The Cotswolds are a range of hills A hill is a landform that extends above the surrounding terrain. Hills often have a distinct summit, although in areas with scarp/dip topography a hill may refer to a particular section of flat terrain without a massive summit in west-central England The area now called England has been settled by people of various cultures for about 35,000 years, but it takes its name from the Angles, one of the Germanic tribes who settled during the 5th and 6th centuries. England became a unified state in AD 927, and since the Age of Discovery, which began during the 15th century, has had a significant, 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 An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is an area of countryside considered to have significant landscape value in England, Wales or Northern Ireland, that has been specially designated by the Countryside Agency (now Natural England) on behalf of the United Kingdom government; the Countryside Council for Wales on behalf of the Welsh Assembly. The highest point in the Cotswolds range is Cleeve Hill Cleeve Hill is the highest point both in the Cotswolds and in the county of Gloucestershire, at 1,083 feet . It commands a clear view to the west, over Cheltenham and the racecourse, over the River Severn and into Wales; and to the north over Winchcombe. It is a conspicuous outcrop on the edge of the limestone escarpment, (sometimes called the & at 1,083 ft (330 m),[1] 2.5 miles (4 km) to the north of Cheltenham Cheltenham , or Cheltenham Spa, is a spa town and borough in Gloucestershire, England with a population of 110,013 at the 2001 census. The inhabitants are known as "Cheltonians". Its motto is: Salubritas et Eruditio ("Health and Education").

The Cotswolds lie mainly within the ceremonial counties The ceremonial counties are areas of England to which are appointed a Lord Lieutenant, and are defined by the government as counties and areas for the purposes of the Lieutenancies Act 1997 with reference to the metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties of England and Lieutenancies Act 1997. They are often used in a geographic reference frame, of Gloucestershire The county town is the city of Gloucester, and other principal towns include Cheltenham, Stroud, Cirencester, and Tewkesbury and Oxfordshire It is divided into five local government districts: Oxford, Cherwell, Vale of White Horse , West Oxfordshire and South Oxfordshire, but extend into parts of Wiltshire Wiltshire is characterised by its high downland and wide valleys. Salisbury Plain is famous as the location of the Stonehenge stone circle and other ancient landmarks and as the main training area in the UK of the British Army. The city of Salisbury is notable for its medieval cathedral. Important country houses open to the public include Longleat,, Somerset Somerset is a rural county of rolling hills such as the Mendip Hills, Quantock Hills and Exmoor National Park, and large flat expanses of land including the Somerset Levels. There is evidence of human occupation from Neolithic times, and subsequent settlement in the Roman and Saxon periods. Later, the county played a significant part in the, Worcestershire The county borders Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, West Midlands, Warwickshire, and Gloucestershire. To the west, the county is bordered by the Malvern Hills, and the spa town of Malvern. The southern part of the county is bordered by Gloucestershire and the northern edge of the Cotswolds, and to the east is Warwickshire. There are two and Warwickshire Warwickshire is perhaps best known for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare from Stratford-upon-Avon. Even today, road signs at the county boundary describe Warwickshire as "Shakespeare's County". The county has also produced other literary figures such as George Eliot , Rupert Brooke (from Rugby), and Michael Drayton from.

Contents

Toponymy

The name Cotswold is sometimes attributed the meaning "sheep enclosure in rolling hillsides",[2][3] incorporating the term "wold" meaning hills. The English Place-Name Society has for many years accepted that the term Cotswold is derived from Codesuualt of the twelfth century or other variations on this form, the etymology of which was given 'Cod's-wold', which is 'Cod's high open land'.[4] Cod was interpreted as an Old English Personal Name, which can be recognised in further names: Cutsdean, Codeswellan, and Codesbyrig, some of which date back to the eighth century AD.[5] It has subsequently been noticed that "Cod" could philologically derive from a Brittonic female cogname "Cuda", which is the name of a mother goddess recognised in the Cotswold region.[6][7]

