The Cotswolds

The Cotswolds, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty

Broadway, gateway to The Cotswolds, serves as a natural base from which to explore all that the Cotswolds has to offer. Designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, the Cotswolds is one of the most beautiful places in England. Our Cotswold holiday cottages are located in Broadway known as Jewel of the Cotswolds.

The Cotswolds lie mainly within the counties of Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Somerset, Warwickshire, Wiltshire and Worcestershire. The Cotswolds AONB encompasses more than 2,ooo sq. km of landscapes. Distinctive features include: Jurassic limestone formations with steep scarp slopes, sloping high level plateaus and deep-cut wooded valleys with a maze of lanes and picturesque villages with their honey-coloured oolitic limestone buildings. The area is well known for its rich limestone flora, tradition sheep farming style landscape and the local Cotswold Lion sheep. It was the wool trade in the Middle Ages that made the area prosper and the name Cotswold means sheep enclosure in rolling hillsides, the word wold meaning hills.

The Cotswold Way National Trail

The Cotswold Way National Trail, approximately 103 miles (166km) long, runs the length of the Cotswolds AONB mainly on the edge of the escarpment of the Cotswold hills that run from Bath to Chipping Campden. The trail affords stunning views over the Severn Valley and the Vale of Evesham. The Cotswold Way crosses our field at The Manor House to the south west of the centre of the village of Broadway and is easily accessible, along with some lovely circular walks, from our Cotswold holiday cottages.

Cotswold Villages

Broadway is one of the ten prettiest villages to visit in the Cotswolds. Others include: nearby Blockley with its Norman Church and wide village green, Lower Slaughter home to Copse Hill Road dubbed the most romantic street in Britain, Kingham once voted England’s Favourite Village, Mickleton the northernmost village in the Cotswolds which is rumoured to be the inspiration behind Tolkien’s Weathertop in Lord of the Rings, the chocolate box village of Bibury once described by William Morris as the most beautiful village in EnglandBourton-on-the-Water fondly known as the Venice of the Cotswolds as the River Windrush runs straight through the centre of the village under small bridges, Bredon set beside the River Avon at the foot of Bredon Hill with its medieval barns and thatched cottages, Ashton-under-Hill on the southern edge of Worcestershire with links back to Roman times, Naunton an unspoilt village in the Windrush Valley and Castle Combe to the south is often used as a backdrop for films.

West End, Broadway, in the Cotswolds AONB
West End, Broadway, in the Cotswolds AONB