Cotswolds

The Cotswolds is a region of rolling limestone hills stretching across six counties in central southern England. Its grasslands and stone villages sit above the valleys of the Thames and Severn. The local Jurassic limestone gives the area its golden stone, used for walls, houses and churches across the region. The Cotswolds became wealthy from wool in the 13th and 14th centuries. Italian merchants bought Cotswold Lion fleeces, and profits built many large wool churches. Today the area still preserves these handsome stone buildings and a rural landscape of farms and footpaths. Visitors walk through villages such as Chipping Campden and Broadway. The Arts and Crafts movement began in Chipping Campden at the turn of the 20th century. Ancient stone walls cross the hills, and footpaths stretch for thousands of miles across farmland and villages.