Description

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 Usually escarpment is used interchangeably with scarp . But some sources differentiate the two terms, where escarpment refers to the margin between two landforms, while scarp is synonymous with a cliff or steep slope. The surface of the steep slope is called a scarp face. Scarps are generally formed by one of two processes: either by differential down to the Severn valley The River Severn is the longest river in Great Britain, at about 354 kilometres (220 mi). It rises at an altitude of 610 metres (2,001 ft) on Plynlimon near Llanidloes, Powys, in the Cambrian Mountains of mid Wales. It then flows through Shropshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire, with the county towns of Shrewsbury, Worcester, and Gloucester and the Warwickshire Avon The River Avon or Avon is a river in or adjoining the counties of Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire in the Midlands of England. It is also known as the Upper Avon, Warwickshire Avon or Shakespeare's Avon. The river has a total length of 85 miles (137 km) and a catchment size of 1,032 square miles (2,. 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.[8] This is a cuesta In structural geology and geomorphology, a cuesta is a ridge formed by gently tilted sedimentary rock strata in a homoclinal structure. Cuestas have a steep slope, where the rock layers are exposed on their edges, called an escarpment or, if more steep, a cliff. Usually an erosion-resistant rock layer also has a more gentle slope on the other side, in geological Geology is the science and study of the physical matter and energy that constitute the Earth. The field of geology encompasses the study of the composition, structure, properties, and history of the planet's physical material, the processes by which it is formed, moved, and changed, the history of life on Earth, and human interactions with the terms. The dip slope A dip slope is a geological formation often created by erosion of tilted strata. Dip slopes are found on homoclinal ridges with one side that is steep and irregular and another side, the dip slope, that is generally planar with a dip parallel to the bedding. The orientation of the dip slope is referred to as the strike is to the south east. On the eastern boundary lies the city of Oxford Oxford (pronounced /ˈɒksfərd/ ) is a city, and the county town of Oxfordshire, in South East England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 151,000 living within the district boundary. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through Oxford and meet south of the city centre. For a distance and on the west is Stroud Stroud is a town and civil parish in the county of Gloucestershire, England. It is the main town in Stroud District. To the south-east the upper reaches of the Thames Valley The Thames Valley Region is a loose term for the English counties and towns roughly following the course of the River Thames as it flows between Wiltshire in the west to London in the east. It includes parts of Wiltshire, Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, North Hampshire and West London. It does not include the source of the Thames at and towns such as Lechlade Lechlade is a town in Gloucestershire, England. It is located at the southern edge of the Cotswolds. It is the highest point at which the River Thames is navigable. The town is named after the River Leach which joins the Thames near here, 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 Bath is a city in the ceremonial county of Somerset in the south west of England. It is situated 97 miles (156 km) west of London and 13 miles (21 km) south-east of Bristol. The population of the city is 83,992. It was granted city status by Royal Charter by Queen Elizabeth I in 1590, and was made a county borough in 1889 which gave it and towns such as Chipping Sodbury and Marshfield share elements of Cotswold character.

Corsham Corsham is a historic market town in northwest Wiltshire, England. It is at the southwestern extreme of the Cotswolds, just off the A4 which was formerly the main turnpike road from London to Bristol, between Bath and Chippenham (4.5 miles / 7 kilometres) in the south western Cotswolds

The area is characterised by attractive small towns A town is a human settlement larger than a village but smaller than a city. The size a settlement must be in order to be called a "town" varies considerably in different parts of the world, so that, for example, many American "small towns" seem to British people to be no more than villages, while many British "small towns& and villages A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousands , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New York City and the Saifi Village in Beirut, Lebanon, built of the underlying Cotswold stone (a yellow oolitic Oolite is a sedimentary rock formed from ooids, spherical grains composed of concentric layers. The name derives from the Hellenic word òoion for egg. Strictly, oolites consist of ooids of diameter 0.25–2 mm: rocks composed of ooids larger than 2 mm are called pisolites. The term oolith can refer to oolite or individual ooids limestone Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the mineral calcite . Like most other sedimentary rocks, limestones are composed of grains; however, most grains in limestone grains are skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera. Other carbonate grains comprising limestones are ooids, peloids, intraclasts, and).[8] This limestone is rich in fossils Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals, plants, and other organisms from the remote past. The totality of fossils, both discovered and undiscovered, and their placement in fossiliferous (fossil-containing) rock formations and sedimentary layers (strata) is known as the fossil record. The study of fossils across geological time, how, in particular fossilised sea urchins Sea urchins or urchins are small, spiny, globular animals which, with their close kin, such as sand dollars, constitute the class Echinoidea of the echinoderm phylum. They inhabit all oceans. Their shell, or "test", is round and spiny, typically from 3 to 10 centimetres across. Common colors include black and dull shades of green, olive,. In the Middle Ages The Middle Ages is a period of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The period followed the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476, and preceded the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period in a three-period division of history: Classical, Medieval, and Modern. The term "Middle Ages" (medium aevum) was coined in the wool The term wool is usually restricted to describing the fibrous protein derived from the specialized skin cells called follicles in sheep trade made the Cotswolds prosperous. Some of this money was put into the building of churches A church building is a building or structure whose primary purpose is to facilitate the meeting of a church. Originally, Jewish Christians met in synagogues, such as the Cenacle, and in one another's homes. As Christianity grew and became more accepted by governments, rooms and, eventually, entire buildings were set aside for the explicit purpose 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 there.

