There’s a lot of little places in the Cotswolds, and they have very entertaining names. Today we visited Bourton-on-the-Water, Upper Slaughter, Lower Slaughter and Broadway, as well as making our way through a few other little villages on the way.
Bourton-on-the-Water is probably one of the most picturesque little villages you will find anywhere. The village sits astride the River Windrush, which – despite its name – is a timid little stream about 6 metres wide and 150mm deep.
We got there about 8:30am, which is just as well because the parking disappears fairly quickly and the place is packed by the time that shops open at 10am.
I don’t know anything more about it than you can find out from Wikipedia, so I’ll just post a heap of photos (and by ‘heap’ I mean the ones that don’t keep telling me they’re too large to upload).
Bourton-on-the-Water at full scale
Bourton-on-the-Water also has a model village, of itself. It was okay, but lacked pizazz. Technically, the buildings are very good, and carefully crafted of stone. It was conceived in 1937 and built in 1940. I think it’s just showing its age. We were done in half an hour.
Bourton-on-the-Water in miniature
Then it was off to the Slaughters, upper and lower. Very small, nowhere to park and not nearly as pretty as most others. I think most people visit because of the name – that was our main motivation. Apparently the name derives from the Saxon word “slough”, meaning wet place.
Then it was on to Winchcombe and Broadway. Both had their fair share of decent buildings and nice streetscapes. I’ll leave to the photos to explain.
And that’s about. Only a few days to go….
Cheers, Steve and Michelle.