Chipping Norton Lido
One of the last heated open-air lidos in the country, tucked behind the high street in Chippy. It's the kind of place that makes a Tuesday morning feel like a proper holiday: blue water, green lawns, and nowhere you need to be.
One of the last heated open-air lidos in the country, tucked behind the high street in Chippy. It's the kind of place that makes a Tuesday morning feel like a proper holiday: blue water, green lawns, and nowhere you need to be.
The lido sits just off the main road in Chipping Norton, about ten minutes from the cottage, though you'd never guess it was there unless someone told you. A 25-metre heated pool, a shallow toddler pool for little ones, a sauna, a cold plunge, and long stretches of lawn where you can settle in with a book and a coffee from the poolside cafe. The water is heated (this matters in the Cotswolds, even in July), and on a clear morning the light across the pool is genuinely beautiful.
It's a community-run pool, which means it has that slightly old-fashioned, well-loved feeling: volunteers on the gate, regulars who swim every morning, children racing across the grass. Sessions can book up on warm weekends, so it's worth checking the timetable in advance. We often go for an early swim, then walk into town for coffee at one of the cafes on the high street. The whole thing takes a couple of hours and sets up the day perfectly.
“An early swim at the lido, then a wander into Chippy for breakfast. It's one of the simplest mornings you can have here, and one of the best.”
All of this on the doorstep, and your own thatched cottage to come home to. Sleeps seven, less than a mile from Soho Farmhouse.