A time warp tavern
The Farmers Arms, Cotswolds
There aren’t many places as small and out-of-the-way as Guiting Power with a post office, a bakery and a pub at each end of the main thoroughfare. Huddling in the Windrush Valley between the patchwork folds of the Cotswolds, it’s a honeyed stone village where outwardly at least, little has changed in the last hundred years.
It’s certainly true of The Farmers Arms, where the floors are flagstoned and gleaming horse brasses hang above the woodburning stove. The cask beers are brewed six miles up the road at Stow-on-the-Wold, where the Donnington Brewery set up shop in an old watermill back in 1865. And there’s a skittle alley to boot (West Country rules, naturally).
Traditional games and hearty, home-cooked grub can wait of course. Walking comes first. The Warden’s and Windrush Ways combine to form a satiating 8-mile circuit rising stealthily through Guiting Wood, up onto the breezy high wold. It’s far enough to walk up an appetite for The Farmers Arms’ celebrated rabbit pie.
WALK HERE: Turn to Walk 3 MORE INFO: donningtonbrewery.com; 01451 850358