The Cotswolds

Famous for its honey-coloured stone cottages, meandering rivers and rich history, this charming corner of Britain is worth a look - if you can see past all the other tourists. 1. Burford Known as the gateway to the Cotswolds, Burford is the first Cotswold town encountered by travellers coming from London. The following nine entries form a rough circle that will bring you back to this former centre of the English wool trade. A few buildings in Burford date back to the 1400s but all the shops and houses lining the High Street (below left), which slopes steeply down to the River Windrush, are of significant age. This is a town of antiques shops, antiquarian book shops and tea rooms, and its market-town atmosphere makes for a pleasant introduction to this part of southwest Britain. 2. Bibury A few kilometres to the southwest, Bibury was described by artist and designer William Morris as 'the most beautiful village in England'. Attractions here include a trout farm and Arlington Row (below centre), a terrace of weavers' cottages built from the famous honey-coloured Cotswold stone and converted from a storehouse in the 17th century. It's said to be one of the most photographed places in Britain. The Catherine Wheel pub is one of the best in the area, with log fires, fine ales and exposed beams made from the timbers of shipwrecks. 3. Cirencester In Roman times, Cirencester, then named Corinium, was the second largest city in Britain. Today, numerous sites and ruins testify to the town's history. The Corinium Museum is the place to go to find out about the history of the Cotswolds. Cirencester is also home to the Royal Agricultural College, the first and oldest such establishment in the English-speaking world. For a stopover, try the Old Court Bed and Breakfast (www.old-court.co.uk), which is more than 300 years old and offers four antiques-filled rooms. 4. North Woodchester Some way off the tourist trail, North Woodchester is worth a detour for its tumbledown Norman church and graveyard and adjacent Roman villa site. This is Laurie Lee country, and his autobiographical Cider With Rosie was set just across the Stroud Valley in Slad. Head up Selsley Hill to Selsley Common and walk towards the horizon. After 10 minutes the common drops off precipitously to reveal broad views of the Severn Valley, with South Wales far in the distance. At sunset, the snaking River Severn in the middle distance sometimes turns red, providing a breathtaking vista. 5. Cheltenham Famous for its Gold Cup steeplechase and exclusive Ladies' College (below right) - a year's boarding at which costs close to HK$350,000 - the spa town of Cheltenham is seen by Cotswold residents as the smartest place in the area. And it certainly looks it: an abundance of early 19th-century buildings has left Cheltenham with the unofficial title of 'the most complete Regency town in England'. You can reach it by train from London's Paddington station on the Cheltenham Spa Express, as visitors have done since the 1920s when the train was said to be the fastest in the world. 6. Broadway 'There is something about that golden Cotswold stone,' says Bill Bryson in his book, Notes from a Small Island, 'the way it absorbs sunlight and then feeds it back, so that even on the dullest days villages like Broadway seem to be basking in a perennial soft glow.' Peter Pan author J.M. Barrie once lived here, as did Sir Edward Elgar, William Morris and - perhaps appropriately - American stage actress Mary Anderson. Broadway is one of the most visited places in the Cotswolds and can be extremely crowded at weekends. 7. Chipping Campden Rich with this area's trademark steeply pitched roofs, dormer windows and stone mullions, Chipping Campden is a textbook Cotswold town. It is best known for its High Street lined with houses built from the 14th to 17th centuries. Tourists can be a problem here too but, if you stay overnight, an early-morning walk around town is something to be savoured. The town's website (www.chippingcampden.co.uk) lists some interesting accommodation in farms, country houses and inns. Grabbing a good head start on the modern event, the annual Cotswold Olimpick Games began in Chipping Campden in 1612 - and they're still going strong. Events include the standing jump, putting the shot, throwing the sledgehammer and spurning the barre, a form of tossing the caber. 8. Moreton-in-Marsh A market town since Saxon times, Moreton-in-Marsh boasts that rarest of things in the Cotswolds, a railway station, and from London you can reach it by train in about 80 minutes. It's a peaceful little place and receives fewer visitors than many of its neighbours. Batsford Arboretum (www.batsarb.co.uk), about 2km outside the village, is a private garden established in 1890 by one Algernon Bertram Freeman-Mitford. As a foreign attache his travels took him to China and Japan, and his design for the arboretum was influenced by the landscapes and flora of both countries. 9. Stow-on-the-Wold The people of Stow-on-the-Wold are proud of their village's historical association with the English Civil War. During the decisive Battle of Naseby, King Charles I stayed at the now 500-year-old Kings Arms, which still takes guests and serves locally caught river trout and apple-fed Gloucester Old Spot Pork. The Royalist, built here in AD947, is officially the oldest inn in Britain. 10. Bourton-on-the-Water One of the main attractions in Bourton-on-the-Water, otherwise known as the Venice of the Cotswolds, is its model village. More impressive than it sounds, this one-to-nine-scale marvel was built in the 1930s from local stone. Eerily realistic, the village is in the garden of the Old New Inn (www.theoldnewinn.co.uk), a former Queen Anne coaching inn used by travellers on their way to and from nearby Burford.