A Ramble in the English Countryside

How to Escape London and See

the Cotswolds – the England of Calendars and Picture Books

The Cotswolds features rolling green hills with 100 stone villages

London is magnificent, but it can also be big, noisy and crowded with swarms of international tourists following guides holding up umbrellas.  If you want to see the real England – or at least, the Harry Potter fantasy version of what Shakespeare called “this green and pleasant land,” you need to get to the Cotswolds. 

This postcard-pretty rural area of rolling green hills and honey-colored stone villages lies just 60 miles from Big Ben, but is a world away in atmosphere.  Public footpaths meander over stone walls through fields of contented sheep.  Lazy rivers with names like Windrush flow past country pubs with wood smoke curling from the chimney.  

The Slaughters Country Inn

Of course, there are tour buses here, too.  But the great thing about the Cotswolds is, if you leave the town square on foot, the village soon turns to countryside, and you’ll have the countryside all to yourself.  Small wonder that Madonna, Kate Moss, Hugh Grant, Elizabeth Hurley, Patrick Stewart …and of course, Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling – all call the Cotswolds home.  

And you can too, on an easy day break from London.  Here’s how you do it.

Rambling in the Cotswolds

Paddington Station

Leave your bags at your London hotel, throw just the bare essentials in a backpack, wear your best walking shoes, buy a “day return ticket” and catch the train at Paddington Station for Moreton-in-Marsh.  Just 90 minutes away, Moreton has been welcoming travelers to the Cotswolds for 1700 years. 

“Cotswold” is a Saxon word for “hilly shelter for sheep.”  In the Middle Ages, Cotswold sheep were known throughout Europe for their heavy fleece and excellent wool.   Some 20,000 sheep a day could be sold in a single Cotswold market town, and it was the wool industry that brought incredible wealth to the area, as indicated by the gated mansions, elaborate churches and wonderfully carved stone buildings along each town’s main thoroughfare.

Lower Slaughter

When wool was replaced by cotton and the industrial revolution, the sheep industry fell off.  With limited rail connections, the Cotswolds became an isolated farm area, forgotten until the current age of tourism.  Today, 85 percent of the land is still agricultural, but these picturesque limestone hills are also home to nearly 100 pretty villages of stone buildings, all bursting with tea shops, antique stores, inns and of course, pubs.  The entire 2,250 square miles of the Cotswold Hills has been designated an Area of Outstanding National Beauty, sort of an English way of saying “it’s pretty.”

The buildings on the square of Stow-on-the-Wold date to 14-16th century

Moreton is worth a quick poke around and be sure to see The Bell Inn, which allegedly served as the inspiration for The Prancing Pony, the most famous pub in the Middle Earth of J R R Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings.” 

Then catch one of the hourly buses to Stow-on-the-Wold.  Located just four miles away, Stow is one of England’s best known market towns -- and one of the loveliest.  At 800 feet elevation this is the highest of the Cotswold towns, which makes it a perfect walking center because all footpaths go downhill. 

Stow is an ancient town.  You can find Stone Age and Iron Age burial ruins nearby.  Charles I stayed at the Kings Arms in 1645, just before the battle of Naseby.  Charles lost the battle, and eventually his head, but don’t be put off by that.  Like him, you can still enjoy a pint at the Kings Arms.  Or walk a few blocks to the Porch House, which has been an inn since 947 A.D., making it the oldest inn of England.  Try the fish and chips and a Ploughman’s lunch (ham, cheese, pickle and bread) and wash it down with a pint of local Brakspear bitter.

The Porch House may be England's oldest inn, dating back to 947 AD

Stow’s town square is a storybook village of flowers and handsome yellow-stone buildings from the 14^th-16^th century.  A highlight of the square is the stock where in medieval days, transgressors where tied up and publicly humiliated as punishment.  When tormenting people in stocks got boring, Stow also offered bear baiting, where wild dogs attack a chained bear.   Time must have hung heavy before cable TV, and in the sleepy Cotswolds, Stow didn’t even have running water until 1958.

The town square is enclosed by buildings because this is where sheep were brought to market.  Narrow alleys leading into the square (one sheep wide) were built for the sheep, not humans, but you can squeeze through them to find backstreet pubs, tea shops and antique stores.  Be sure to stop at the Information Center to pick up a map for a classic four-mile Cotswold walk (mostly downhill) from Stow to Bourton-on-the-Water.

