Bourton-on-the-Water Travel Guide

Introduction

137km (85 miles) NW of London; 58km (36 miles) NW of Oxford

This is the quintessential Cotswold village, with history dating from the Celts. Today it's overrun with tourists in summer. Residents fiercely protect the heritage of 15th- and 16th-century architecture, though their town is singled out for nearly every bus tour that rolls through the Cotswolds. Populated in Anglo-Saxon times, Bourton-on-the-Water developed into a strategic outpost along the ancient Roman road, Fosse Way, which traversed Britain from the North Sea to St. George's Channel. During the Middle Ages, its prosperity came from wool, which was shipped all over Europe. During the Industrial Revolution, when the greatest profits lay in finished textiles, it became a backwater as a producer of raw wool -- albeit with the happy result for us that it never "modernized."

This scenic Cotswold village on the banks of the Windrush River has earned the title of "Venice of the Cotswolds," with its mellow stone houses,...