The Cotswolds

Covering the counties of Warwickshire, Gloucestershire, Worcestershire and Oxfordshire.

An area of incredible beauty and history, the Cotwolds are considered to depict 'Quintessential England'. Rolling hills of limestone, golden cornfields, ancient yellowstone villages, thatched cottages, half timbered buildings and farms separated by thick deciduous woods and forests. This area is the home to Shakespear in Stratford-on-Avon, Churchill's birthplace Blenheim Palace as well as the country estates of Britains landed gentry, aristocracy and royalty.

The Cotswolds is a raised plateau of yellowish limestone which has given local architecture an amazing beauty. While not a National Park, it is a world renowned Area of Natural Outstanding Beauty (ANOB). It can be loosely placed within a geographical triangle from just below Birmingham in central England, following south east to Oxford, along the M40 Motorway, following the M4 motorway which crosses east to Bath and Bristol from London and then back up to Birmingham following the M5. Travelling along the M5 motorway past the historic towns of Gloucester and Cheltenham, the high escarpment of the plateau can be seen as it falls into the Severn Valley, cut by Britains's longest river (220miles or 354 Km).