The Cotswolds is a region of central South West England, along a range of rolling hills that rise from the meadows of the upper River Thames to an escarpment above the Severn Valley and the Vale of Evesham. The area is defined by the bedrock of Jurassic limestone that creates a type of grassland habitat that is quarried for the golden-coloured Cotswold stone. It lies across the boundaries of several English counties: mainly Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire, and parts of Wiltshire, Somerset, Worcestershire, and Warwickshire. The highest point is Cleeve Hill at 1,083 ft (330 m), just east of Cheltenham. The predominantly rural landscape contains stone-built villages, towns, stately homes and gardens featuring the local stone.
Oxfordshire is a ceremonial county in South East England. The county is bordered by Northamptonshire and Warwickshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the east, Berkshire to the south, and Wiltshire and Gloucestershire to the west. The city of Oxford is the largest settlement and county town.
Cirencester is a market town and civil parish in the Cotswold District of Gloucestershire, England. Cirencester lies on the River Churn, a tributary of the River Thames. It is the eighth largest settlement in Gloucestershire and the largest town within the Cotswolds. It is the home of the Royal Agricultural University, the oldest agricultural college in the English-speaking world, founded in 1840. The town had a population of 20,229 in 2021. The town is 18 miles (29 km) northwest of Swindon, 18 miles (29 km) southeast of Gloucester, 37 miles (60 km) west of Oxford and 39 miles (63 km) northeast of Bristol.
The Fosse Way was a Roman road built in Britain during the first and second centuries AD that linked Isca Dumnoniorum (Exeter) in the southwest and Lindum Colonia (Lincoln) to the northeast, via Lindinis (Ilchester), Aquae Sulis (Bath), Corinium (Cirencester), and Ratae Corieltauvorum (Leicester).
Akeman Street is a Roman road in southern England between the modern counties of Hertfordshire and Gloucestershire. It is approximately 117 kilometres (73 mi) long and runs roughly east–west.
The Cotswold Line is an 86+1⁄2-mile (139.2 km) railway line between Oxford and Hereford in England.
Chalford is a large village in the Frome Valley of the Cotswolds in Gloucestershire, England. It is to the southeast of Stroud about four miles upstream. It gives its name to Chalford parish, which covers the villages of Chalford, Chalford Hill, France Lynch, Bussage and Brownshill, spread over two square miles of the Cotswold countryside. At this point the valley is also called the Golden Valley.
Uley is a village and civil parish in the county of Gloucestershire, England. The parish includes the hamlets of Elcombe and Shadwell and Bencombe, all to the south of the village of Uley, and the hamlet of Crawley to the north. The village is situated in a wooded valley in the Cotswold escarpment, on the B4066 road between Dursley and Stroud.
Hawkesbury is a hamlet and civil parish in South Gloucestershire, England. The hamlet, consisting of a few cottages around a triangular green, lies west of Hawkesbury Upton, off the A46 road.
South Cerney is a village and civil parish in the Cotswold district of Gloucestershire, 3 miles south of Cirencester and close to the border with Wiltshire.
Ashley is a village and civil parish in the Cotswold district of Gloucestershire, England, about 8 miles south-west of Cirencester. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 142, decreasing to 131 at the 2011 census. To the north, across the A433 road, is Trull House.
Rodmarton Manor is a large country house, in Rodmarton, near Cirencester, Gloucestershire, built for the Biddulph family. It is a Grade I listed building. It was constructed in the early 20th century in an Arts and Crafts style, to a design by Ernest Barnsley. After Ernest's death in 1925, it was completed by Sidney Barnsley, his brother, and then by Norman Jewson, Ernest's son-in-law. All the construction materials were obtained locally, and hand worked by local craftsmen.
Owlpen Manor is a Tudor Grade I listed manor house of the Mander family, situated in the village of Owlpen in the Stroud district in Gloucestershire, England. There is an associated estate set in a valley within the Cotswold Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The manor house is about 1 mi (1.6 km) east of Uley, and 3 mi (4.8 km) east of Dursley.
Norman Jewson was an English architect-craftsman of the Arts and Crafts movement, who practised in the Cotswolds. He was a distinguished, younger member of the group which had settled in Sapperton, Gloucestershire, a village in rural southwest England, under the influence of Ernest Gimson. Surviving into old age, he brought their ideas and working methods into the second half of the twentieth century. His book of reminiscences has become established as a minor classic of the English Arts and Crafts movement. His repair of the Tudor Owlpen Manor in 1925–26 is often regarded as his most representative and successful work.
The twin villages of Shipton Oliffe and Shipton Solars are situated just 7 miles (11 km) from Cheltenham. The River Coln, just a small stream at this point, flows through the village over two fords and innumerable little water splashes, creating ornamental lakes in private properties. The population of the parish at the 2011 census was 365.
Alfred Hoare Powell (1865–1960) was an English Arts and Crafts architect, and designer and painter of pottery.
The Oxfordshire Way is a long-distance walk in Oxfordshire, England, with 6 miles in Gloucestershire and very short sections in Buckinghamshire. The path links with the Heart of England Way and the Thames Path.
Coates is a village and civil parish situated in Cotswold District, Gloucestershire, England. It is around 3 miles (4.8 km) west of Cirencester and close to Cirencester Park, part of the Bathurst Estate. It is the nearest village to the source of the river Thames at Thames Head, and it is close to the course of the Foss Way or Fosse Way, the ancient Roman road. The nearest railway station is Kemble. The village population taken at the 2021 census was 491.
Nympsfield Long Barrow is the remains of a Neolithic burial site or barrow, located close to the village of Nympsfield in Gloucestershire, South West England.
The Welsh Way was a British Iron Age trade route and track-way that originally carried trade between South Wales and the Oxford area of England across the Cotswold Hills. There is evidence it was utilised and improved by the Roman army following the conquest of Britain as a link between Akeman Street and the Fosse Way.