A Classic Cotswolds Ramble

Public footpaths

The map will lead you to a cemetery near 15^th century St. Edward’s Church, then guide you to yellow arrows and signs indicating a well-marked Public Footpath.  There are 140,000 miles of historic Public Footpaths in England and Wales that permit you to walk across estates, past palaces, through working farms and across fields of sheep and cows.  “Kissing gates,” a sort of swinging gate that lets humans pass, but not animals, keeps everyone in their place.  On this walk from the heights of Stow, you’ll have sweeping views of the countryside, pass through several large farms, cross streams, hop over stone walls, pass a cricket field, and get a backdoor look at wonderful stone cottages. 

Three miles brings you to the postcard pretty village of Lower Slaughter.  Fortunately, “slaughter” here does not mean there are werewolves on the moors, but rather comes from Old English, meaning “muddy place.”  This is as quaint a village as you can find.  There’s an old mill standing beside the River Eye, which flows quietly through the center of town and is crossed by a series of small bridges. Stop for a pint at the Slaughters Country Inn at their lovely riverside outdoor beer garden.   It’s the perfect place to watch horseback riders cross the river and canter off on bridle paths.  

Lower Slaughter is postcard pretty

The footpath continues another mile along the river, past a cricket field, to Bourton- on-the-Water, perhaps the most touristy of the Cotswold villages, but with good reason – the town is simply gorgeous.  The River Windrush flows quietly through the center of the village and is spanned by five elegant stone pedestrian bridges.  Swans and ducks swim in the stream and there are a number of pubs with pleasant outdoor patios overlooking the water.  Try the Duke of Wellington or the Old Manse Hotel.   There are tourist attractions here – a miniature model of the village, a model railroad and a motorcar museum -- and lots of shops, which of course also means, lots of tourists.  But walk down a side street to admire the flowers and stone buildings, and you’ll have the place to yourself.  Plan on about 3-4 hours for the walk from Stow with sightseeing and stops.

 

It's easy to follow the footpaths

Dinner in Oxford

Hourly buses make the 20-minute return trip from Bourton to Moreton and the return train to London, the last bus leaving Burton about 7:30 p.m. However, rather than eat dinner in the country, another option is to leave Moreton by train in late afternoon and stop in Oxford enroute to London.  The day return train ticket allows you to get on and off the train as much as you like, as long you’re somewhere along the route.  

The classic university town of Oxford is relatively compact and offers three fantastic pub options for dinner. From the station, it’s an easy walk to the center of town, where pedestrian-friendly streets lead past one architectural gem to another, including Oxford Castle, Christ Church College (a film setting and inspiration for the dining hall in the Harry Potter films) and the famous punts on River Cherwell. There are Harry Potter tours of Oxford in the afternoon and ghost tours in the evening. 

The colorful punts of Oxford

To visit three ultimate classic English pubs, try The Bear, Oxford’s oldest and most charming pub, which dates to 1242.  The walls are covered with 4,500 neckties and the pub has nooks and crannies and an outdoor beer garden.

The King’s Arms dates to 1607 and was used regularly as a film location for the Inspector Morse mysteries.  It specializes in elegant pub grub and is known for its steak and ale pie 

The Eagle and Child is the youngest of the three, dating to only 1650, but has the most famous history.  Not only did J.R.R. Tolkien write The Hobbit here, but it was also a favorite hangout for Lewis Carroll, who wrote Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.  Lewis was also a regular at the Lamb and Flag across the street, as was Tony Blair, when he was a student at Oxford.

When you’ve drunk enough history, there are two trains to London every hour, each taking just an hour for the journey.

The color of the Cotswolds

IF YOU GO:   www.cotswolds.info/    Unfortunately, buses do not operate in the Cotswolds on Sundays.     

