Charming Coln St Aldwyns

With nothing but the sound of buzzing bees 🐝 and chirping birds with the sweet perfume of lilac blossom penetrating the Spring air, we arrived in the beautiful ‘blink-and-you’d-miss-it’ picturesque village in Gloucestershire’s Cotswolds - Coln St Aldwyns. A chance discovery on booking.com, chosen for it being a reasonable hour & 30 drive from Heathrow, the perfect antidote to the bedlam of our ordeal of the skies…

Our accommodation tonight is the simply charming 16th century New Inn. The village consists of this, a quirky cafe post office and a quaint 700 years old church (…which I’m sitting inside while penning this) atop a hill with tombstones and graveyard dating back just as far. The Elizabethan “Fortress Church”: St John the Baptist has features more typical of a defensive building than a religious one. Its thick walls and battlements reflect a time when churches needed to double as refuges in times of trouble.

We could not have asked for a more calm and sedate sense of relief to the previous two days of travel… This makes it all worthwhile!

There is not a cloud in the sky as we enjoyed lunch of local cider and Sauvignon Blanc alfresco in the sun ☀️ with bar snacks from the local bar incorporated within the Inn.

In the Victorian era, the local squire, William Lawrence, was known for unusual village improvements. He invested heavily in “beautifying” the village — but only according to his own strict tastes. His interventions, like insisting on building styles and tree plantings, helped preserve the village’s storybook appearance today.

Drove along lanes and passed meadows to nearby Bibury for typical English pub fare of fish, chips and peas. Will be more than happy to hit the hay 🛌 tonight!Read more