| Cotswolds | |
|---|---|
| Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty | |
 The village of Bibury features Cotswold stone cottages
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| Country | England |
| Counties | Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Somerset, Warwickshire, Wiltshire, Worcestershire. |
| Highest point | |
| - location | Cleeve Hill |
| - elevation | 330 m (1,083 ft) |
| Plant | Hawkweed, Pasque flower, Woolly Thistle, Yellow Archangel. |
| Animal | Badger, Goldfinch, Grey Wagtail, Treecreeper |
The Cotswolds is a range of hills in west-central England, sometimes called the "Heart of England", an area 25 miles (40 km) across and 90 miles (145 km) long. The area has been designated as the Cotswold Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The highest point in the Cotswolds range is Cleeve Hill at 1,083 ft (330 m),[1] 2.5 miles (4 km) to the north of Cheltenham. The name Cotswold means either "sheep enclosure in rolling hillsides"[2] or it comes from the term "wold" meaning hills.
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The Cotswolds lie mainly within the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire, but extend into parts of Wiltshire, Somerset, Worcestershire and Warwickshire.
The spine of the Cotswolds runs south west to north east through six counties, particularly Gloucestershire, west Oxfordshire, and south western Warwickshire. The northern and western edges of the Cotswolds are marked by steep escarpments down to the Severn valley and the Warwickshire Avon. This escarpment or scarp feature, sometimes called the Cotswold Edge, is a result of the uplifting (tilting) of the limestone layer, exposing its broken edge.[3] This is a cuesta, in geological terms. The dip slope is to the south east. On the eastern boundary lies the city of Oxford and on the west is Stroud. To the south-east the upper reaches of the Thames Valley and towns such as Lechlade, Tetbury and Fairford are often considered to mark the limit of this region. To the south the Cotswolds, with the characteristic uplift of the Cotswold Edge, reach as far south as Bath and towns such as Chipping Sodbury and Marshfield share elements of Cotswold character.
The area is characterised by attractive small towns and villages built of the underlying Cotswold stone (a yellow oolitic limestone).[3] This limestone is rich in fossils, in particular fossilised sea urchins. In the Middle Ages, the wool trade made the Cotswolds prosperous. Some of this money was put into the building of churches so the area has a number of large, handsome Cotswold stone "wool churches". The area remains affluent and has attracted wealthy people who own second homes in the area or have chosen to retire to the Cotswolds.
Cotswold towns include Bourton-on-the-Water, Broadway, Burford, Chipping Norton, Cirencester, Moreton-in-Marsh, Stow-on-the-Wold and Winchcombe. The town of Chipping Campden is notable for being the home of the Arts and Crafts movement, founded by William Morris at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries.[4] William Morris lived occasionally in Broadway Tower a folly now part of a country park.[5] Chipping Campden is also known for the annual Cotswold Games, a celebration of sports and games dating back to the early 17th century.[6]
The Cotswolds were designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) in 1966, with an expansion on 21 December 1990 to 1,990 square kilometres (768 sq mi). In 1991, all AONBs were measured again using modern methods. The official area of the Cotswolds AONB increased to 2,038 square kilometres (787 sq mi). In 2000, the government confirmed that AONBs had the same landscape quality and status as National Parks.[7]
The Cotswolds AONB, which is the largest in England and Wales, stretches from the border regions of South Warwickshire and Worcestershire, through West Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire and takes in parts of West Wiltshire, and Bath and North East Somerset in the South. Gloucestershire County Council is responsible for 63 per cent of the AONB.[8]
The Cotswolds Conservation Board is the organisation that exists to conserve and enhance the AONB. Established in 2004 the board carries out a range of work from securing funding for 'on the ground' conservation projects to providing a strategic overview of the area for key decision makers, such as planning officials. The board is an independent organisation funded by Natural England and the 17 local authorities that sit within the AONB.[9]
The Cotswold Voluntary Wardens Service, now part of the Cotswolds Conservation Board, was established in 1968 to help conserve and enhance the area and now has over 300 Wardens.
The Cotswold Way is a long-distance footpath, approximately 103 miles (166 km) long, running the length of the AONB, mainly on the edge of the Cotswold escarpment with views over the Severn Valley and the Vale of Evesham.[10]
The Cotswolds lies between the M5, M40 and M4 motorways. The main non-motorway roads through the area are the A46: Bath — Stroud — Cheltenham; the A419: Swindon — Cirencester — Stroud; the A429: Cirencester — Stow-on-the-Wold — Moreton-in-Marsh; and the A40: Oxford — Burford — Cheltenham. These all roughly follow the routes of ancient roads, some laid down by the Romans, such as Ermin Street and the Fosse Way.
The area is bounded by two major rail routes: in the south by the main Bristol-Bath-London High Speed line and in the west by the Bristol-Birmingham main line. In addition, the Cotswold Line runs through the Cotswolds from Oxford to Worcester, and the Golden Valley Line runs from Swindon to Gloucester, carrying high speed and local services.
Main-line, high-speed rail services to the big cities run from stations such as Bath, Swindon, Oxford, Cheltenham and Worcester. High-speed services to London are also available from Kemble station near Cirencester, Kingham station near Stow-on-the-Wold, Charlbury station and Moreton-in-Marsh station.
Cheltenham is a hub for National Express coach services. There are local bus services across the area, but some are infrequent. The best sources of information are the Gloucestershire County Council website,[11] or local tourist information centres.
The Cotswolds has inspired some of England's finest composers. In the early 1900s, Herbert Howells and Ivor Gurney used to go for long walks together over the hills and Gurney urged Howells to make the landscape, including the nearby Malvern Hills, the inspiration for his future work. True to his word, in 1916, Howells wrote his first major piece, the Piano Quartet in A minor, inspired by the magnificent view of the Malverns - it was dedicated to "the hill at Chosen (Churchdown) and Ivor Gurney who knows it".[12] Another contemporary of theirs, Gerald Finzi, lived in nearby Painswick.
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