Drinking Your Way Through the English Countryside

There’s no better way to see the English countryside than by walking from village to village on public footpaths, strolling across rolling green hills dotted with sheep and dry-stone walls. And of course, no hike in England is complete without stopping now and then for a rewarding pint of beer, served fireside in a cozy country pub.
The difficulty is getting to the trailhead. Driving on England’s narrow country roads can be frightful and expensive with gas selling for $8 a gallon. The solution is to do what the locals do and take independent day-trip excursions to the countryside by train and country bus. You can hike from one rail station to another, visit a number of country pubs along the way and be back in the city for dinner and theatre.
Train schedules are easily obtained online or at the station and country bus schedules are usually posted in the center of the village, near a pub or town hall. The buses are timed to meet trains and locals are helpful in providing advice. Should you miss the last bus, country taxis are available and since the distances are small, they are relatively inexpensive. However, be warned: country buses don’t run on Sundays.
Here are three easy hiking by train and bus excursions.

The Cotswolds from London
The Cotswolds are the England of calendars and picture books – a green and pleasant land filled with honey-colored stone cottages covered with climbing roses, lush hillsides crisscrossed with a maze of dry-stone walls, tiny villages with wood smoke curling from the chimneys and everywhere you look, sheep. It was wool that made these villages prosperous, but the wool trade is long gone and without direct rail connections, most of the villages in this rural area have remained unchanged for hundreds of years.
The easiest rail connection from London to the Cotswolds is to take the train to Moreton-in-the-Marsh, an easy 90-minute trip from Paddington Station with trains leaving every hour or so. Buy the one-day return ticket to save money. Moreton has been a working market town since the 13th century and is one of the least touristy in the Cotswolds. It’s just a short walk from the station to the wide streets of the town center, which are lined with butcher shops, gift stores and of course pubs. At the Market Hall you can catch buses to a number of the Cotswolds’ most famous villages. Copy the schedule down because Moreton is the only Cotswolds town with rail connections and you’ll need to get back here on the last bus.
From Moreton, it’s easiest to take the bus to Broadway. This is one of the classic honey-colored stone Cotswold villages, lined with contemporary (and expensive) shops and tearooms. It’s a big tourist center, but worth a look around. Try the Horse & Hound for an early fireside pint of beer.
England has a number of long-distance paths that wind for hundreds of miles through the countryside. The 100-mile-long Cotswold Way is one of these, and you can pick it up in Broadway for a four-mile hike to Chipping Campden. The hike begins from the west side of town with a steep climb to Broadway Tower, a folly that was built in 1797 to look like a medieval castle. On a clear day, you can see 13 counties from here – one of the grandest views in the area. The path continues northeast along the ridge through fields and woods, dropping down at last into the pleasant stone village of Chipping Campden.
In the Middle Ages, this was one of the most prosperous towns in the area. The Gabled Market Hall dates to 1627 and the High Street is lined with elegant stone buildings that now house chic antique stores, shops and pubs. The Eight Bells pub just off High Street was built in the 14th century and is a wonderful place for a pint. Or walk along the road to nearby Broad Campden to see some quaint thatch-roofed cottages and have a pint in the delightful Bakers Arms.
From the plaza in front of Market Hall, it’s possible to catch a bus going to Burton on the Water, perhaps the most touristy of the Cotswold villages, but with good reason – the town is simply gorgeous. The river Windrush flows quietly through the center of the village and is spanned by a series of elegant arch stone pedestrian bridges. Swans and ducks swim in the stream and there are a number of pubs with pleasant outdoor patios overlooking the water. Try the Kingsbridge Inn or the Old Manse Hotel. There are tourist attractions here – a miniature model of the village and a motorcar museum – but there are also public footpaths that leave the village for quiet walks away from the crowds. If you’ve been moving fast, it’s possible to squeeze a two-mile walk to Lower Slaughter, yet another picture perfect stone village, and still be back to Burton for the last bus to Moreton.
Since the last bus is in the late afternoon, you can be back in London by early evening…or stop off in Oxford on the way back and have dinner in this beautiful university town. Your round-trip train excursion ticket allows you to get on and off as often as you like in the same day.
Train schedules: http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/
Bus schedules: http://www.pulhamcoaches.com/

