another walk (3 miles), through the attractive town of Winchcombe to Hailes, to visit the ruins of a 13th-century Cistercian abbey and a Romanesque church with wall paintings.
Day 3
Kelmscott, Fairford, Bibury. In the morning visit Kelmscott Manor, the Tudor house acquired by William Morris, founder of the Arts and Crafts movement. The magnificent Perpendicular St Mary at Fairford is Britain’s only parish church with a complete set of mediaeval stained glass windows, and of the highest quality too. A walking tour of Bibury passes Arlington Row, the renowned terrace of cottages that led William Morris to refer to Bibury as the most beautiful village in England.
Day 4
Stanway and Sezincote. Visit Stanway House, a Jacobean mansion which is one of the Cotswolds’ loveliest manor houses and remains a family home. Walk from Stanway to Stanton (2 miles) and have lunch at a pub. Drive to Sezincote, built in the Mogul style of Rajasthan and the inspiration for the Brighton Pavilion.
Day 5
Woodchester, Painswick and Quenington. Walk (1 mile) to the not-quite finished Woodchester Mansion, a Victorian pile which was abandoned just before occupation. Walk around Painswick, a beautiful little town with famous churchyard yews. Return to Broadway and see a branch of the Ashmolean Museum focusing on vernacular British decorative arts.
Day 6
Central Cotswolds. Beginning and ending in Sapperton, walk (4 miles) through undulating woodland and pasture, with periodic open vistas. Pass a number of buildings in the Arts and Crafts style. Cirencester is a flourishing market town with modern metropolitan businesses and streets with many 17th- and 18th-century delights. The soaring magnificence of St John the Baptist is of cathedral-like proportions, while the Corinium Museum houses a fine collection of Romano-British antiquities.
Day 7
Chipping Campden. Walk to Chipping Campden from Dover’s Hill (1 mile), enjoying spectacular views over the escarpment. Possibly the most beautiful of all Cotswold towns, it is a gilded masterpiece of limestone and craftsmanship and home to one of the very finest wool churches in the area. There is some free time here. Continue to Hidcote Manor Gardens, one of the most inventive and influential gardens of the 20th century, before visiting the gardens at Kiftsgate Court.
Day 8
Southern Cotswolds. A special visit to the gardens at Highgrove, the country house of the Prince of Wales (subject to confirmation).The coach returns to Kemble railway station by 3.15pm.
Price – per person
Price, per person. Two sharing: £2,480. Single occupancy: £2,890.
Included
Accommodation as described below; breakfasts, 1 lunch and 5 dinners with wine, water and coffee; private coach throughout; admissions; all tips for waiters and drivers; all taxes; the services of the lecturer and tour manager.
Accommodation
The Broadway Hotel, Broadway: a four-star hotel, originally built as a rural retreat for the Abbots of Pershore in the fifteenth century. Single rooms are doubles for sole use.
How strenuous?
This tour should only be considered by those who are used to regular country walking, with some uphill content. The paths are usually on grassy tracks or through woodland, combined with some paved road. Climbing and crossing stiles are a regular feature on these paths. Strong knees are essential, as are a pair of well-worn hiking boots with good ankle support. There are six walks of between 1 and 5 miles. Average distance by coach per day: 45 miles.
Are you fit enough to join the tour?
Group size
Between 12 and 22 participants.
'Our lecturer was fabulous, couldn't have been better. Our tour manager handled everything and was very pleasant and all of the local guides were very good.'
'The tour was very well designed to provide a broad spectrum of experience.'