Tales from the Cotswolds

1000 Reasons to visit the Cotswolds #631 - its an AONB

Fri, 25 Oct 2019 08:33:57 GMT

reason no 631: its an AONB

631. Its an AONB

An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is an area of countryside in England which has been designated for conservation due to its significant landscape value and in recognition of their national importance by Natural England. or to put it simply: It's nice, so let's keep it that way.

The Cotswolds landscape is characterised by rolling green hills and enclosed limestone valleys, settled valleys, ironstone hills, high wolds and high wold valleys, a low limestone plateau, cornbrash lowlands, farmed slopes, a large pastoral lowland vale, a settled unwooded vale and an unwooded vale. Got all that? If you don't know what some of these things are, you're in good company, most of the people who live here don't either; just trust me when I tell you it's painfully pretty.

The purpose of an AONB is to conserve and enhance the natural beauty of the designated landscape while meeting the need for quiet enjoyment of the countryside and having regard for the interests of those who live and work there. Different from a National Park which encourages large numbers of tourists and actively promotes opportunities for extensive outdoor recreation. If you live in a National Park, there's really no escaping it but by contrast, there is evidence to indicate many residents in AONBs are blissfully unaware of the status. 'What? I live in a what?' This is perfectly illustrated by the yellow car incident in Bibury which you can read about in Tales of the Cotswolds: The Ugly Yellow Car of Bibury

The Cotswolds AONB is full of villages that seem to grow out of the landscape but the Cotswolds were primarily designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty for the rare limestone grassland habitats and old growth beech woodlands that typify the area. These habitat areas are also the last refuge for many other flora and fauna, with some so endangered that they are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. Cleeve Hill, and its associated commons, is a fine example of a limestone grassland and it is one of the few locations where the Duke of Burgundy butterfly may still be found in abundance. Please don't step on it.

The uniqueness and value of the Cotswolds is shown in the fact that five European Special Areas of Conservation, three National Nature Reserves and more than eighty Sites of Special Scientific Interest are within the Cotswolds AONB.

Traditional skills such as dry stone walling, hedgelaying and woodland coppicing have played an important role in moulding the distinctive and unique landscape within the Cotswolds. However, the significant change in land management practices over the past century has resulted in many of these features being left neglected and falling into disrepair. And it's bloody hard work. If you've never given hedge laying a go, think twice before you do.

Fear not; t he Cotswolds Conservation Board runs an annual programme of training courses aimed at teaching people the methods and techniques involved in traditional Cotswold skills and crafts and are able to offer a wide range of enjoyable, practical courses from which trainees can leave with new found skills and the knowledge that they have helped to conserve one of the country’s most important landscapes. Win, win.

The Cotswolds AONB covers 787 square miles and is the second largest protected landscape in England after the Lake District and the largest AONB. Its boundaries are roughly 25 miles across and 90 miles long, stretching south-west from Stratford-upon-Avon to Bath. It lies across the boundaries of several English counties; mainly Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire, and parts of Wiltshire, Somerset, Worcestershire and Warwickshire. The highest point of the region is Cleeve Hill at 1,083 ft.

A June 2018 report stated that the Cotswold AONB receives 23 million visitors a year, the third largest of any protected landscape. The government is considering making some AONBs into National Parks, but this has led to concern from the Cotswold District Council as National Park designation is a significant step towards key decision making powers being taken away from democratically elected councillors; specifically the authority to grant and refuse housing applications.

The Cotswolds functions well as an AONB and seems to be the preferred option for residents while ensuring most visitors get to appreciate it's beauty. It allows visitors a window into a unique way of life surrounded by natural beauty and upheld by tradition and forward thinking.

So, get yourselves along to one of the largest, protected areas of outstanding natural beauty in the UK and enjoy this truly unique part of the country. And don't worry about those 23 million other people coming here too - they don't go where we go and you'll never know they're even here.

Tales from the Cotswolds: The Tale of the Golden Toilet

Mon, 16 Sep 2019 08:33:57 GMT

Golden toilet worth £4.8m stolen from Blenheim Palace - police have nothing to go on..

