Driveabout – serie

"The Cotswold Town and Village Guide": The latest fully updated edition of the "Definitive Guide to Places of Interest in the Cotswolds" as the author says this is the result of my continuing love affair with the Cotswolds, an area that I have known for most of my life and one that I have been visiting with my camera and notebook for well over fifty years. A glance at the maps contained in this book will soon reveal that the area covered extends well beyond the classic Cotswolds, but it never strays far from true limestone country with its typically lovely stone towns and villages. These are enfolded by rolling hills and quiet wooded valleys through which clear streams flow and all have a similar character to the better-known places of pilgrimage like Stow on the Wold, Cirencester, Bourton-on-the-Water or Broadway. Of course these favourites have not been ignored. The Cotswold countryside is as near to perfection as one could wish for, but it is still further enhanced by the treasures to be found within its towns, villages and hamlets.Here are some of Britain's loveliest medieval churches and domestic buildings, almost all of which are built of the marvellous honey coloured Cotswold stone that here lies so close to the surface. When setting out on your journeys of discovery, savour each day and not try to cover too much ground - it has taken me most of a lifetime to get round it all! If possible buy a good map or maps (preferably Ordnance Survey ones) and walk from village to village along a quiet footpath or bridleway, stopping beside a stream for a picnic, or at a pub for lunch. This is another book from Reardon Publishing the Cotswold Publisher.

An A - Z illustrated Town and Village guide to what you can see in the Cotswolds, with word and pen the Author brings to life this wonderful part of England, show and explaining what you can see as you explore the Cotswolds. From the strange sounding Cotswold towns and villages with this guide you will be shown sides of the Cotswolds that the average visitor often misses, the text is brought to life with well over 100 pen and ink sketches of Gargoyles and Hobbit like church entrances, Public monuments to medieval punishment tools, Castles to Magic stones, a life time of local knowledge has gone into this book. The beauty of the Cotswolds is not new, it is not something that has just come about recently, it is, you might even say, as old as the hills themselves.But it is not only beauty to be found in these hills, they are also rich in history, the Romans came, stayed a while and then left. They were about the first to leave us monuments of their advanced way of life that we can understand today, then came the Saxons, the Danes and the Normans. Each left something by which to remember them. In more recent times great houses have been built and are there for all to see.The Cotswolds intriguing, majestic, even cruel in its own way. There is a bigness that is breathtaking, especially during the summer, a loneliness that can be frightening during the winter, but always a grandeur, as powerful as an exciting tale that not one little bit must be missed. Perhaps early man found the excitement of these hills a good reason for settling in them. They offered a natural fortification in many instances for settlements, often with views over the valley of the Severn, where animals could be hunted and fish caught in the river. It is hoped that your visit to the Cotswolds will be most enjoyable, and if, with the help of these pages, more memorable, then the object of this publication will have been achieved