Stow on the Wold

Together with Bourton-on-the-Water and Moreton-in-Marsh, Stow-on-the-Wold is a market town amongst the best known of the small Cotswolds towns. It stands exposed on a 700 feet high hill at a junction of seven major roads, including the Roman Fosse Way. At the height of the Cotswold wool industry the town was famous for it's huge annual fairs where as many as 20,000 sheep were sold at one time.

The vast Market Square testifies to the town’s former importance. At one end stands the ancient cross, and at the other the town stocks, shaded by an old elm tree. Around the square the visitor is faced with an elegant array of Cotswold town houses.

Stow has many antique shops, art galleries, tea shops and shops carrying a variety of gifts and crafts which are generally of no use at all to people who live around the area. But these tourist shops support a local community clearly keen on it’s food and there is a fabulous butcher, good delicatessens and pretty decent restaurants.

Scotts of Stow carries a wide array of household and outdoor items. Mangan and Webb has an excellent selection of typically English country fashion and riding gear, and the kitchen shop next door has the most fabulous range of discount gadgets. A few doors down, Lambourne's is one of the best butchers in the area and restaurants like the Old Butcher and The Eagle and Child are popular.

Burford

Burford, one of England's prettiest small medieval towns voted one of the best places to live in the world. The town’s history dates back 900 years to a granting of a charter to local merchants to hold their own markets. The current tradespeople of Burford continue the long tradition of good service and the supply of excellent luxury and essential goods to both residents and visitors. The main street is packed with charming little boutiques and specialist shops. With its long history of hospitality, beautiful Cotswold architecture, exclusive shops and galleries and St John the Baptist is a magnificent church (“a paragon of the English Parish Church”) of almost cathedral like proportions, Burford is not to be missed. There is also a Maison Blanc café for snacks and coffee and numerous restaurants and hotels along the main road.

Walk to Swinbrook and its own striking church along the banks of the Windrush that should not be missed. The resting place of some of the renowned Mitford family, as well as home to the unique marble Fettiplace Monument, St Mary the Virgin in Swinbrook is a gem of a small country church well worth a special visit.

You could also visit the nearby Lodge Park and Sherborne Estate - a rare 17th-century grandstand built for civil war politician, John Dutton as a grandstand to watch deer coursing in his 4000 acre Cotswold country estate. The park is surrounded by water meadows - which are a unique example of 18th Century faming methods and is today, home to otters, voles and various wading birds.