In 2016 the Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan created a satirical piece of participatory art called 'America'; a fully functioning toilet made of 18 karat gold and worth around £4.8 million. Made to look like the toilets in the Guggenheim museum in New York it was installed in one of the bathrooms there for the public to use. A security guard was posted outside and according to the museum over 100,000 people waited in line to use it.

What does this have to do with the Cotswolds? Fast forward to September 2019 and cross the Atlantic to Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, where the toilet was placed in a water closet used by the former British prime minister and iconic leader, Winston Churchill as part of a larger exhibition by the artist. In the early hours of Sunday 15th September, the toilet was stolen. The game was afoot.

Thames Valley police appeared on the local news where a spokesman for the force kept a straight face while he delivered a summary of events; plumbing had been smashed to remove the toilet causing significant damage and flooding, the robbers mounted a very fast smash and grab raid and a 66 year old man had been arrested and was still in police custody.

According to the BBC, when Cattelan was informed of the theft of his work from one of the largest stately homes in England his first thought was, 'why would anyone want to steal a toilet?'. He claims he then remembered he had made it from 18 karat gold and it was worth almost £5 million. Well remembered Maurizio.

Cattelan is known as a serial prankster who once stole the whole show of an artist in Amsterdam and tried to pass it off as his own work citing it as a survival tactic. He had been given just two weeks to produce work for his latest exhibition and decided to take the 'path of least resistance' in order to put on a show. Despite this, the artist claims he has nothing to do with the theft of the toilet but always liked heist movies and was happy to finally be in one. Oh and he was also the subject of a BBC documentary entitled 'The Art World's Prankster'. Plot. Thicken.

The scene of the crime is the UNESCO World Heritage Site, Blenheim Palace in Woodstock, Oxfordshire, just outside the Cotswolds. Built in the early 1700's and one of England's largest houses, it is the only non-royal, non-episcopal country house in the country to hold the title of palace. It is unique in its combined use as a family home, mausoleum and national monument. The palace is notable as the birthplace and ancestral home of Sir Winston Churchill and is open to the public 364 days a year.

I often visit Blenheim Palace both in a work capacity and in my free time. My children love it as there's plenty to do there including a hedge maze that is supposed to take 45 minutes - but my eldest son and I have done it in 15 with my youngest son on my shoulders. There's a little train, a butterfly house, acres of park and woodland to run about in and often some kind of show or carnival with fun rides, balloons and plenty of sugar.

Blenheim Palace is massive and apart from being the family home of an eccentric millionaire, has also played host to members of the royal family, celebrities, world leaders, heads of state and most recently (whisper it), Donald Trump. By a bizarre coincidence, the golden toilet in question (entitled, American Dream) was offered to Trump's Whitehouse by the Guggenheim after they initially requested the loan of an original Van Gogh for the Oval Office, which was refused.

The current owner of Blenheim Palace is the 12th Duke of Marlborough, James Spencer Churchill; born in Oxford in 1955, educated at Harrow School, relative of Winston Churchill, Lady Diana Spencer (yes that Lady Diana) and Christina Onassis. He also goes by the name Jamie Blandford and has had a somewhat chequered past including serving prison time in 1995 for forging prescriptions and then again in 2007 for six months for dangerous driving and criminal damage following a road rage attack.

In a bid to safeguard the Blenheim Palace estate from Jamie's excessive behaviour, his father won a court battle in 1994 to ensure he never won control of the family seat. However after the father and son relationship improved although still mindful of his son's troubled history, the Duke had insisted the board of trustees should have power of veto should Jamie ever inherit the title and estate.

On the death of his father in 2014, Jamie Blandford, who had a well-publicised drug addiction, inherited his family's residence and is understood to have become a trustee of the companies that run it. The responsibility of maintaining one of Britain's grandest country houses for future generations had passed to the 58-year-old following a remarkable turnaround in his relationship with his late father, who once described him as the 'black sheep' of his family. Jamie is now in overall charge of the estate.