The Peak District from Manchester
One-third of Britain’s population lives in the industrial area around the cities of Manchester and Sheffield, but surprisingly, right in the center of these two metropolitan areas is the Peak District, Britain’s first National Park. Unlike America, most of the land in British national parks is privately owned, but it is protected and open to hiking through a series of public footpaths.
The Peak District is an area of rugged beauty with steep vivid green valleys (called vales), tumbling rivers, and gray stone villages, all mixed with high, brooding moors and some of the country’s highest peaks.
A great train hike from Manchester is to take the 8:44 a.m. Hope Valley Line from Manchester Piccadilly Station to the tiny village of Hope. The ride through beautiful green countryside takes 50 minutes. From the station, it’s a 20-minute walk along the main road to Hope, a village of two pubs, a post office and a medieval church dating to 1200. Just past the church, take a left and in a short while there is a level public footpath that winds beside a stream for three miles through sheep fields to the beautiful village of Castleton.
This quiet tourist center has more than 50 public footpaths, a number of tearooms, six pubs, a looming ruined castle built by Henry II in 1157 and a collection of shops that sell the famous Blue John stone – a purplish-blue form of fluorspar that is found only here. Tourists have been coming to Castleton for 300 years to visit nearby Peak Cavern.
The Peaks District National Park has an information center in town, where for 40 cents you can purchase the Walks Around Castleton leaflet that details seven walks lasting from two hours to a full day. Plan your hike while you have a pint by the fire in The Castle pub, or down the road in the flower-covered Cheshire Cheese, which proudly proclaims on their hiker’s pub sign that “muddy boots are welcome.”
A pleasant four-mile hike from Castleton climbs up a ridge to Hollins Cross, from which it’s an easy scramble to the summit of Mam Tor. At 1,695 feet, it is one of the highest peaks in the area. From here you can drop down the other side of the ridge to the pretty village of Edale and a rewarding pint of local Cumbria Ale at the Old Nags Head. This is a famous hiker’s pub because the 250-mile long Pennine Way begins in their car park and zigzags north all the way to the Scottish border.
Cute Edale has two pubs and another National Park information center. Trains leave every two hours for the return trip to Manchester.

The Lake District from Windermere
England’s most rugged hiking area is too remote for day trips from a city, but the town of Windermere has easy rail connections and an abundance of b&b’s. It is about two hours by rail from Manchester.
From this lakeshore town, you can travel by local bus, lake steamer excursion boat or by foot out into some of England’s most lovely countryside – all without the hassle of a car or driving.
The beauty of this area of mountains, lakes and valleys was immortalized in the poetry of William Wordsworth and in Beatrix Potter’s stories such as “Peter Rabbit.” Both of them lived here and you can tour their homes.
No place in England offers more possibilities for pub walks. There are at least a dozen guides that suggest hikes from Windermere and the other Lake District town centers, most of which can be reached by local bus. The Stagecoach Mountain Goat line offers a bus and ferry route to the attractive nearby villages of Hawkshead and Coniston. Their Web site www.lake-district.gov.uk/map offers suggested hiking trails in the area. A 10 a.m. coach from Bowness (Windermere’s adjacent sister town) will have you in Hawkshead by 10:30. This is a cute village of whitewashed buildings with four pubs, hanging flower baskets, twisting narrow alleys, some nice shops and a wide variety of hilly hiking trails. If the weather is clear, stop in the King’s Arms for a fireside pint and directions for the steep two-mile climb up Latterbarrow – a hilltop with a rewarding 360-degree view of Lake Windermere and the surrounding area.
Hourly buses continue on to Coniston, yet another quaint stone village with riverside pubs and gorgeous views of the surrounding mountains. Here, you can catch a boat to the far end of the seven-mile-long Coniston Water and hike back to town along the shore.
Another option from Windermere is to board an old lake steamer at Bowness and sail north to the far end of Windermere Lake to Lakeside, where the pretty Lakeside Inn has fine hand pulled ales and picnic benches overlooking the water.
There are several easy hikes from here, or take a bus a few miles west to Skelwith Bridge, where you can pick up the Cumbria Way, another of Britain’s long distance footpaths. The trail here is easy as it follows a meandering stream with mountain views of the Langdale Pikes, before heading back to the bus stop at Skelwith Bridge Hotel.
Wherever you go, good hiking shoes and rain gear are required as the weather can change in a moment, and trails usually have some wet areas. A good Ordinance Survey map will help, but there are many, many trails and not much signing so even with a good map, it’s easy to get lost. Just relax. A warm pub is never far way and fellow hikers are friendly and can provide assistance and directions.