Lunch in Bilbury Cotswolds, Burford and Stow-on-the-Wold
28th February 2025
Here at Best Value Tours we are delighted offer outstanding Day Tours around the UK and Ireland and today we are featuring one of our most popular, Lunch in Bilbury Cotswolds, Burford and Stow-on-the-Wold, full details are below, but first some fascinating history of the Cotswolds.
Located in central South West England, the Cotswolds is a range of rolling hills rises from upper River Thames meadows to an escarpment over the Severn Valley and Vale of Evesham. The Jurassic limestone bedrock produces a meadow home for the golden Cotswold stone. Mainly Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire, with sections of Wiltshire, Somerset, Worcestershire, and Warwickshire. East of Cheltenham, Cleeve Hill is the highest point at 1,083 feet. Stone villages, towns, majestic buildings, and gardens with local stone are seen throughout the rural environment.
Since 1966, a substantial part of the Cotswolds has been a National Landscape. The largest National Landscape area and England’s third-largest protected landscape, it covers 787 square miles, with boundaries 25 miles across and 90 miles long, stretching south-west from Stratford-upon-Avon to Bath.
In 2021, a Cotswolds quarry yielded the greatest Jurassic echinoderm fossil excavation, comprising rare and unknown species. Cotswold Edge has Neolithic burial chambers and Bronze and Iron Age forts.]After building villas at Chedworth and Gloucester, the Romans paved the Celtic path subsequently known as Fosse Way.
Thanks to the Cotswold Lion breed of sheep, the Cotswolds prospered from the wool trade with the continent in the Middle Ages, with most of the money going to church building. The wool trade thrived from 1250–1350, when Italian merchants bought most of it. Numerous huge, magnificent Cotswold Stone “wool churches” remain. In the 21st century, wealthy Londoners and those who own second homes or retire to the Cotswolds have moved there.
The Cotswolds span southwest to northeast through six counties, including Gloucestershire, west Oxfordshire, and southwestern Warwickshire. The Cotswolds‘ northern and western sides include high escarpments to the Severn and Warwickshire Avon. The Cotswold escarpment or Edge is formed when the limestone stratum tilts, revealing its fractured edge. This is geologically a cuesta. Southeast dip slope. Oxford is on the east and Stroud on the west.
The upper Thames Valley and towns like Lechlade, Tetbury, and Fairford represent the region’s southeast boundary. The Cotswolds, with the Cotswold Edge elevation, extend south of Bath, and Chipping Sodbury and Marshfield have Cotswold characteristics. Nice small towns and villages are built of Cotswold stone This limestone is full of sea urchin fossils. Bourton-on-the-Water, Broadway, Chalford, Charlbury, Chipping Campden, Chipping Norton, Cricklade, Dursley, Malmesbury, Minchinhampton, Moreton-in-Marsh, Nailsworth, Northleach, Painswick, Stow-on-the-Wold, Stroud, Tetbury, Witney, Winchcombe, and Wotton-under-Edge are Many parts of Box are in the Cotswolds. Bath, Cheltenham, Cirencester, Gloucester, Stroud, and Swindon are significant cities bordering the Cotswold AONB.
William Morris developed the Arts & Crafts movement in Chipping Campden in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Morris occasionally stayed in Broadway Tower, a country park folly. The Cotswold Olimpick Games, a 17th-century sporting festival, are held in Chipping Campden. 
Stunning and Charming Cotswolds
Lunch in Bilbury Cotswolds, Burford and Stow-on-the-Wold
We start our full-day journey in Burford, where every type of Cotswold stone can be seen on the grand high street. Before we go south to Bibury, which William Morris has called the “prettiest village in the Cotswolds,” we will have time to explore the tea cafes and stores.
Lunch is calling, and there’s no better way to sate your appetite than with a delicious two-course meal at the Swan Hotel, which is located in the heart of Bibury and has a view of the River Coln. A fantastic selection of traditional cuisine, ales, and fine wines are served at this historic coaching inn from the 17th century. (If lunch is chosen, it is included.)
Before arriving in Stow-on-the-Wold, one of the most attractive locations in the northern Cotswolds, we take a leisurely drive through quaint villages in the afternoon. Before boarding the coach and heading back to London, your guide will give you a brief tour of each settlement and discuss its history. Burford
We start our full-day journey in Burford, where every type of Cotswold stone can be seen on the grand high street. Before we go south to Bibury, which William Morris has called the “prettiest village in the Cotswolds,” we will have time to explore the tea cafes and stores.
More details and booking link
Lunch in Bilbury Cotswolds, Burford and Stow-on-the-Wold | Best Value Tours