Although open to the public, Blenheim Palace remains a private residence and Jamie can decide what goes on there. Horse trials, car shows and jousting tournaments are just some of the events that bring hundreds of thousands of visitors to the tiny town of Woodstock each year. Many artists have been invited to show their work at the palace in recent years to a mixed reception from visitors.

It is not uncommon to turn up at the Palace to find fluorescent tubes lighting a corridor to a room filled with controversial oil paintings. When I visited last year with a couple of ladies from the US they commented to one of the curators at the house that they found the works of art on display offensive and had they known the exhibition was on, they would not have visited. The curator responded by telling them that Jamie was the owner, it was his gaff, and he could do what he wanted with it. Fair point.

So let's recap; a priceless golden toilet designed by an Italian prankster artist is stolen during a heist straight out of a George Clooney movie from the ancestral home of Winston Churchill, which happens to owned by an eccentric duke with a history of drug abuse and prison time. No one has been charged, the toilet has not been recovered and the whole thing remains a mystery. Just another day in the Cotswolds; the Kooky Cotswolds.

Autumn in the Cotswolds

Sun, 01 Sep 2019 13:21:45 GMT

Autumn is the best time to visit the Cotswolds and here's why

Autumn in the Cotswolds

People often ask when is the best time to visit the Cotswolds? The summer is the obvious choice for many; gardens are flowering, temperatures are warmer and unless you live here – you genuinely think there’s less chance of rain. Very few visitors come in the winter because a lthough it is quiet, there is frost and snow which brings its own set of challenges. Also in the winter, many attractions are closed including Manor Houses and National Trust properties.

Spring is stunning (read all about that in 'Reasons to visit the Cotswolds No 497) but i n our opinion, Autumn is the best time to visit as the positives far outweigh the negatives. Every season has good and bad points and if you're comparing a list of pros and cons - autumn wins hands down.

When does Autumn actually start and finish? Well, here's an opportunity for me to sound clever; it all depends on whether you’re using the meteorological or the astronomical system but everyone agrees that September is the first month of autumn. The meteorological system uses the Gregorian calendar and considers the first of September the start of Autumn. Whereas the astronomical system uses the equinox as a bench mark so considers the 23rd September the start of Autumn with the winter solstice, the shortest day, marking the start of winter. Let’s not get into the whole ‘winter is coming’ debate for now. Not today.

Autumn in the Cotswolds means less visitors and that’s a good thing. Summertime can see some locations become overcrowded. It’s tricky to get that photo of the quintessential English street with a busload of tourists standing in front of you; all socks with sandals and selfie sticks. Less visitors means not having to queue for the bathroom, or an ice cream, or a table at Huffkins. There are more rooms available in charming B&B's in the Cotswolds, without having to stay in a charmless, mega hotel by the motorway outside the Cotswolds on the outskirts of Cheltenham.

Autumn brings cooler days and colder nights so there are real log fires burning. The smell of a real fire is incredibly enticing and to sit next to one on a cold autumn night is a real treat; particularly with a locally brewed real ale or steamy bowl of spiced parsnip soup. Real fires in the morning take a little more effort to get going but are worth it once you're warming your joints over one with a hot coffee in your hands.

Blackberries arrive in their millions in the Cotswolds during autumn. There are approx. four thousand miles of hedgerow in the Cotswolds and blackberry bushes make up a significant part of these. These juicy little berries can be picked wherever you see them – there’s more than enough to go around. Seasonal produce during Autumn is high and many foods come to market at this time of year more than any other; game meat like grouse and venison, fruits such as apples and pears, and vegetables like pumpkins and aubergines

Autumn usually means the end of the harvest season and that means tractors. Lots and lots of tractors. For us, getting stuck behind a tractor is part and parcel of living here and when it happens, you just have to accept it. For big bus tours on a tight schedule, it’s a living nightmare that makes bus drivers do silly things.

Getting stuck behind a tractor is an opportunity to relax, enjoy the scenery and breathe in the country air. Unless you’re stuck behind one carrying steamy fertiliser – then it’s windows up and wipers on. Some visitors to the Cotswolds have a limit as to how much country air they can ingest.

