You’ve probably never heard of Saul Junction, Farmcote or Woodchester Mansion,
but they are the must-see places in the Cotswolds. Who says so? The locals.
JACK RUSSELL
When not coaching Ashes-winning cricketer Geraint Jones, the former
England wicketkeeper has an art gallery in Chipping Sodbury
“The Stroudwater Canal was my playground as a kid. We would go looking for Big
Ben, a monster pike, and chuck big bits of meat in to try to catch it. My
favourite place is Saul Junction, where the Stroudwater meets the
Gloucester-Sharpness canal, not far from Frampton on Severn. A few winters
ago, I spent many an early morning painting there: it’s reedy and tranquil,
and full of ghosts.
The mist rising from the water is magical, but you have to be quick to catch
it. Once the sun is up, some of the atmosphere goes.”
Details: you can walk out from Saul Junction to meet the
Severn at Upper Framilode and along the river. Circle back via Overton and
Fretherne for lunch at the Bell Inn (01452 740346), beside Frampton village
green. It’s six miles in all; OS Explorer map OL14.
ROB REES
The pan-wielding prodigy won his Michelin star at the Country
Elephant, in Painswick; he is now launching his own cookery school in Far
Oakridge
“Stroud farmers’ market is something visitors tend to stumble on, then come
back and build weekends around.
I think it’s the best in the country, and it’s a real carnival day for the
town: 40 local producers, jazz bands and a brilliant setting, with views
across the wolds.
“At this time of year, I always start by grabbing a mulled apple juice from
Days Cottage and a bacon bap from Adey’s organic farm, which is just down
the road at Berkeley.” Details: Stroud farmers’ market is held on the first
and third Saturday of every month; call 01453 758060 for more information
and to check times.
DAVID WIEMERS
David traded in a career writing and producing Tarzan and Winnie the
Pooh for Walt Disney for life as the village postmaster in
Bourton-on-the-Water
“A few years back, I decided I wanted to live in the prettiest spot on earth.
I fell in love with the Cotswolds as a tourist, and figured buying the post
office would put me at the heart of the community. Now I’m busier than I
ever was in Hollywood.
“Bourton is a honeypot, but few people seem to make it to my favourite place,
on the eastern edge of the village. There’s a gorgeous mosaic of ponds and
lakes there, the Greystones Farm nature reserve, where I take our dogs — you
just walk out past the cricket ground and you’re in this idyllic backwater,
with wild flowers everywhere, lots of little islands and dabbling
waterfowl.”
Details: for more information on Greystones Farm, call
Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust (01452 383333). You can pick up directions
for a three-mile walk through the reserve at Bourton’s tourist information
centre (01451 820211).
IRENE GEORGE
The former potato-picker began painting professionally at 50, and the
surreal adventures of her Yellow Hat Tribe now sell for up to £10,000 a go.
Her gallery is on an ostrich farm at Church Westcote, across the road from
Kate Winslet’s house
“When I retire, I’m going to take my easel to Bruern Wood and spend three
weeks just painting bluebells. It’s a really huge wood soaked in blue, with
just a glimmer of sun striking the flowers through the tree canopy.
“There are kingfishers along the River Evenlode there, and you get speckled
wood butterflies spiralling up in the glades. I rarely see anyone else, even
though places such as Stow and Bourton are just up the road. It’s like
magic.”
Details: the best place to see Bruern’s bluebells is on the
two-mile wildlife walk at Foxholes nature reserve, a mile south of
Bledington (01865 775476, www.bbowt.org.uk).
DR MARK PORTER
The dishy darling of TV and radio health divides his time between his
NHS practice in Stroud and presenting Case Notes on BBC Radio 4
“My family’s really special place is Woodchester Mansion, a Victorian gothic
pile salted away in a secret valley below Minchinhampton Common, near where
we live. It’s a vast place, abandoned half-finished by an eccentric Catholic
convert named William Leigh — they reckon he was building it as a holiday
home for the Pope.
I’ve been a GP here since 1989, but I only found out about Woodchester in
2001. You have to walk there — it’s a good mile from the nearest road — but
there are guided tours. When the masons left in the 1870s, they abandoned
their tools and ladders where they lay. It’s dead spooky and full of bats
and gargoyles.
“You need a pint of Uley Old Spot by the fire at the Ram, in Woodchester, as a
reward.”
Details: trails run through Woodchester’s “lost valley” from
the car park north of Nympsfield. The house is open on January 1 and 2 (11am
to 5.30pm), then every Sunday from Easter (£5; 01453 861541, www.woodchestermansion.org.uk).
To contact the Ram, call 01453 873329.
LORD NEIDPATH
As master of Stanway House, James Donald Charteris is in charge of the
grandest Jacobean manor in the Cotswolds
“Lots of people visit Hailes Abbey, the Cistercian ruins just to the south of
us. But it’s a pity so few seem to walk up to Farmcote church, just a mile
above it, right on the brink of the Cotswold escarpment.
The old pilgrim track from Hailes has a real medieval atmosphere about it. It
was laid by the monks themselves, and the church at the top was a chapel of
ease, where pilgrims would rest on the way to seeing Hailes’s phial of holy
blood.
The church has old tombs and “leper squints” — holes that allowed lepers to
watch the services from outside. There are sheep grazing all around, and
juicy views across the Vale of Evesham.”
Details: The footpath to Farmcote from Hailes Abbey is
walkable all year (take OS Explorer map OL45), though the abbey itself
doesn’t reopen for visitors until April 1 (£3.30/£1.70; 01242 602398). You
could extend the walk two miles east from Farmcote to Ford, where the Plough
(01386 584215) is super-cosy for lunch.
