Where is the bloody Cotswolds

[Bottomplasters]

I always struggle to get my head around the Cotswolds. Everyone goes on about it.

Is it like the lakes? Is it really nice and where actually is it!

I’m north west and am always confused by this.

Anyone else get confused about stuff like this?!

No it’s nit, but it’s headibg down that direction

Admittedly, I’ma but hazy on where the northern edge if the Cotswolds is, but DH grew up/PiL live between Cirencester and Cheltenham, DH went to school in Bourton etc. That end I know well.

I live near the Cotswolds - everyone seems to have a different idea of where it starts and finishes!

Not Redditch though, wrong direction entirely!

It covers a tiny bit of south Worcestershire, large swathes of Gloucestershire and some of Oxfordshire. It is very pretty but not much to do unless you like overpriced antique shops and chintzy tea rooms full of coach parties.

Sorry Runski, I realise my Redditch post sounded like I was having a pop at you. I was lol-ing at the idea of Redditch as a Cotswold town (if you’ve been, you’ll understand why).

It's the English countryside theme park for American tourists.

I live near the edge of the Cotswolds in Gloucestershire. I agree it’s pretty but a bit boring. My village use to not be posh with lots of local country people that had been there generations. But they keep building posh new homes that only city dwellers can afford and spoiling the view of the beautiful rolling hills.

If I lived in Redditch I think I'd wish it was in the Cotswolds.

Very pretty, stone houses, quaint pubs, expensive shops telling expensive tut that you don't need. Good availability of champagne cream teas.

My sister lives there. We sometimes drive around, its very pretty, looking enviously at places our family lived and worked in for generations, now inhabited by the likes of Boris Johnson, Clarkson and Cameron. Hmm.

I wouldn’t call Gloucester a dump either, it just has poorer people living there.

I live on the 'edge' of the Cotswolds ie we're actually excluded form being in the Cotswolds as it's a new town without all the pretty stone cottages etc.

Though with all the Cotswold stone I dig out of my garden I could actually build a quaint cottage.

It can be boring and some of the people in the little villages can be a bit snobby

Definitely not Redditch! Evesham area probably the only Worcestershire representative in the mix.

There are areas of glocester that are poorer of course its a city!

But no geographaphical the actual city isnt cotswalds either but you dont have to go very far. Its less than 10 miles between gloucester and stroud, and stroyd is very definately the cotswald, lots of people go between the cotswald area and gloucester for school and work, so i can see why you would think gloucester and cheltenham were cotswalds.

Sorry Runski redditch is no where near the cotswalds! I lived in redditch growing up i now live in the cotswalds and not only is geography quite far out, the culture of people living there is very different .

Did you mean evesham? In which case yes, it just touches the cotswalds, redditch no way

Broadway is the only Worcestershire village in the Cotswolds. Evesham is big on marketing itself as ‘gateway to the cotswolds’ (but is a dump, IMO).

Redditch is bearer birmingham than it is the cotswalds

Though there are some lovely areas around Evesham.

The border is probably a bit before you get to Evesham. Evesham itself is much more affordable and has modern houses etc. and isn't in the Cotswold Stone building area - but nearby Broadway, as mentioned upthread, emphatically is part of the Cotswolds (Vale of Evesham born and bred here).

Forgot about Broadway! That part of Worcestershire is well-placed really with the Cotswolds and the Malverns either side.

Laughing at the description of Gloucester city. I've lived in a lot of different places, in London too for years, and have always felt perfectly safe. But being in Gloucester city centre at 11pm, waiting for taxi, was alarming, with roaming groups of aggressive drunken youth, couldn't wait to get out of there.

Ds1 visited and he didn't get the fuss.

I looked on a map and was still confused.

So if I go for a weekend what is there to do?

People just go on and on about it and I don’t understand why

I have been for the occasional weekend.

I find it quite boring, tbh, as a holiday destination. Countryside is pretty but not as good for walking as the Peak or Lake Districts (or even the New Forest it South Downs). Limited number of historical or cultural attractions. But if you want to sit in cosy pubs or mooch round choc box villages, very pleasant.

But it’s all a matter of personal preference and taste.

Ds1 visited and he didn't get the fuss.

Oh well in that case it must be shit then

I live in the Cotswolds. It isn't boring but the tourists can be twats.