One of the main reasons for visiting the Cotswolds in the autumn is to see the changing colours of the plants and trees. Vibrant reds, shiny golds, deep purples and fiery orange are all around. Lining every road, up and down driveways, across farms and fields and throughout towns and villages. This riot of colour touches every part of the Cotswolds.

At first it creeps into the countryside unnoticed; turning the lush summer greens into pale yellows. The ivy and virginia creeper are usually the first things to turn in the towns and villages – going from green to red. Once the leaves on trees start turning it gathers momentum and before you know it the whole of the Cotswolds is transformed.

To experience this autumn glory on a cold, bright, day, with the smell of a real log fire in the air, on a quiet country lane behind a trundling tractor is a truly unique experience that doesn’t sound like much – but is one that I guarantee your mind will return to again and again once you do.

My ethos when touring the Cotswolds

Wed, 28 Aug 2019 09:51:14 GMT

and how the heck did I get here..?

The story so far

In 2009 I returned from living in Brazil after three years and slipped back into everyday life in the UK. In 2010, feeling unfulfilled in my job, I wanted to change things and own my own business.

In 2011 I noticed that many of the Cotswold tour companies were only offering fixed itineraries to the same places. I would offer something more; off the beaten track locations, previously inaccessible places and a different perspective based on my experiences of travel and view of the Cotswolds. Not exactly a groundbreaking innovation, but no one else was doing it then - so I did it.

The Cotswolds is a place of contradictions and this seemed to be lost on many of the tour companies. Why weren't visitors meeting the people? Why weren't they following the footpath through Eastleach? Or eating at the Market Pantry? Did people understand the real beauty of the Cotswolds and why so many larger than life characters live here? Something had to be done.

Why Kooky? The Oxford English Dictionary has this definition of the word Kooky; 'eccentric, strange in an interesting way'. This perfectly describes the Cotswolds. Once you poke beneath the surface beauty it is famous for, you find a series of strange contradictions that make it more enticing, inviting you to find out more.

I am a traditionalist and an innovator, respecting and appreciating old fashioned values throughout the Cotswolds, but always finding new and inspiring ways to share them. I want to show you my part of the world, but I want you to keep what I show you a secret.

I hope you'll find exploring with me a truly unique experience; during your tour you’ll be treated as a visiting friend and will be introduced to the real Cotswolds; a place of quirks and contradictions, populated with charming characters, fascinating history and contemporary lifestyles, all surrounded by incredible architecture and stunning scenery. We’ll discreetly discover secluded villages and hamlets, without disturbing the peace and quiet the inhabitants value so highly.

I’ll show you my favourite places and introduce you to some of my friends; people whose families have lived in the Cotswolds for generations and understand the land like no one else. I'm confident you’ll come to appreciate the real beauty of the Cotswolds lies not in the crowded tourist sites and modern border towns, but in the farms and quiet villages, the marketplaces and pubs, deep in the Cotswold countryside, far from main roads and reached only by narrow back lanes and footpaths, which few have knowledge of.

With an increasing number of visitors each year; larger crowds are spreading further into the Cotswolds so that even off the beaten track locations are becoming mainstream. I have always travelled further down the Cotswold rabbit hole than any other tour company and take my guests beyond the ordinary so will continue to find these off the beaten path locations and hidden gems to share with you.

The locations we will visit remain untouched and unseen by the millions of visitors who come to the Cotswolds each year. I work very hard at keeping locations a secret and make as little impact as possible when visiting them. My respect and understanding for these places means we will be welcomed by the residents and encouraged by them to immerse ourselves in the experience. What you’ll find here is quirky and strange, but in an interesting way; Kooky.

I’ll be happy to take you to the places you’ve heard of like Bibury, Stow on the Wold, Chipping Campden and The Slaughters, and I’ll make sure I include these in a day tour; but I’ll show you them at the best time to avoid the crowds and give you a keen insight into each location that most visitors never get the chance to appreciate.

