The Cotswold Guy
Part farm shop, part café, on the little high street of quiet Guiting Power that most visitors drive straight past.
Part farm shop, part café, on the little high street of quiet Guiting Power that most visitors drive straight past.
Guiting Power is one of those quiet honey-stone villages that most visitors drive straight past, which is partly why we like it. Tucked down Church Lane you will find The Cotswold Guy, a boutique farm shop and takeaway that grew out of Chris Davey's private cheffing, and you can taste the difference that background makes. This is not a farm shop that happens to sell coffee. It is a place built around flavour, with shelves stocked from the farms and producers he has spent years getting to know, and a short counter of things worth driving out for.
The shop opened in 2021 and has quietly become a local institution in the few years since, the sort of name that gets passed between people who know the area well. The reputation rests on the deli counter and the takeaway. The sausage rolls and Scotch eggs have picked up awards and genuinely deserve them, and there is a rotating spread of quality provisions to fill a basket: local cheese, bread, chutneys, cured meats and store-cupboard bits you did not know you needed. Nothing sits on the shelf that has not earned its place, which is rarer than it should be. There is a little garden for when the weather plays along, so you can sit out with a coffee and something from the counter before heading off on a walk. Everything leans toward elevated British classics rather than anything fussy, which is exactly what you want when you are stocking a cottage kitchen or putting together a picnic. It is easy to go in for a loaf of bread and leave with a bag full of things you had not planned on, and we usually do.
The drive over is around half an hour from Well Cottage, roughly eighteen miles of the loveliest Cotswold lanes you will find, the kind lined with dry stone walls and not much else. It is a proper little outing rather than a quick nip to the shops, so we tend to make a morning of it. The shop is open seven days a week: nine to four Monday through Friday and on Sunday, and until five on Saturday, though bank holiday hours can shift, so it is worth a quick check on their Instagram before a special trip. Pair it with a wander around Guiting Power itself, one of the prettiest and least spoilt villages in this corner of the Cotswolds, and you have an easy morning out. The lanes around here are made for it, and there is no shortage of footpaths from the village if you fancy stretching the legs before heading back.
No single farm shop covers everything, so we pair The Cotswold Guy with a few others depending on which way we are heading. Wykham Park Farm Shop near Banbury is the big weekly-shop option, while Eagles Fine Foods in Deddington and Quince and Clover are the delis to know for something more special. When you want the full farm-to-table experience, Daylesford is the grand version of all this a little further out. Our guide to eating and drinking in the area pulls the rest together, from village pubs to farm shops.
“The sausage rolls alone are worth the drive. We always leave with far more than we planned to buy.”
All of this on the doorstep, and your own thatched cottage to come home to. Sleeps seven, less than a mile from Soho Farmhouse.