It’s been a while since my last post on our trip to England in September of this year. I have a goal to finish my posts before the end of the year. Our tour with Go Cotswolds, a small family owned touring company, was called Cotswolds in a Day.
On Thursday September 15th (two months ago!) we walked to the Oxford Train Station to be picked up for our day in the Cotswolds. At the station while waiting for the tour van we met another couple waiting for the tour. We enjoyed getting to know them and connecting some dots in our backgrounds that intersected. The rest of the tour group arrived and we hit the road for our first stop which was Chipping Campden. We had a set amount of time to enjoy the village. We chose to spend our time at St. James Church. That will be a separate post.
In 2013 and in 2014 we visited Chipping Campden and my posts are here in 2013 and here in 2014.
From Chipping Campden we stopped at Dover’s Hill for some panoramic views.
It was breezy!
On the way to Snowshill we passed The Broadway Tower.
St. Barnabas Church in Snowshill
Snowshill village sits on the top of the escarpment above the villages of Broadway, Buckland, and Laverton. It is a secluded village where ancient pretty cottages and a 19th century church cluster around a small green. As its name implies – if there is any snow about then you will find it here first.
This was our tour group on this day.
In 2014 Dear and I enjoyed this little village and my post is here.
The weather was good with beautiful skies. Our next stop was Moreton in Marsh where we would enjoy some lunch which left little time to explore.
I hurried from our lunch table at the Talbot Inn so I could get some photos of the wonderful door on the back side of St. Edward’s Church.
If you walk around the churchyard towards the north porch, you will stumble upon what’s known locally as ‘The Yew Tree door’ or ‘The Hobbit door’.
“Speak friend and enter”
In 2014 we had more time in Stow on the Wold and my posts with more information are here and here.
Next time the villages of Bourton on the Water and Bibury.
The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b. 
Beautiful photos from your trip! Take care, have a great day!
…you sure saw a lot of eye candy on your trip. Take care.
Thanks for sharing your tour! That yew tree door is amazing.
Beautiful pic’s! Now you have me wanting to visit the Cotswolds.
Beautiful photos. The Cotswolds are full of quaint and lovely villages, churches, and castles. I never tire of seeing them.
Such a lovely area. Beautiful colored stone. Have always loved it.
The Cotswolds are so special. Thank you for sharing your time there, Ellen. England draws me in like no other place on earth. I hope your day is going well.
Lovely memories, Ellen. I remember Drover’s Hill from 2009 when my husband and I took a Rick Steves tour. And the Hobbit door too. Our tour stayed in a hotel not far from the church. Looks like you had a nice group of fellow tourists that day. I look forward to your future posts. I hope things are going well with Dear and continue to pray for you both.
Such beauty to see, and I loved the small tree door! So thankful your husband’s stroke happened here, and not over there! Such a special time you had, so many wonderful things to experience! You take beautiful pictures! Do the phones in the phone booths still work? You both continue in my prayers!
The phone does work in this particular booth but not all of them. There is also a heart defibrillator in this one for the small village. Thank you so much for your prayers.
Lovely and thanks! I’ll be traveling to the Cotswolds for the first time in summer, 2025. Any tips welcome.
My favorite writer is CSLewis (and I’ll be staying in his home, The Kilns, in Oxford!) Elizabeth Goudge is my 2nd fave (tied with Tolkien) and I plan to visit her home, Rose Cottage, Cotswolds. 🙂
Blessings, Lori
Lori, I’m fascinated by the fact that you are staying at The Kilns. We toured there in September of 2022. https://happywonderer.com/2023/01/05/a-day-with-c-s-lewis/ We are also fans of Elizabeth Goudge but we didn’t realize she had a cottage in the Cotswolds. We did find one of her books at a used bookstore in Chipping Campden in 2013, The Dean’s Watch. We visited a few of the villages in the Cotswolds in 2013, 2014, and 2022. In 2022 we used a tour company called ‘Go Cotswolds’ because we didn’t have a car that visit. It was a good tour company but we didn’t have enough time in each of the villages to really enjoy them properly. When we were in Oxford in 2004 with our daughter (a fan of Lewis and Tolkien), she wouldn’t let us leave until we found Tolkien’s grave in Wolvercote Cemetery. How long will you be staying at the Kilns and in Oxfordshire? Thank you for stopping by and leaving a comment. Blessings, ellen