Tales from the Cotswolds - The Tale of the Tea Drinking Tourist

Wed, 21 Aug 2019 07:22:36 GMT

The Tale of the Tea Drinking Tourist

Cotswold Tales

When visitors from another country come to the Cotswolds, they often remark on how the villages seem like movie sets. The first experience many people have of the Cotswolds is through TV and film so if a location fits in with the picture in one’s minds eye; it's easy to see why they think that.

Once in the Cotswold towns and villages, that line between fantasy and reality isn’t always clear. For many it’s quite blurry and obscured by limestone, beautiful gardens and lifelike caricatures of people looking like characters from said TV and movies.

The impossibly quaint street scenes with their thatched roofs, winding lanes and crooked buildings all add to the romantic feel of wandering through a lucid dream. Throw in a few friendly locals and one could be forgiven for forgetting where they are for a moment.

Bibury is one of the most famous destinations in the Cotswolds and the jewel in it’s crown is Arlington Row; a crooked jumble of 17th century weavers cottages that were originally a 14th century monastic wool store. The scene is all wonky windows and undulating roofs and has been compared to Hobbit homes in the Shire.

The village is very popular with Japanese visitors, partly because it was endorsed by Emperor Hirohito while on a European tour during which he described his visit as one of the happiest times in his life. Cue a significant number of Japanese visitors wanting to see what all the fuss is about.

Visitors arrive by the coach load throughout the day in the summer months. And the winter months. All months really. For many it is a pilgrimage, the culmination of a global journey and the main reason for visiting. Here they come, staggering down the steps of the coach and stumbling off into the village; awestruck by their surroundings and often oblivious to traffic and angry swans. Never ignore an angry swan.

It’s not unheard of for first time visitors to get themselves into the odd scrape when exploring new surroundings and this was very apparent in one particular instance in Bibury just a few years ago.

There’s a resident of Arlington Row (let’s call him James) who came down to breakfast one morning to find something rather unexpected waiting for him. James had only lived in the village for a short time and while he was getting used to the vast numbers of people going to and fro outside his Cotswold home each day, nothing could prepare him for what he found on a sunny Tuesday morning in June.

James made his way downstairs in his wifes bathrobe, yawning and scratching. He put on his slippers, picked up the mail from the floor by the front door and shuffled into the kitchen. There he came upon a Japanese family of four sitting around his kitchen table, laughing, snapping selfies and group photos of themselves pretending to drink tea from cups and saucers they'd found in the cupboards. The mail slipped from his hand and slapped onto the floor.

The sound of the mail falling to the floor alerted the family to his presence. James stood in the doorway to the kitchen with letters strewn about him on the floor, bathrobe hanging open, untidy mess of hair and unshaven. The family froze mid-pour and stared at him. The laughter that had filled the air stopped and all that could be heard was the ticking of the Nathaniel Hedge grandfather clock in the hallway.

Seeing someone out of context is one thing, but if there was ever a case for one group or individual not expecting to see another group or individual in a specific location – it was at that moment, in the middle of summer in the Cotswold village of Bibury. James did not expect to find this family mock tea-pouring in his kitchen that morning. And the family sat around the table definitely did not expect to see a semi naked man in a leopard print ladies bathrobe in what they believed to be, as it later transpired, a walk-in museum.

James stared at the family and the family stared back at James. Although the grandfather clock in the hallway continued to tick-tock, a long and painful silence ensued that seemed to go on for a long, long time. The sound that broke it was the artificial shutter sound of a phone camera, as the 12 year old son of the family snapped a picture of James standing in the kitchen doorway.

That sound was followed by a second shutter sound. Then a third. Then a series of them as the rest of the family followed and began snapping away. A barrage of shutter sounds and clicks captured James in all his glory and excited chatter rose up from the group as they captured this unique moment.

The shock of the discovery in his kitchen quickly passed and James gathered himself sufficiently to close his bathrobe, settle his audience and calmly explain to his visitors that they were in fact, in his private home. The family were mortified and profusely apologetic. They explained that nothing like the scene that greeted them in Bibury existed back home and they were charmed and intoxicated by their surroundings.

