The Cotswolds

Cirencester

Very smart and home to the Royal Agricultural College (spiritual home to the aristocracy and anyone else who has an estate to manage), Cirencester is known as the Gateway to the Cotswolds - mainly because, truth be told, its only just on the edge of the classic area. Sadly its High Street has fallen foul of the corporate frontages of building societies, banks and retail chains that seem to be the same all over England. However, delve around and there are a few quirky shops and emporiums - Blackjack Street is a good start where you can buy exotic mustards and strange things in Jesses Bistro, along with a cappucino to keep you going... Interestingly, the limestone strata that has been used for most of the historic buildings in the Cotswolds is the same strata that runs through the Dordogne and Lot regions of France. So much so that when the only working quarry in the Costwolds closed down, builders were forced to import stone from France.
The honey coloured stone is the most obvious characteristic of the buildings, but its main beauty comes from the landscape. Exploited by sheep farmers from the Middle ages, its the wealth from the wool trade that enabled the building & endowment of many of the grand houses, estates and churches in the area. Head North out of Cirencester and you'll soon get a feel for the high open plateaus, interspersed with shallow valleys all enclosed with drystone walls to keep the sheep in. I constantly marvel at the, literally, miles and miles of walling. Having attempted to repair my own metre-long section of garden wall, I can only marvel at the patience and strength of the wall builders of old. Still, I guess shepheards didn't have much else to do once the last wolf was hunted down in the 1700s, so picking up a stone from the field and making a wall with it was their equivalent of surfing the net....

Bibury

Second stop on the tourist trail after starting in Cirencester, Bibury has 3 things going for it - 1) its setting - in a small picturesque valley with a stream running through it and a picturesque hump-backed bridge, 2) a row of ex-weavers cottages that are very...picturesque and 3) the trout farm. Now there's a man I admire - what a business model! Pay to go in, pay for fish food to feed the trout in their ponds, pay again to hire a fishing rod (a pole with a piece of string and a safety pin on the end - so tame are the trout that, if you spoke trout-ese you could probably ask them to jump straight into the baking dish, cover themselves with almonds and by the way turn the cooker up to 200C with a flip of their tail on the way in - oh - and shut the door behind them).
....and then pay for any trout you catch at above market rates because they are "freshly caught". Nice expensive hotel facing the ....picturesque bridge, but better off parking up the hill and having a coffee in the cafe near the Post Office - cheaper and no tourists.

Bourton on the water

Love tourists? Need lots of company? Don't come here then! Well, out of season its a nice place to wander around - and has some attractions to offer - mainly designed along traditional tourist lines, rather than indigenous exploitation - I mean, what is Cotswold-y about a bird sanctuary full of parrots?? Anyway, if you've come here to enjoy yourself I shouldn't complain. There are some interesting things here - the classic model village of Bourton itself - with its own model village of the model village of the model village (did you follow that?!), the Classic Car museum - motoring days long gone when a man would come and fill up your petrol for you, rather than grunt behind a glass "night window" - and the Living Green Centre - an eco exhibition based in a High Street house. Further down the High Street is a very large model railway installation - so you see - something for everyone!

Coln St Aldwyns

The New Inn at Coln has recently been taken over by the same people who run the Bath Arms at Longleat (the stately home and safari-park place) - but don't expect lion burgers on the menu :-)
Coln is a small compact Cotswold village and the pub serves good beer and snacks. Better to eat in the pub rather than the restaurant which is slightly on the pricy side. In the summer you can sit outside and watch the world go by - and after your drink, turn left out of the pub car park and walk along the water meadows bordered by the river Coln. Look to your right to get a great view of the church with a foreground of sheep (or sometimes cows) grazing the lush grass - a very English scene.

Burford

Walk down (and up) the High Street and marvel at the sloping buildings on both sides! Lots of tourist-focussed businesses here, but carry on down to the church...
On 17 May 1649, three soldiers were executed on Oliver Cromwell’s orders here. They belonged to a movement known as the Levellers, with beliefs in civil rights and religious tolerance. Cromwell, who was seen as a champion of democracy, saw the Levellers as a threat, despite their having a peaceful complaint - mainly about not being paid for serving in Cromwell's army. A surprise midnight raid led to the capture of 340 Levellers, imprisoned in the church - one, Anthony Sedley, carved his name on the font which you can still see - 3 others were shot outside - and you can still see the bullet marks on the church walls.
An annual Levellers Day is held partly in commemaration in mid May, with lots of political and democratic lectures plus music from artists like Billy Bragg.

Fairford

Probably most famous for the USAAF airbase just out of the town where B-52s take off for various places "over there" in times of trouble, Fairford is one of those unspoilt Cotswold towns that never seem to make the real tourist trails - and luckily don't suffer from the Nikon-snapping hordes and over-crowding that is Bourton-on-the-water.

Fairford has a small, but very cosy town square, surrounded on all 4 sides by timber framed and Georgian buildings as well as the George, a great example of a coaching inn turned pub. The church of St. Marys is famous for its medieval glass, made in 1500-17 by the King's glazier, Barnard Flower, working out of his workshops at Westminster. Many of the glaziers and glass painters who worked on the project were Dutch, which shows in the styling of the windows.
Walk diagonally through the church graveyard and exit through the gate down to the millpond. You can stand and admire the view on the small bridge over the millpond and watch the river Colne flow beneath you. Look closely and you'll see monster trout - escapees from the trout farm upstream at Bibury.

Facing the town square across the main road is Allium, a good value restaurant, whilst facing the Post Office across the square is Andrew Butler's butchers - buy the best home made pies and sausages - all made from local herds within 2 miles of Fairford!