Rustic Cheer

The Cotswolds owes a lot to sheep. This picturesque area of southwest England, which covers 800 square miles from just south of Bath in Somerset to just south of Stratfordupon-Avon in Warwickshire, gets its name from the two Anglo-Saxon words cot and wold, meaning “sheep enclosure” and “rolling hills” respectively.

Then there’s the iconic look of the region’s villages. The Cotswolds became a trading hub during the Middle Ages for a breed of sheep known as Cotswold Lion and the profits were used to build churches and cottages in the pretty, honey-coloured stone. Even today, sheep are still valued both for their wool and their meat. The food and drink of Cotswolds is now almost as much of a pull as its landscape. Despite being designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in 1966, most of the region remains farmland and each of the gastropubs on our