Since they had driven themselves there early in the morning there was no one around to direct them or to guide them around the village. The gently flowing river with it's jumping trout and swooping kingfishers, the quaint and crooked buildings, the stone bridges and stunning flora, the sounds, sights and smells; all completely new to them and all of it totally enchanting. Drawn to Arlington Row they were fascinated at the appearance of these ancient buildings and tried the door of one of them.

No one could possibly live somewhere like this. Not in a village as pretty as this or in a house as old and wizened as those on Arlington Row. The whole village was like a perfect movie set bringing everything one imagined an English village to be, to life. James could understand a mistake like this, remembering how taken he had been by the village when he visited for the first time. What he couldn't understand was how his was the third house the family had gone inside that morning without anyone discovering them before he did.

Once explanations were made, apologies accepted and inappropriate photographs deleted, James did the only thing one could do in a situation like this. He made tea and invited the family to stay and enjoy a cup with him while he excitedly told them about the joys of living on Arlington Row in the Cotswold village of Bibury. He should have remembered to tell his wife what he was doing before she came downstairs..

1000 reasons to visit the Cotswolds #555 - The People

Thu, 01 Aug 2019 15:02:41 GMT

reason no 555: the people

555: The people

What's the number one reason for visiting the Cotswolds? The natural beauty is mesmerising so could be that. The architecture is wonderfully unique so that's a contender. The food in the Cotswolds is extraordinary with a diverse and rich range of options. Eating your way around the Cotswolds is popular. Then there's the history - unrivalled.

All of these reasons are applicable and if you ask visitors who are arriving for the first time what their motivation is for visiting the Cotswolds, the likelihood is you'll hear one of these reasons mentioned. If you ask those same people as they are boarding a flight home what the thing they liked most about the Cotswolds was - chances are they will say, 'the people'.

Throughout the centuries the Cotswolds has been populated by tribes of hunter gatherers, Romans, Saxons and Normans. There has often been an abundance of farmers; thanks to sheep, the wool trade and the continuance of the area as a farming region.

William Morris and the pre Raphaelites were followed by a whole bunch of artists, who also hung around. Natives of six different counties including Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Worcestershire, neighbours from Oxford, Bath, Stratford Upon Avon, rich, poor and those who holidayed here and came back - are just some of the people who have historically, and currently, live in the Cotswolds.

It is a mix and match society within a series of rural communities, populated by a rich and diverse cross section of mostly British residents. The demographic is varied; retirees, young families, entrepreneurs, professionals, celebrities, a couple of former prime ministers, members of the Royal Family and aristocracy, and much more.

In many ways it's much like any number of places, but throw all these people into a place steeped in history, surrounded by ancient architecture, in the midst of stunning natural beauty and something happens to a person. As they adapt to live in such a place it is constantly changing around them; the landscape, the economy, their neighbours, the number of visitors.

A controversial philosopher once wrote that a person is the combined effort of everyone they've ever met. Living here in the Cotswolds, surrounded by people dealing with change, amidst change and it's pull in the opposite direction from the traditional past, makes for a very interesting and elastic middle that forms a person with a unique attitude towards the world and everything in it.

Dealing with daily contradictions is standard in the Cotswolds; conservation vs development, old v new, tradition v modern and thinking about it tends to open your mind. It encourages creative thinking and problem solving, adaptability and a willingness to cooperate. This is a place where the people are passionate about the past yet obsessed with the future. They believe in protecting and preserving their environment while future proofing their lives - not a simple task.

One of the main contradictions within the Cotswolds is tourism; the largest industry within the region and one that brings its own set of challenges. With numbers of visitors to the Cotswolds growing at an astonishing rate, it has an effect on people's lives and influences their decisions.

Many of the people who live here are not connected with tourism in any way. Their work lives revolve around farming and quarrying or other unrelated businesses. A large chunk of the eighty to a hundred thousand people who live in the Cotswolds work outside it. Many of the residents live in towns and villages completely untouched by tourism; no commercialisation whatsoever.

Yet tourism in the Cotswolds is here and is impossible to ignore. People in the Cotswolds fall into two categories; those connected with it and those who aren't. Each of those two categories has three types of person; those who like tourism, those who don't, and those who are indifferent. Both categories and all three types of person are interchangeable and many people become one or the other at different times. This produces opinion, debate, action and ultimately; a fascinating type of person.

