The Charm of the Cotswolds

Photos and article by Eleanor S. Morris

The romance of Britain's Cotswolds draws couples seeking charming small towns, bed and breakfast inns,and thatched cottages.

Thatched cottages, fields of blue flax, yellow rape seed, and red poppies (in the spring), hillsides dotted with black and white wooly sheep, picturesque villages untouched by "progress," are the lure of this small bit of Gloustershire. Each town's main street, called the High Street, is wide enough to accommodate the sheep and cattle that once were marched to market, before the industrial revolution and the arrival of cotton put finish to the prosperous wool industry.

Today, visitors enjoy the romantic charm of time gone by in towns with names like Wantage, Chipping Campden, Stow-on-the-Wold, Burford. And to top it off, there's a romantic castle, Blenheim Palace, birthplace of Winston Churchill.

Burford's High Street leads down to a narrow bridge across the River Windrush. The town was a stagecoach stop for centuries, and there are charming historic inns such as the Bay Tree. This 16th century house of stone was once visited by Elizabeth I.

Stow-on-the-Wold is the largest town in the Cotswolds, and its elevation gives rise to an age-old saying: "Stow-on-the-Wold, where the wind blows cold." Here you'll find old stone houses housing fine antique shops. This, too, was a stagecoach stop, and eight Cotswold roads intersect here, but not at towncenter, happily.

Wantage is famous for being the birthplace of King Alfred the Great in 848 AD. There's a statue of him on the main square of this ancient market town. Alfred is revered as the saviour of his people from the Danes, and as a lawgiver. If you're interested in the architecture of old churches, you might like to know that the church of SS. Peter and Paul is Early English and Perpendicular.

Chipping Camden is often called one of the most beautiful towns in the heart of England. High Street follows a picturesque curve, lined with houses and shops, while on nearby Church Street you can see a row of almshouses from the reign of King James I. The Market Hall on Market Street was built in 1627, and the buildings of the Silk Mill have been renovated to house crafts workshops. There's an exhibition telling the history of an Arts and Crafts movement back around 1902.

Blenheim Palace was built in 1704 for the first Duke of Marlborough, John Churchill, who beat the French at the Battle of Blenheim. (The locals will laugh at you if you pronounce it BlenHEIM, so stick to Blen-em). As one of the largest domestic buildings in England, it's still an impressive palace after being lived in by the ten or so following dukes of Marlborough. The architect was Sir John Vanbrugh, and there are records of him having a tough time with the then-duchess of Marlborough.

Sir Winston Churchill was born here in 1874, and even though the palace is still lived in, there are guided tours from mid-March to October, of Churchill's life, beginning with the very bed the statesman was born in. The grounds are huge, with sheep grazing all around, ducks and geese in and around ponds, and a footbridge across a meandering stream.

While you'll want to drive through the lovely countryside to get a feeling for this quaint part of rural England, you'll want to walk through the towns, and you'll find plenty of picturesque pubs and tea houses in which to dine and plenty of charming Bed and Breakfast Inns in which to spend the night.

If you're lucky, in one of the towns you might catch some workmen actually re-thatching a cottage, a fascinating sight to watch. The entire area is a treasure-house of thatching, and many cottages also have the picturesque black- and white "magpie" exterior from Tudor times.

Copyright Eleanor S. Morris