Quintessential villiages

We took a little driving tour of a few of the villages in the Cotswolds today.Moreton in the Marsh, Bourton on the Water, and the Slaughters. Gorgeous places where it looks like time stood still. Well it would if it wasn't for cars and buses but they are lovely towns and beautiful old buildings. My favourite was the Slaughters, there are two little villages very close together and it was very quite and laid back.Although they are having their annual fete on Monday and expecting 10000 people. So guess it won't be too quite that day!

We check out a little brewery near Bourton on the Water. Had to go around the slaughters a few times to find I with a bit of help from a couple walking their dog.t. It just had a small front shop but the girl in there happily got us some beer to taste. It was pretty good and we came home with a couple of bottles.
Tried our first cream tea. Which is Devonshire tea as we know it in Moreton on the Marsh. Clotted cream too, another first.

On the way home we came across an open garden and pulled in to have a look. Burton House Garden, beautiful, and so peaceful. It's only open for 3 days of the week, the owners are there the rest of the time, so we were lucky we came across it on the right day. Acres of flowers, topiaries, gardens and gorgeous trees, and a beautiful tithe barn.

The lady on the counter gave us a little lesson on the tithe barn. Tithe means tenth and the farmers had to pay the lords a tenth of what they grew. Most of which they didn't eat and threw back into the streets when it was rotten. The poor peasants who were starving would eat it and a lot of them died from the bacteria in the rotten corn. They then blamed the young girls of the villages and accused them of being witches. The girls then had to draw a perfect circle with some sort of leaves in the middle to prove they weren't witches and you can still see some faint ones there still!Read more