Cotswolds & Heart of England

The Cotswolds, an officially designated 'Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty', takes its name from the range of hills that form its spine, 'wold' meaning 'hill' in the old dialect. Although the entire Cotswolds area is within a couple of hours drive of any location within it, it nonetheless extends across the borders of six counties: Wiltshire, Somerset, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire.

In the Cotswolds, you would have to look far and wide to find a single blemish on the landscape: further than the hills in the far distance, wider than the winding valleys in between. This is a countryside of gently rolling fields, dotted with woods and threaded by meandering rivers and streams, a region of handsome towns, churches and manor houses.

But the Cotswolds are most famous of all for their beautiful villages and market towns, resplendent in golden Cotswold stone, which were built with the wealth of the wool trade in mediaeval times, when the area was one of the richest west of Venice, in an era when most buildings were temporary wooden constructions. In consequence, the Cotswolds is one of the few areas left in the world where you can see whole villages that have survived almost unchanged for over five centuries.

As the name implies, the Heart of England consists of the centre of England, the Cotswolds being the famous range of hills at its south-western tip. As such, it is the region in which the distinct history, culture and dialects of the North and South of England meet and merge. In the earliest times, before England was unified under the later Anglo-Saxon kings, it formed the kingdom of Mercia, whose name in Old English approximates to 'border zone', between the Anglo-Saxon settlers on the one hand and the indigenous Celtic peoples to the north and west on the other. More recently, its central position made it both the principal battleground of the English Civil War and, in the eighteenth century, the cradle of the industrial revolution that engendered the modern world.

As a result, there is an enormous wealth of history and heritage to visit: from stone circles, ancient burial sites and reputed relics of the age of King Arthur, to cathedrals and battlefields; from the museums at Ironbridge Gorge and Warwick Castle, home of 'the kingmaker' to the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon.

History, heritage and culture aside though, if you want to eat out in the evening or entertain children during the day, it is reassuring that you are never too far from civilisation in the Heart of England, however secluded your location.