The Cotswolds

I have decided to write a post about the Cotswolds. Many people picture the little cottage from the film 'the Holiday' that Kate Winslet lives in when the Cotswolds are mentioned, but their knowledge of the area seems to only stretch to that!  I am always surprised by the number of people that don't know what, let alone where the Cotswolds are when I say thats where I'm from. I am often left with blank looks, or people just smile and nod as they are too embarrassed to admit their severe lack of geographical knowledge....so in a VERY brief rundown, and with many thanks to Wikipedia, here it goes:

The Cotswolds are a range of hills in southwestern and west-central England. They cover an area about 25 miles across and 90 miles long.

A map of the Cotswolds.

From the map you can see the area the Cotswolds cover in England- and I live roughly in between Chippenham and Tetbury.
The Cotswolds mainly lie within the counties of Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire, however it does extend into the counties of Wiltshire, Somerset, Worcestershire and Warwickshire.
In 1966 the Cotswolds were awarded an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). The whole area is characterised by many of the buildings been built out of the attractive Cotswold stone (a yellow oolitic limestone) as seen below:

Typical Cotswold stone villages.

The beauty of the Cotswolds has meant that it has remained affluent and has attracted wealthy people who either own second homes in the area or have decided to retire there.

So...I hope you enjoyed the whistle stop tour of the area I live in, and hopefully now you will be slightly more clued up when somebody tells you they are from the Cotswolds....you may even be able to surprise them and recite them some facts about the area!

MM xx