Like so much of the Cotswolds; you can understand the influences and beginnings of a subject by reading about it, looking at pictures and videos, or talking about it. To truly understand the people here is to understand one of the best things about the Cotswolds; and the only way to do that is to meet them.

I have been providing tours of the Cotswolds for ten years now and some of the most fascinating and impactful parts of every tour revolve around meeting the locals. During tours there is always time for local encounters and I encourage them whenever they might be possible.

No doubt you'll love the scenery, the history and the food. But encountering a local will probably be one of your highlights.

1000 reasons to visit the Cotswolds #301 - The Towns and Villages

Thu, 25 Jul 2019 14:58:58 GMT

reason no 301:the towns and villages

301. The towns and villages

There are around 300 towns and villages within the Cotswolds but no one is sure of the exact number. This could be because some villages magically appear out of the morning mist, or can only be seen through an enchanted spyglass at sunset from the top of Shenbarrow Hill. No one knows for sure. One thing that is for sure is that some of them are impossibly beautiful and visitors have likened them to movie sets and homes that look like they were designed for hobbits or wizards.

Plenty has been written about Bibury and Bourton on the Water; both pretty towns and always entertaining from a people watching point of view. Tourists take pictures of other tourists doing crazy stuff like falling in rivers, angering ducks or looking the wrong way when crossing the street. Residents of these towns put up their summer defences including signs on their front gates informing visitors that 'this is not a public building' along with heavy duty net curtains.

Stow on the Wold is the spiritual centre of the Cotswolds and because all main roads in the region lead into the town - it's hard to avoid it. This is not a bad thing as there's plenty in Stow to keep you interested; The New England Coffee House is the finest coffee shop in the whole of the Cotswolds and Cotswold Baguettes happen to do the best takeaway sandwiches and salads. Add to that the door at St Edwards Church which was allegedly the inspiration for Tolkien to write the Lord of the Rings, some wonderfully crooked buildings and the windiest on windy streets all make the highest town in the Cotswolds worth a visit.

Chipping Campden and Broadway in the north of the Cotswolds are striking; constructed with the gold and amber coloured limestone the north is famous for and with some of the most stunning residential areas in the whole of the UK. Broadway is known for it's boutique shopping and wide, green, tree lined main street (the broad way) but get off the main drag to see some of the most expensive and desirable real estate in the Cotswolds. Chipping Campden is very much a locals town with just a few shops but houses and homes even more expensive and desirable than the aforementioned Broadway.

These and some of the other larger towns you may have heard of are well worth a visit but only at specific times, particularly in the summer when the Cotswolds experiences large numbers of tourists. Visit at the wrong time and you won't see the charm or the beauty, you'll just see coach loads of tourists wearing brightly coloured ponchos and wearing socks with sandals, waving selfie sticks at each other.

To get off the beaten track and experience some of the smaller towns and villages is to truly experience the real Cotswolds. The famous Scottish comedian, Billy Connolly, once said that the Queen of England must think that the world smells like paint - because a few feet in front of her there's always someone sprucing the place up with a fresh coat of the stuff. Tourism is often like that - locations popular with tourists can often contrive an appearance to attract or appease visitors, which detracts from the real appeal of the place and the reason why people were visiting there to begin with.

The smaller towns and villages in the Cotswolds are not designed to attract visitors, nor do they have an infrastructure to support them. They are however, some of the prettiest and most authentic places in the Cotswolds, offering a true reflection of the region as well as some of the most memorable street scenes you are likely to see. It is important of course to be able to visit these places without disturbing the residents or leaving any trace of your visit. It is also of the utmost importance that you keep the names and locations of these places a secret. We wouldn't want a thousand other tourists turning up there now would we?

A recent conversation between a colleague and I put the number of towns and villages we have visited in the past nine years between us at somewhere between 90-100. So between two of the longest and best established tour guides in the Cotswolds, we have seen less than a third of what it has to offer in terms of towns and villages. Better get my act together.