The Cotswolds

Bruern is a tiny Cotswolds hamlet hidden in the Evenlode Valley, which has been officially designated as an 'Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty'. You would have to go far and look hard to find a single blot on this landscape – a countryside of rolling fields and woods, threaded through by meandering streams, an area of handsome towns, churches and manor houses.

Nearby are famously beautiful villages: Great Tew with its thatched cottages; Bibury; Broadway; the romantic ruins of Minster Lovell; the Slaughters; Kelmscott; Adlestrop; Guiting Power and Bourton-on-the-Water. Then there are towns of golden Cotswold stone like Burford, Stow-on-the-Wold and Moreton-in-Marsh, whose handsome houses, churches, inns and shops were built on the profits of the wool trade some six hundred years ago, when the area was one of the most prosperous in Europe. It was this wealth that enabled people to build in stone, and as a result the towns and villages of the Cotswolds have remained intact, to become among the oldest surviving communities in the UK.

It is a countryside steeped in history, from the Bronze Age Rollright Stones and the Roman Villa at Chedworth, to the magnificent palace of Blenheim in Woodstock, built for the first Duke of Marlborough by a grateful nation after the battle of Blenheim in 1704, and later the birthplace of his great descendant, Sir Winston Churchill.

One of the many joys of Bruern is that although it could hardly be further off the beaten track or less spoilt by the modern era, it is within easy reach of some of the towns and cities richest in literary and historical associations - Woodstock and Blenheim are only twenty minutes away, Oxford half an hour, Stratford-on-Avon, Gloucester, Cheltenham, Bath and Warwick an hour or so.

If gardens are your passion, some of the greatest in England are within striking distance: Hidcote, Sudeley Castle, Barnsley House, Sezincote, Snowshill, Broughton Castle, Rousham Park, Kiftsgate and Stowe. On the way you can indulge yourself, antiquing in Stow-on-the-Wold, designer bargain hunting in Bicester Village and stopping off for lunch in the excellent local pubs and restaurants. Children can explore the Cotswold Wild Life Park, the Model Village at Bourton-on-the-Water, Bourton Model Railway and the Cogges Manor Farm Museum.

There's an eighteen-hole golf course at Lyneham ten minutes' walk away, trout fishing, riding at Oakfield Riding School, racing at Cheltenham, boating at Lechlade and wonderful walking along the Oxfordshire Way, which runs through Bruern. The BBOWT wildlife reserve is ten minutes away.

There's theatre at Stratford-on-Avon, and both theatre and music flourish in Oxford. If we have enough notice, we can book tickets and dinner, and arrange transport. Even closer is the Chipping Norton Theatre, converted thirty years ago from a Salvation Army Meeting House. The building has retained all the architectural features that gave it charm and atmosphere, and is now home to interesting and prestigious travelling productions, jazz concerts and traditional Christmas pantomime, which children adore.