Cotswold towns include Bourton-on-the-Water, Broadway Broadway is a small Cotswold village in Worcestershire, England. Often referred to as the 'Jewel of the Cotswolds', Broadway village lies beneath Fish Hill on the western Cotswold escarpment. The 'broad way' is the wide grass-fringed main street, centred around The Green, which is lined with red chestnut trees and honey-coloured Cotswold limestone, Burford, Chipping Norton, Cirencester Cirencester (pronounced /ˈsaɪrənsɛstər/ SYE-rən-ses-tər) is a market town in east Gloucestershire, England, 93 miles (150 km) west northwest of London. Cirencester lies on the River Churn, a tributary of the River Thames, and is the largest town in Cotswold District. It is home of the Royal Agricultural College, the oldest agricultural, Moreton-in-Marsh, Northleach, Stow-on-the-Wold Stow-on-the-Wold is a market town and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England. It is situated on top of an 800 ft hill, at the convergence of a number of major roads through the Cotswolds, including the Fosse Way (A429). The town was founded as a planned market place by Norman lords to take advantage of trade on the converging roads. Fairs have and Winchcombe. The town of Chipping Campden Chipping Campden is a small market town within the Cotswold district of Gloucestershire, England. It is notable for its elegant terraced High Street, dating from the 14th century to the 17th century. ("Chipping" is from Old English cēping, "a market, a market-place"; the same element is found in other towns such as Chipping is notable for being the home of the Arts and Crafts movement The Arts and Crafts Movement was an international design movement that originated in Britain and flourished between 1880 and 1910. It was instigated by the artist and writer William Morris in the 1860s and was inspired by the writings of John Ruskin (1819–1900). It influenced architecture, domestic design and the decorative arts, using simple, founded by William Morris William Morris was an English textile designer, artist, writer, and socialist associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the English Arts and Crafts Movement. Morris wrote and published poetry, fiction, and translations of ancient and medieval texts throughout his life. His best-known works include The Defence of Guenevere and Other Poems ( at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries.[9] William Morris lived occasionally in Broadway Tower Broadway Tower is a folly located on Broadway Hill, A44 between Evesham and Moreton-in-Marsh, one mile south-east of the village of Broadway, Worcestershire, England, at the second highest point of the Cotswolds after Cleeve Hill. Broadway Tower's base is 1,024 feet (312 metres) above sea level. The tower itself stands 55 feet (17 metres) high a folly now part of a country park.[10] Chipping Campden is also known for the annual Cotswold Olimpick Games, a celebration of sports and games dating back to the early 17th century.[11]

Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty

Late summer scene in the Cotswolds

The Cotswolds were designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is an area of countryside considered to have significant landscape value in England, Wales or Northern Ireland, that has been specially designated by the Countryside Agency (now Natural England) on behalf of the United Kingdom government; the Countryside Council for Wales on behalf of the Welsh Assembly (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.[12]

A horse in a field of buttercups in the Cotswolds

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.[13]

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.[14]

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.[15]

