Retire2 - Cotswolds
The Cotswolds
Stone both epitomises and defines the Cotswolds. Its villages are filled with cottages, inns and churches, built and roofed in the yellow oolitic limestone that varies in shade from deep cream to honey, and as a whole creates a picture of breathtaking beauty. The limestone was created on the bed of an ancient sea that once covered the area and was then pushed up by tectonic action to form a huge plate stretching through six counties from Warwickshire in the north to Somerset in the south. The plate forms a steep escarpment 100 miles long on its north and western edge and the whole slopes gently down south east into Oxfordshire and Wiltshire with grassland and meadows rich in wildlife and clear streams that drift between overgrown banks or splash through the middle of village streets. It was the Romans who first saw the potential of the landscape for sheep and introduced a long-haired breed which became known as Cotswold Lions. The breed, which still exists today, albeit in rare breed farms, produced a wool that was famed and brought prosperity that build the stone villages and, in particular, their magnificent churches.
The wool trade declined in the 19th Century, largely because of competition from America, Australia and New Zealand, which froze the villages and many large estates in a time warp which is maintained today by rigorous controls. There are strict guidelines governing where and how new buildings should be created while barn conversions are rarely allowed. On the down side it means some of them are left to decay but it does encourage the reclamation of masonry and stone tiles for restoration or the construction of other buildings.
Local authorities have the difficult balancing act of trying to increase employment and provide homes while preserving the unique features of the area that draws tourists from all parts of the world. The restrictions on construction have a knock-on effect on property prices and this is compounded by its popularity as a retirement venue – some of the best-known and most photogenic of the villages are for the seriously rich. The Cotswold Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) is, however, the largest in Britain covering more than a thousand square miles and somewhere in there will be a property to suite most pockets.
South Cotswolds - Published 18 February 2008 Cirencester, often described as the capital of the Cotswolds, is the largest town within the Cotswolds AONB. In Roman Britain the town, then called Corinium Dobunorum, was second only to London in size. The legacy from this important Roman town is... more North Cotswolds - Published 10 November 2006 Cheltenham is billed as the western gateway to the Cotswolds and is the closest large town to the stunningly pretty northern Cotswold villages that most think of as typical of the area. It was a small, pretty if rather insignificant town until the... more |
