"THE COTSWOLDS..." England Travelogue by coceng

England Travel Guide: 69,317 reviews and 128,720 photos

The Cotswolds And Me...
First, welcome to My COTSWOLDS Page !
How I discover this region ?
Read on... & to some of you who are not interested, please leave quietly.
I had to reach England, well London just to get a cheap air ticket to Iceland !
I wanted this first trip to England to be a special treat for myself...
I didn't want to be stucked in London, doing what most people would do in London.
I opened many guidebooks hence I discovered The Cotswolds ! Simple as that...
I love the photos that I saw on those guidebooks; Did many more reseach on the Net as well...
I just wanted to be there in this region.
I read about the places; Getting to know them one by one...Day-dreaming that I would be in as many Cotswold villages as possible...
Then, I discovered about the 'scarce' transports. Not easy to get to those villages unless I have a car, a bicycle; Well, I could walk from one village to another, but I thought I wouldn't cover that many villages that way.
So...I started to get in touch with people on the Net. I wrote to some people on VT; NONE of them is interested to show me around !
Outside VT, I found people would be more receptive of what I wanted to see in The Cotswolds...
I was in touch with 2 guys :
Patrick in Cheltenham;
Roger in Winchcombe.
Together, we planned for about 5 months before I finally got to touch down in England & meeting them. They drove me around...
The trip around The Cotswolds is indeed a successful one ! It took us only 2 days which I think is enough for me but anybody can explore The Cotswolds for a week or so...
We covered many small towns, scenic villages as you can see in many of my Cotswold pages here on VT ! That's my story...
Big thanks also to Lee in New York, a world-class photographer who had sent me lots of photos from The Costwolds; Which created the inspirations in me to visit those places myself !

My Itineraries Around The Cotswolds...
Please refer to the maps below !11th June 2004 (Friday) :
First day; We started in Cheltenham (being tipped as The Gate To The Cotswold); Roger fetched me from the train station. Had lunch in Hobnail Inn, along the A435 highway; Met up with Patrick.
For the first day, we covered the northern Cotswold; Lower Slaughter; Passing through Upper Slaughter; Stopped in Stow-On-The-Wold; Drove through Bourton-On-The-Water.
Then Broadwell; Roger's house in Winchcombe; Met up with his mum...Off 4 of us went to Broadway; Broadway Tower; Next Chipping Campden; Lastly on that first day, we finished it off by having dinner at The Plough Inn, in Ford. Slept in Cheltenham, at Patrick's house.12th June 2004 (Saturday) :
Second day; Only Patrick could accompany me as Roger had a painting exhibition on that evening...From Cheltenham, first place would be Painswick; Passing through Stroud; Next was Minchinhampton; Then Tetbury where we also had lunch there; After lunch Cirencester; Then Bibury; Lastly Burford. End of my Cotswold journey.
After Burford, Patrick drove me to Oxford where we spent the night there.

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You can see many photos plus some descriptions of the villages, small towns that I have been to around The Cotswold on the links below :

@
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@II@@@@@@@Bibury;@@@@@@@ XIX
@@@@@@@Burford;@@@@@@@ XX@XX
@@@@@@Painswick; XX@Tetbury;@
@@@@Chipping Campden; II@@@@
@@@@@Minchinhampton;@@@@
XX@@Cirencester; Broadwell;@@
@@@Winchcombe; Broadway;@@
@II@Lower Slaughter; Ford; @I@
Stow-On-The-Wold; Cheltenham;
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
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The Map Of My Itineraries on the 10th June...

This was the original map that I created, sent to some people on the Net, the itineraries that I would cover (originally planned for 11th June).
I managed to cover most of the places with Patrick & Roger, which they suggested me that we should cover them on the 10th June instead.
This is the northern part of The Cotswolds.

The Map Of My Itineraries on 11th June...

Another map of the southern part of The Cotswolds.
Patrick could drive me around the southern part as the last destination would be Burford as from there, we could reach Oxford conveniently.
Note : You can see some places on the maps that I didn't manage to see; This was either I stayed longer in one particular place or we decided to skip some places. To me, this excursion was NOT my excursion alone but rather included Patrick & Roger as well !

Lower Slaughter in The Cotswolds...

Where Exactly Is The Cotswolds ?
The Cotswolds is contained within the western side of Oxfordshire & the eastern side of Glouchestershire.
In addition to that, the greater part of The Cotswolds lies in Gloucestershire but it also reaches into Worcestershire & Oxfordshire.
This is an area of steeply limestone hills, from the Severn Valley in the west towards the Oxford Vale.
Okay, to most of us this region would be about 100 to 200 miles to the WEST of London; Between Bristol & Oxford; Nearer to Cardiff in Wales than from London...
This area is famous for the tranquility of its villages, many haven't changed since the booming wool trade of The Middle Ages !
During The Middle Ages, The Cotswolds were the wool trading centre which became the wealth of The Cotswold towns & villages.
Many of the fine churches & manor houses from the 14th & 15th century are still intact with their honey-coloured limestone walls which was locally quarried for the local cottages, mansions & churches.
Small streams & rivers would run through these towns & villages hence make it such a scenic 'Chocolate-Box Sceneries' that we all love...(well, some of us anyway).

Ford village in The Cotswolds...

The towns & villages are not far from each other. Only 4 or 5 or 6 km away from one another !
If you have your own transport, it would be more fun to explore these places. Hire a car or rent a bicycle & explore The Cotswolds !
Just stop whenever you like; Roger & Pat was telling me that in the 70's & 80's, there used to be many 'tramps' in this region; Meaning 'walkers or hikers' - sleeping in barns, picniking in the fields...
Nowadays, there are lots of hiking groups or companies, organizing walks around The Cotswolds.

Broadway Tower in The Cotswolds...

LINKS :
These are/were some links that I read about The Cotswolds, hence planning myself to reach many of those villages ! Get to see the villages that I didn't manage to cover in my last trip !The Cotswold;
The Cotswold Info;
Completely Cotswold;
Cotswold Calling;

Please also read about THE COTSWOLD WAY if you want to do some hikings in the region...

Page Updated Apr 1, 2005
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Comments (8)

36waterfalls Jun 12, 2007 at 3:43 AM Report Abuse

Very COOL page! (I'll be walking from Chipping Campden to Bath pretty soon, no kidding!!!) Greetings from the Netherlands, Linda
truus_s Aug 22, 2004 at 7:32 AM Report Abuse

OOO That is nice done so..Great!!
joanj Aug 11, 2004 at 12:54 AM Report Abuse

Hi, nice photo's and yes your last photo was of London, River Thames and the Millenium Dome, (white structure ). Love your Cotswold pages
dragontml Aug 3, 2004 at 7:21 AM Report Abuse

very interesting write-up, arnaud ! ;-)
tommix Aug 2, 2004 at 12:09 PM Report Abuse

Wow, Arnaud! Those pics are fabulous! Both from the air and from Cotswold!
HORSCHECK Jul 28, 2004 at 1:40 PM Report Abuse

Arnaud, excellent aerial views from your trip ...the Afganistan photos look kind of impressive .... Fabulous page ... :o)
kenyneo Jul 27, 2004 at 6:36 AM Report Abuse

Hey Arnaud ...Cotswold are so cool ..I was searching high and low for such landscape and scenery but instead people suggested Bath and Cantebury etc.... so exited now :-)
JimKnopf Jul 23, 2004 at 12:16 AM Report Abuse

Hi Arnaud, I don't read the text, the pictures tells so much. Very nice pictures, especially the pics out of the plane and the cstles and old buildings. I like the castles and old buildings very much. Thank you for sharing.