Villages, Villages and more Villages

 1627 built Market Hall on the high street in Chipping Campden

 Thatched roof and stone built houses in Broad Campden

 Driving into Snowshill and its triangular square with a pub at the end

 Rita on one of the many bridges in Bourton-on-the-Water, one of the larger and tackier towns

Stow-on-the-Wold means "meeting place on the uplands" has a huge town square

 Church and graveyard in the tiny village of Blockley

Huge mansion on the outskirts of the tiny village of Stanton

Champagne toast to celebrate Rita's birthday at Russel's Restaurant in Broadway



I think Cotswold's means villages in old English as there are dozens of villages within the small area (25 by 90 miles) known as the Cotswold's.  And to be a village you have to have a church so this meant a lot of church visits as well.  We went through the list of villages in the area and decided on visiting eight:  Hidcote Bartrim, Chipping Camden, Broad Camden, Blockley, Snowshill, Stanton, Morton-on-Marsh, Stow-on-the-Wold and Bourton-on-the-Water.  Our Tom Tom was going to be going into overdrive but the villages are sometimes only a couple of miles apart from each other and separated by beautiful rolling hills filled with sheep.  In fact the Cotswold's made its fortune in medieval England by producing the best wool in Europe. This money created the beautiful towns, churches and houses that we see today.  Cotton and the Industrial Revolution collapsed the wool industry and the Cotswold's fell into a depressed state that only tourism has been able to bring them out of.  We had a wonderful day touring the little towns, some no more than a collection of several buildings, and enjoying the beautiful countryside.  When you are walking around the vast sheep and barley fields you really forget that you are in a country of 60 million people that fits 4.5 times into British Columbia.  There are no people and all you can hear are the songbirds as you look out on the vast spaces before you.  It's truly a very calming feeling.  We arrived back at Abbey Grange a little after 6:00pm and got ready to celebrate Rita's birthday.  Had made a reservation at a very nice restaurant for 7:30 and enjoyed a glass of champagne, a wonderful dinner before heading back and having a nightcap in the great hall before happily retiring to bed.