Farmland, Kiftsgate, Gloucestershire, Cotswolds, England by Andrew Roland, DreamstimeFarmland at Kiftsgate near Chipping Campden © Andrew Roland, Dreamstime

This is bolt-hole territory for me, just a few miles from home and where I can spend a few hours enjoying a view or taking a walk.

This covers the northwest tip of the Cotswolds, the very fringes where the rocks and the stone peter out – or begin. Within my locale’s entirely hand-drawn boundaries lie five very distinct and different areas – the northern fringe of villages running along the River Stour in south Warwickshire and the tiny part of the Cotswolds that flows into Worcestershire around the Vale of Evesham and Bredon Hill, all of which frame the start of the Cotswolds AONB near the Hidcotes and Chipping Campden. Further south, more familiar names start to crop up such as Broadway and Snowshill, by which time we are well and truly immersed into the Cotswolds. This is bolt-hole territory for me, just a few miles from home and where I can spend a few hours enjoying a view or taking a walk; Ilmington Downs and Dover’s Hill will always be special simply for their views, but I love the simplicity of an off-thebeaten-track walk in the Stour Valley too.

Back to the top