Tourist attractions Broadway

Since ancient times, this region to the northwest of the Upper Thames Valley has been favoured by settlers for its climate and pastoral landscapes. Nowadays, the Cotswolds symbolise the essence of rural England, with airy open uplands, sheltered in p..

When horticulturer Lawrence Johnstone created this English garden, one of the most beautiful of the 20C, he concocted a multitude of enchanting effects for this small 4ha space. A labyrinth of Garden Rooms encircles a complex arrangement of aromati..

The Cotswolds stone façade has symmetrical gables and two towers housing the staircases. Inside, panelling, ceilings and period furniture show the architecture, decoration and atmosphere of 17C family life. Note the stables and the modest St Mary's ..

Protected by the steep slope, this is a fine example of a Cotswolds manor as built in around 1500. There is a great range of objects collected by the eccentric Charles Wade throughout his life. Wade also created the charming terraced garden .

Sudeley Castle stands on the spectacular slopes of the Cotswolds. Once a medieval fortress, then the home of Catherine Parr , widow of Henry VIII, the castle was besieged and destroyed during the Civil War. During the 19C, the building was restored;..

Noble rather than stately, Ragley was designed in Palladian style by Robert Hooke between 1679 and 1683. James Gibbs added some of the finest plasterwork ceilings he ever produced in around 1750 and, thirty years later, Wyatt built the giant ..

Little remains of pre-spa Cheltenham except for the secluded Church of St Mary and the line of the much rebuilt High Street. At right angles to this old thoroughfare is the Promenade , the city's main street, dominated by the majestic Queen's Hote..

Shakespeare's eldest daughter, Susanna, married a physician, John Hall, and the couple lived here until around 1616. The restored house part 16C, part 17C, contains furniture and paintings from this period, notes about the physician's patients and a ..

Broadway Tower, a battlemented folly (1800), marks one of the highest points in the Cotswolds. The vast westward panorama is one of the most beautiful in England, extending over the fertile Vale of Evesham to the jagged line of the Malvern Hills an..

Among the houses on the High Street, several are very pretty. Nonetheless, it is the harmony of the buildings altogether rather than the individual houses that is impressive. At the heart of the town stands the covered market (1627). Further north,..

Almost entirely renovated in the 15C in the Perpendicular style, St James, one of the finest "wool churches" of the Cotswolds, gives an impression of unity and calm.

With an Early English tower and transept and Perpendicular nave, Holy Trinity church would be notable even without Shakespeare's grave on the north side of the chancel. "Blessed be the man who spares these stones / And cursed be he that moves my..

This ornately carved half-timbered house bears the date 1596 when it was the home of Katherine Rogers. The American flag flies here in honour of her son, John Harvard (b 1607), the founder of Harvard University which is the present owner of the bui..

Of Shakespeare's retirement home, built in 1483, only the foundations remain but next door, in Nash's House , the home of Shakespeare's granddaughter, behind the much restored frontage, is an exhibition on the history of Stratford.

The Chapel of the Guild of the Holy Cross (founded 1263), the ruling body of Stratford before the Reformation, is predominantly Perpendicular, with wall paintings of Christ, Mary, St John, St Peter and the Last Judgement in the chancel.