Notgrove

Notgrove is barely a village at all in the conventional sense – a tiny Cotswold parish of fewer than a hundred people, strung along a ridge of high, open farmland between Cheltenham and Stow-on-the-Wold. There is no shop, no pub, no bustle, only a scatter of stone farmhouses, a manor, and a small church tower rising above wind-bent trees. What Notgrove has instead is age: this stretch of the Cotswolds has been settled and worked for over five thousand years, and the evidence for that is still sitting in the fields.

The parish sits high on the Cotswold plateau, around 200 metres above sea level, where the land rolls out in wide arable fields divided by drystone walls and the odd copse of beech. It is quintessential wold country – the kind of landscape that gave the Cotswolds their name, sheep pasture turned to a patchwork of cereal and grass, with long views towards the Windrush valley. Bourton-on-the-Water, Gloucestershire’s most-visited village, is a few minutes down the road, and Stow-on-the-Wold and Cheltenham are both within easy reach, but Notgrove itself stays resolutely rural, best explored on foot or by bike rather than as a destination with amenities of its own.

Top things to do in Notgrove

Notgrove rewards anyone happy to walk, look, and take their time; its interest is archaeological and scenic rather than a checklist of attractions.

• Notgrove Long Barrow – a Neolithic chambered long barrow of the Cotswold-Severn type, around 50 metres long, standing on a ridge with wide views. First excavated in 1881 and again by Elsie Clifford in 1934–5, it revealed a stone burial chamber, a male skeleton, and a ritual forecourt formed by two projecting ‘horns’ – one of the more substantial Neolithic monuments in the Cotswolds.
• Church of St Bartholomew – a 12th-century church much enlarged in the 14th century, with an octagonal spire and a rare Saxon carving of the Crucifixion, dated to at least the 10th century, set into a niche on the exterior of the east wall. Inside is a Norman tub font and effigies linked to descendants of Dick Whittington.
• Cotswolds National Landscape walking – Notgrove sits within the Cotswolds National Landscape (formerly AONB), and the surrounding footpaths link the long barrow, the church, and neighbouring villages across open wold country and along the Warden’s Way and Gloucestershire Way long-distance routes.
• Bourton-on-the-Water – a few miles south, the “Venice of the Cotswolds”, with the River Windrush running through the village centre, low footbridges, and Model Village, Motoring Museum and Birdland attractions.
• Stow-on-the-Wold – the highest town in the Cotswolds, with its market square, antique shops and the yew-flanked north door of St Edward’s Church.
• Naunton and the Windrush valley – a neighbouring village with a restored dovecote and gentle valley walking along the young River Windrush.

Getting to Notgrove

Notgrove lies just off the A436 between Andoversford and Stow-on-the-Wold, a few miles north-east of Bourton-on-the-Water. By car it is around 15 minutes from Cheltenham and 30–40 minutes from Gloucester, Cirencester or Oxford, with the A40 and A429 (the Fosse Way) both close by. The nearest mainline railway station is Moreton-in-Marsh, roughly a 20-minute drive, with services to London Paddington and Worcester; Cheltenham Spa station has faster connections to Birmingham and Bristol. Local bus services along the A436 corridor are infrequent, so a car is the practical way to explore this part of the wolds.

Best time to visit Notgrove

Late spring through early autumn suits Notgrove best, when the surrounding footpaths are driest and the wold fields are at their most photogenic – golden with barley in July, or freshly green after lambing in April and May. Summer also brings the longest daylight for walking out to the long barrow and back. Autumn colours the beech copses along the ridge, while winter has its own appeal for those who like empty paths and big skies, though the exposed, high ground can be cold and muddy underfoot. Being deep in the countryside with no village amenities, Notgrove is a quiet, off-season destination as much as a summer one.

Where to stay in Notgrove

Accommodation in Notgrove itself is limited to a scatter of farmhouse B&Bs and self-catering cottages converted from old stone barns, well suited to walkers wanting a genuinely rural base. Most visitors choose to stay in or around nearby Bourton-on-the-Water or Stow-on-the-Wold, both a short drive away, where the choice of hotels, inns and guesthouses is much wider, or in Cheltenham for a wider range of amenities alongside easy access to the wolds.

Food and drink in Notgrove

Notgrove has no pub or shop of its own, so eating out means a short drive. The Plough Inn at Cold Aston and The Coach and Horses at Longborough are among the traditional Cotswold pubs within easy reach, while Bourton-on-the-Water offers a wide choice of cafes, tea rooms and restaurants along the Windrush, and Stow-on-the-Wold has long-standing options such as The Old Butchers and the many pubs around the market square. Cheltenham, a short drive away, adds a much larger choice of restaurants and independent cafes.