The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
KNOW BEFORE YOU GO
Selsley, has windows by pre-Raphaelite superstars, including William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones. Look out for Judas Iscariot, modelled on a disliked local dealer.
A 45-minute walk from The Bell Inn, Woodchester Valley Vineyard (woodchestervalleyvineyard.co.uk) offers tours and tastings (one-bedroom apartment from £110 per night.) This year, the award-winning vineyard will produce its first pinot noir.
From high on Selsley Common – the scene of a 1839 Chartist rally – there are splendid views towards the Severn. Here, you can join the 102-mile Cotswold Way (nationaltrail. co.uk/cotswold-way).
I’M MORE OF A BEER PERSON
Then you’ve come to the right place. Stroud is home to one of only a handful of organic breweries in
Britain. In fact, Stroud Brewery has crowdfunded £300,000 to expand into a new canal-side brewery/ bar/café on a small industrial estate, due to open early 2019. In the meantime it dispenses hundreds of pints of various brews (and wood-fired pizzas) in nearby utilitarian premises (Thursday, Friday and Saturday only). The Alederflower ale is worth a try (see stroud brewery. co.uk).
Stroud revels in its revolutionary roots. At the top of the pedestrianised High Street you’ll find a shop selling goods exclusively made in Venezuela, a charity shop raising funds for refugees and the gallery of pop-art inspired Clay
Sinclair (claysinclair.com) with his “People’s Republic of Stroud” T-shirts. Nearby Woodruffs claims to be the first wholly organic café in Britain (mains from £7; woodruffsorganic cafe.co.uk).
Organic, vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free diets are well catered for in Stroud. For the gourmand, the Saturday farmers market (fresh-nlocal.co.uk) has plenty of stalls selling excellent bread (saltbakehouse.co.uk), superb cheese from Windrush Valley Goat Dairy and tasty smoked fish, meat and hummus from Stroud Smokehouse (stroudsmokehouse. com). If you are self-catering, the market is the place to stock up.
SELF-CATERING? IS IT ALL YURTS AND TEPEES?
Yes, there is a lovely yurt in the woods on 70-acre Westley Farm, but this bucolic bolthole also has self-catering, two-bedroom cottages (from £700 per week; westleyfarm.co.uk). You can walk from your front door into the Golden Valley and along the former Thames and Severn Canal. The excellent farm shop, Jolly Nice ( jollynicefarmshop.com) is a mile away.
SOUNDS GOOD FOR CHILDREN...
It is. Rodborough Parish Church has a window featuring Thomas the Tank Engine. Painswick Rococo Garden (rococo garden.org.uk; £7.50 adults/ £3.60 children) has a wooden climbing castle under trees. Westley Farm holds forest school days (westleyfarm.co.uk; £25) and there are canal boat trips aplenty (cotswoldcanals.com; £5/£3). Museum in the Park has mammoths’ tusks and quizzes (museum inthepark.org.uk; free) while Stratford Park also has an outdoor (unheated) pool (everyoneactive.com).
If it’s too cool to swim, you could pick up a children’s tepee from Malthouse Collective (themalthouse collective.co.uk) and play in the park’s arboretum. Everyone will like Winstones ice cream (winstones icecream.co.uk) whatever the weather.
The lawnmower was invented in 1830 in Eastington, Stroud, by Edwin Budding
AND FOR EVENINGS WITHOUT THEM?
Stroud is surrounded by chocolatebox villages of pale southern Cotswolds stone. Painswick, four miles north, is home to the very comfortable The Painswick (telegraph. co.uk/tt-the-painswick-hotel; doubles from £139). The hotel has 16 rooms with views over the Painswick Valley. The staff are friendly and the food superb. Try line-caught Cornish cod with baby leeks (mains from £16).