Spring Weekend in the Cotswolds

The English countryside is glorious in springtime. Colorful gardens, adorable lambs, and fresh greenery fill the landscapes in a beautiful effort to make up for the bleakness of winter. Given how much I enjoy the early spring in London, I can’t help spending a spring weekend in the Cotswolds to see the season in an even more magical environment.

My boyfriend and I make a very last-minute decision to head out to Gloucestershire and Worcestershire, jumping in the car on Friday after dinner and arriving in Chipping Campden just in time for last call at the local pub.

We’re happy to be here, and excited for a weekend break in the countryside.

Towns and Villages

Chipping Campden

Basing ourselves in Chipping Campden, we make a point of exploring the town throughout the weekend. It’s one of those picture-pretty places full of Cotswold stone houses that glow golden in the afternoon sun.

The high street is full of pretty shops and lovely facades, and it all feels perfectly charming. Our room at the Cotswold House Hotel and Spa overlooks an idyllic garden, too.

Over on Sheep Street, we duck into the historic home of the Guild of Handicrafts, where 3rd-generation silversmith David Hart shows us around his workshop and lets us sign a guestbook dating back to 1903.

Our signatures join those of famous architects like Frank Lloyd Wright, and it all feels like a delicious step back in time.

Down the high street, we explore the quiet surroundings of St. James’ Church and the adjacent Court Barn Museum, which is dedicated to the designers and craftspeople of the Arts and Crafts Movement.

Parts of the movement—which focused on traditional craftsmanship and design around the turn of the 20th century—centered in the Cotswolds, and there’s a lot of history here.

Broadway

Not far from Chipping Campden is Broadway, a famous village in the Cotswolds. There too we pay homage to the Arts and Crafts Movement with a trip to the Gordon Russell Design Museum.

We get an impromptu tour of the famous 20th-century furniture designer’s work from one of the staff members, who shows us around the museum and reveals secret compartments and other hidden elements as we go.

Back on the high street, the Cotswold stone is aglow in the bright spring sunshine and we can’t help sitting outside for cream tea in the courtyard of the famous Lygon Arms hotel.

Incidentally, the hotel was owned by Gordon Russell’s father. It houses some of his son’s furniture among other medieval-feeling works.

When we’ve soaked up enough of Broadway’s impossibly pretty streets, we head up the hill to Broadway Tower, a romantic 18th-century folly overlooking the countryside.

The second-highest point in the Cotswolds, it not only offers great views but also exhibits on residents and guests like William Morris—another famous figure from the Arts and Crafts Movement.

Bretforton

When we need a break, we drive to Bretforton, a rural village in Worcestershire that might just be the prettiest place I’ve ever seen. Its little streets are full of quintessential English cottages.

It’s also home to the Fleece Inn, a historic pub with low ceilings, little rooms with timber beams, and enough open fireplaces to make me feel like I’ve just stepped into a Tudor world.

If it wasn’t for the fact that our food takes over an hour and a half to arrive (apparently there’s a problem in the kitchen) and it’s a bit disappointing when it comes (I need a chainsaw to cut through the batter on my fish), I would love it.

Painswick

Heading south from Bretforton, we continue our spring weekend in the Cotswolds by driving down to Painswick.

This village is different from the others in that the buildings are mostly made of gray stone. But even without the traditional yellow glow, Painswick has a beautiful atmosphere.

The churchyard alone, with its giant walk-through hedges, is straight out of a fairy tale.

Over on a side street, a secret little Arts and Crafts museum sits in a deconsecrated church with a gorgeous stained-glass window by Edward Burne-Jones, a famous artist from the Pre-Raphaelite movement who also worked with William Morris.

The Ashton Beer Collection is a treasure trove of furniture and other magical finds.

Sapperton

Not far from Painswick is Sapperton, a village with a long Arts and Crafts history—the churchyard of St Kenelms holds the graves of Ernest Gimson and the Barnsley brothers, important figures in the movement.

It’s also home to house-shaped hedges, pretty cottages, and a lovely country pub called The Bell at Sapperton. We stop at the last of these for a pint while soaking up the warm ambiance and the beer garden out front.

Spring Gardens in the Cotswolds

But the Cotswolds are more than just pretty villages and picturesque towns. Given it’s spring, the gardens are high on our priority list.

Hidcote Manor Garden

Just outside Chipping Campden, we visit two of the most famous gardens in the Cotswolds. The first is Hidcote Manor Garden, a National Trust property.

It has an expansive Arts and Crafts garden with “rooms” full of flowers, topiary trees, and other lovely surprises.

Created by American horticulturist Lawrence Johnston, the flowering plants and curling climbers were collected throughout his travels to places as far flung as South Africa and China.

My boyfriend and I can’t help lingering on the sun-drenched benches, closing our eyes and listening to the sounds of the birds in the trees.

Kiftsgate Court Gardens

Just down the road is Kiftsgate Court Gardens, a family-run place with a lovely country house surrounded by steep hills covered in flowering plants and trees.

There are walkways that lead to hedge-lined ponds, crescent-shaped pools overlooking dramatic expanses of Cotswolds countryside, and dainty sunken gardens centered around fountains.

Kiftsgate Court Gardens is smaller and more intimate than Hidcote, but just as lovely.