The Swan, Bibury
I spent a day in the Cotswolds, rambling around the small villages that I love, and wished never to leave…
Loving Bibury
Steve picked me up in Chipping Campden early on Wednesday morning, and we began our perfect day of exploration, from Minster Lovell to Stanton and Bibury, to Fillkins and Stanway, to Burford and points in between. Each village had something special to offer, and if you’re looking for the backroads of England, in countryside that doesn’t seem to have changed in more than 100 years, these villages are for you.
Iconic telephone booth and post box
Minster Lovell, to which I was introduced in 2017, continues to be an enchanting small town of crumbling ruins, delightful pathways, the old churchyard,
Crumbling church ruin, Minster Lovell
leafy lanes and chickens in the front gardens.
Minster Lovell chickens
Stanton is one of those villages I would willingly embed myself in – from the moment I discovered it a few years ago, I have loved it.
Drystone wall, Stanton
Deep bowered lanes overhung with heavy, leaf-strewn branches,
the footpaths carpeted with red and rust lichen, houses built up the gently rising hillside, their walls glowing golden in the late afternoon sunshine,
and the flowers that inhabit the gardens and scatter their scented breath over the air.
Everywhere I go, the greenness of England is always present…what would England be without it? I love the hedgerows,
the fields stretching out to low-lying hills…
white sheep dotting the landscapes in the fields…
then there are the drystone walls,
the iconic red of pillar boxes, old telephone booths now converted to defribrillators,
the old churchyards with headstones leaning towards the ground
gray old Norman churches against a pale blue-white sky…
Beautiful, beautiful England…loving it always…
