Cotswolds, the Movie

The Cotswolds in a hilly, bucolic area about eighty miles west of London. The wool trade of the 13th and 14th Centuries made the sheep owners of the Cotswolds particularly wealthy. It is the second largest designated "Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty" in England (after the Lakes District) and a popular tourist, vacation, and retirement destination.

Debates surround the origin of the name: whether "sheep hills" (wold meaning hills); or "Cod's hills" (Cod being a personal name).

My preferred version is "Cuda hills", a derivation from Brittonic Cuda, a Mother Goddess worshiped by local Celts in pre-Anglo-Saxon, and probably pre-Roman times.

Medieval wealth is responsible for the many beautiful churches and abbeys in the area, and Nature Herself is the origin of the local yellow limestone which turns honey golden with age and has been extensively used as building material in the Cotswolds.

Thanks to good friends who retired in the area, we elected to stay in Cirencester for three nights to give us plenty of time to visit. We were taken to Malmesbury Abbey (hence the recorded church choir) and Tetbury (where Prince Charlie has a shop) on a Sunday.

The following day, after our Boo Laundrette experience, Shari and I ventured to Stow-on-the-Wold with its two famous old ewe trees that frame the side entrance to St. Edward's Church.

Introducing Cotswolds, the Movie: