Cotswold tours
The Cotswolds is a beautiful area of soft, rolling hills. But it was once the economic powerhouse of England. Choose from a tour of classic honeystoned wool towns, the magnificent city of Oxford or venture along winding roads to find some truly offbeat stories and sights.
chipping
Norton
A 90-minute stroll through history
Tales of the town that walked up the hill. How do Chippy’s trees cure headaches? What links baseball with beekeeping? See where legendary music was made, a vicar lost out to a king, and the sites of a surprising number of riots.
Walking tours 10.30am
£12, inc. booking fee
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hook
Norton
The ironstone village
Find out how the 'pyramids of Oxfordshire' were vital to the ironstone industry here a century ago. Hooky's story also includes an angry Henry VIII, mad houses and a beautiful church with an extraordinary font. Oh, and we see where the first Hooky beer was served from jugs!
Walking tours start at
the Brewery
2pm, £12
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classic
cotswolds
Hills and honeystone
Enjoy the rolling hills where sheep have been farmed for centuries. Cross ancient ridgeways into green valleys lined with stone-roofed cottages that once hummed to the sound of the weaver’s loom. Find what makes a ‘wool church’, see how some of them carry the scars of the English Civil War. Learn how the many miles of drystone walls are built and why they can be so low.
Mini-bus / coach tour
Offbeat Cotswolds
Hidden and quirky
There’s more to the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty than sheep and churches. See statues that once adorned Parliament; admire buildings nearly shipped to America, and hear how penguins use a billiards table. Or how about discovering a crocodile in a stream, the man who brought us the kiwi fruit, and a Victorian ‘clip-clop-collect’ thatched hut?
There’s more to the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty than sheep and churches. See statues that once adorned Parliament; admire buildings nearly shipped to America, and hear how penguins use a billiards table. Or how about discovering a crocodile in a stream, the man who brought us the kiwi fruit, and a Victorian ‘clip-clop-collect’ thatched hut?
Mini-bus / coach tour
Cityscape
offbeat
oxford
This tour puts the WOW into town and gown as we delve deep beyond Oxford’s famous quads, spires and towers. Meet the emperors who aren’t emperors and the woman who never visited her own college. Find out how upper and lower case letters got their name, see proof that a famous building ran out of cash … and stare into the sockets of shrunken skulls.