Principal settlements

Noteworthy historical structures

Transport

Map of Cotswolds roads from 1933

The Cotswolds lies between the M5 The M5 is a motorway in England. It runs from a junction with the M6 at West Bromwich near Birmingham to Exeter in Devon. Heading south-west, the M5 runs east of West Bromwich and west of Birmingham through Sandwell Valley. The road continues past Bromsgrove, Droitwich Spa, Worcester, Tewkesbury, Cheltenham, Gloucester, Bristol, Weston-super-Mare,, M40 The M40 motorway is a motorway in the British transport network that forms a major part of the connection between London and Birmingham. Part of this road forms a section of the unsigned European route E05 and M4 motorways The M4 motorway links London with South Wales. It is part of the unsigned European route E30. Other major places directly accessible from M4 junctions are Reading, Swindon, Bristol, Newport, Cardiff and Swansea. Originally referred to as the London-South Wales Motorway, the English section was constructed between 1965 and 1971, the Welsh section. The main non-motorway roads through the area are the A46: Bath Bath is a city in the ceremonial county of Somerset in the south west of England. It is situated 97 miles (156 km) west of London and 13 miles (21 km) south-east of Bristol. The population of the city is 83,992. It was granted city status by Royal Charter by Queen Elizabeth I in 1590, and was made a county borough in 1889 which gave it — 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,[16] or local tourist information centres.

The Cotswolds in cultural life

The Cotswold region 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".[17] Another contemporary of theirs, Gerald Finzi, lived in nearby Painswick.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Landscape". Cleeve Common. http://www.cleevecommon.org.uk/200702/about-land.html. Retrieved 12 December 2009.
  2. ^ Let's Go Britain
  3. ^ Charnock, Richard Stephen ‬ (1859‬). ‪Local etymology: a derivative dictionary of geographical names‬. Houlston and Wright. pp. 76. http://books.google.com/books?id=apcmAAAAMAAJ.
  4. ^ Smith, A. H. 1964 The Place-Names of Gloucestershire, part 1: The Rivers and Road-names, the East Cotswolds, Cambridge, p.2
  5. ^ Smith A. H. 1964 The Place-Names of Gloucestershire part 2: The North and West Cotswolds, Cambridge pp.7-8
  6. ^ Yeates, S. J. 2008 The Tribe of Witches: The Religion of the Dobunni and the Hwicce pp.11-18
  7. ^ Yeates, S. J. 2006 River-Names, Celtic and Old English: their dual medieval and post-medieval personalities, Journal of the English Place-Name Society 38, pp.63-81
  8. ^ a b "Cotswold Stone". Cotswold Gateway. http://thecotswoldgateway.co.uk/cotswoldstone.htm. Retrieved 12 December 2009.
  9. ^ "History". Court Barn Museum. http://www.courtbarn.org.uk/historyl. Retrieved 6 April 2010.
  10. ^ "Broadway Tower". Cotswold website. http://www.cotswoldswebsite.com/broadway-tower.htm. Retrieved 12 December 2009.
  11. ^ "Origins of Robert Dover's Games". Olympick Games. http://www.olimpickgames.co.uk/contentok.php?id=862. Retrieved 12 December 2009.
  12. ^ "AONB". Cotswolds AONB. http://www.cotswoldsaonb.org.uk/?page=AONB. Retrieved 12 December 2009.
  13. ^ Cotswolds Natural England
  14. ^ "Cotswolds Conservation Board". Cotswolds AONB. http://www.cotswoldsaonb.org.uk/?page=ccb. Retrieved 12 December 2009.
  15. ^ "Cotswold Way - About this trail". National Trail. http://www.nationaltrail.co.uk/Cotswold/text.asp?PageId=2. Retrieved 2007-06-30.
  16. ^ Cotswold bus times
  17. ^ Long Remembered Hills How the English composers Ivor Gurney and Herbert Howells were influenced by the Gloucestershire countryside.

External links

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Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty in England
Arnside and Silverdale | Blackdown Hills | Cannock Chase | Chichester Harbour | Chilterns | Cornwall | Cotswolds | Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs | Dedham Vale | Dorset | East Devon | East Hampshire | Forest of Bowland | High Weald | Howardian Hills | Isle of Wight | Isles of Scilly | Kent Downs | Lincolnshire Wolds | Malvern Hills | Mendip Hills | Nidderdale | Norfolk Coast | North Devon Coast | North Pennines | Northumberland Coast | North Wessex Downs | Quantock Hills | Shropshire Hills | Solway Coast | South Devon | South Hampshire Coast | Suffolk Coast and Heaths | Surrey Hills | Sussex Downs | Tamar Valley

Coordinates: 52°00′00″N 1°42′00″W / 52°N 1.7°W

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