Towns & Villages
The honey-stone villages and market towns worth a wander.
The honey-stone villages and market towns worth a wander.
The villages around Well Cottage are built from the same warm ironstone as the cottage itself — each one a slightly different shade of amber depending on where it was quarried. Ledwell, where you'll be staying, is barely a hamlet: a handful of listed cottages, a conservation area, birdsong. But within ten minutes in any direction you reach Great Tew with its Falkland Arms and thatched green, Deddington with its medieval castle earthworks and farmers' market, Chipping Norton with its theatre and independent bookshop.
Oxford is half an hour. Woodstock, at the gates of Blenheim, is twenty minutes. Stratford-upon-Avon and the southern Cotswold towns — Burford, Bourton, Broadway — are all within reach for a day out. Below is our honest guide to what's worth a wander.
The peaceful hamlet where Well Cottage stands: a conservation area of listed honey-stone cottages, rolling farmland, ancient hedgerows and a name from the Old English for noisy spring.
The next hamlet over from the cottage: thatched ironstone cottages, the Falkland Arms on the green, the Quince and Clover café and a medieval church. Four minutes' drive.
The closest town to the cottage, known locally as Chippy. A hilltop market square, independent shops, the Jaffe & Neale bookshop and a proper little theatre.
A handsome ironstone village with medieval castle earthworks, a monthly farmers' market on the fourth Saturday, a fine church tower and good pubs on the square.
An elegant Georgian town at the gates of Blenheim Palace, with antique shops, galleries, the free Oxfordshire Museum and some of the best pubs in the county.
Best known for its Victorian tower brewery (family-run since 1849, with tours), Hooky ale, good village pubs, a disused railway viaduct and walks through rolling countryside.
Strung along the old Roman Fosse Way, with one of the biggest street markets in the Cotswolds every Tuesday and a mainline railway station with trains to London Paddington.
A lively market town on the Oxford Canal, known for its twice-weekly markets, the canalside museum and Tooley's Boatyard. Good pubs, the towpath for walking, and Broughton Castle nearby.
The gateway to the Cotswolds: a steep High Street of honey-stone buildings running down to the River Windrush, with the Tolsey Museum, fine antique dealers and good pubs.
The Venice of the Cotswolds: low stone bridges over the River Windrush, the Model Village, Birdland, the Cotswold Motoring Museum, and good tea rooms along the green.
The historic city of dreaming spires, with its world-famous university colleges, museums, riverside walks and renowned restaurants and pubs.
The Jewel of the Cotswolds: a famously wide High Street of golden-stone cottages, Broadway Tower on the escarpment above, and the Lygon Arms for lunch.
William Morris called it the most beautiful village in England. Arlington Row's 14th-century weavers' cottages beside the River Coln, a trout farm, and a Saxon church.
Shakespeare's birthplace on the River Avon: the RSC theatres, his family houses, Holy Trinity Church, punting, and Tudor streets full of good places to eat.
All of this on the doorstep, and your own thatched cottage to come home to. Sleeps seven, less than a mile from Soho Farmhouse.