
Burford

Little Barrington
Burford’s broad High Street sweeps down the hillside to the River Windrush bordered by numerous antique and gift shops. Branching off are delightful, narrow residential streets with flower-filled cottage gardens. In the days when the horse-drawn coach was the main form of transport, Burford was a way station. The coaches are long gone but the lovely inns remain: two with the most atmosphere are The Bay Tree and the adjacent Lamb Inn which along with Burford House are splendid places to stay.
Leave town following the road over the River Windrush. Go left at the mini-roundabout, directing yourself down country lanes to Taynton with its adorable thatched and golden-stone cottages and on up the valley to Great Barrington and Little Barrington, a village of quaint cottages. Turn right along the A40 towards Cheltenham and first right to Windrush where you pick up signs for the drive down country lanes through Sherbourne to Bourton-on-the-Water. (When you come to the A429 turn right and then right into Bourton-on-the-Water.)

Bourton on the Water
Bourton-on-the-Water is a lovely village with a number of riverside greens and low bridges spanning the River Windrush. Go early in the morning, just before sunset, or in the winter to avoid the crowds that overrun this peaceful (albeit somewhat over-commercialized) spot. One of my favorite places to stay lies just up the road: Clapton Manor in Clapton on the Hill.

Lower Slaughter
Leave Bourton-on-the-Water by going down the main street and turning right for a very short distance on the A429 (in the direction of Cheltenham) to a left-hand turn that directs you down country lanes to the more peaceful side of the Cotswolds. This is typified by the outstandingly lovely villages of Lower and Upper Slaughter with their honey-colored stone cottages beside peaceful streams—just the names on the signposts are enough to lure you down their lanes. From Upper Slaughter follow signs for Stow-on-the-Wold down country lanes through “the Swells,” Lower and Upper Swell, further picturesque examples of villages with whimsical names. In Lower Swell consider staying at Rectory Farmhouse.

Stow on the Wold
Stow-on-the-Wold, its market square lined by mellow, old, gray-stone buildings, was one of the most prosperous wool towns in England. Most of the 17th-century buildings around the square now house interesting shops. Two of Stow’s main thoroughfares—Sheep Street and Shepherds Way—are reminders that selling sheep was once the town’s main livelihood. Cromwell converted the 12th-century church into a prison and used it to hold 1,000 Royalists captive after a Civil War battle in 1646.
Nearby Moreton in Marsh’s broad main street, once part of the Roman road known as the Fosse Way, is lined with interesting shops. At the crossroads take the A44 towards Evesham to Bourton-on-the-Hill, an appropriately named village whose houses climb a steep hillside. At the top of the hill turn right for Blockley (consider staying at the lovely Lower Brook House) and follow signs for the village center until you pick up signs for Broad Campden where there is no more splendid place to stay than The Malt House and on to nearby Chipping Campden whose High Street is lined with gabled cottages and shops topped by steep tile roofs.

Moreton in Marsh

Cotswold Cottage
Leave Chipping Campden in the direction of Evesham (a small side road off the High Street that takes you past chocolate-box cottages to the A44, which you cross for the short drive through lavender-lined lanes past Snowshill Lavender to Snowshill and Snowshill Manor (NT), a Tudor manor packed with collections of musical instruments, clocks, toys, and bicycles, and surrounded by lovely cottage gardens. tel: 01386-852410.

Snowshill

Snowshill Manor

Broadway
Just down the lane, flowers dress the picturesque weathered-stone houses of Broadway, a town that is often described as the perfection of Cotswold beauty. The Lygon Arms is as famous as the town, a magnificent 14th- to 16th-century hostelry well worth a peek into its bar and lounges. Just steps from the Lygon Arms is Russell’s a splendid restaurant with lovely rooms. Just up the street in a quiet cul de sac you find The Olive Branch B&B.
Know that you deserve the best and if you can afford the best Buckland Manor in Buckland lies two miles from Broadway.