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Cotswolds- the heart of the English Countryside (1)

Fairy tale land does exist!  In Lacock.
I always love the idea of going to the English countryside and Cotswolds is the area with the most beautiful villages in England. Since it's summer, I suggested doing a weekend trip to the Cotswolds (even the name sounds magical to me, like a place out of an Enid Blyton book with pixies and fairies.. and toadstools.) This is a huge sprawling area over a few counties and we had to decide whereabouts in Cotswolds we wanted to go, so after doing some reading up, I decided the area of Wiltshire, in particular to visit the villages of Lacock and Castle Combe.

It's about a 2h drive outside London and once you are out of London, all you can see is endless vast green fields.. it was pouring with rain when we left so our fingers were crossed for the sun to come out once we reach our destination. I booked a B&B farm-stay somewhere on the outskirts of Bath.

The drive towards the Cotswolds...

Patches of farmland and some random village we passed thru'

A very old looking, rickety house we passed by in another random village.  Doesn't look safe, does it?

Finally after a long drive including a detour on the narrow hilly road, we reached Ashley Wood Farm. We met the farmer's wife Mrs Kim Sully, and she brought us inside and showed us around. They converted an old barn into a small B&B with four rooms and did a total refurbishment inside. Super nice! We had the biggest room with a double bed and two single beds.. can totally sleep 4 people easily. And the rain has stopped. Whoop whoop!

The view from the B&B overlooks "an area of outstanding beauty" in the Cotswolds as they say. Lovely patches of farmland, the terrain is pretty flat as it's in the valley. Mr Sully, a very down to earth man owns a 300 hectare farm(!) We couldn't even see the end of it altho he told us "it ends by the river". Okay...


I told Mrs Kim Sully we planned to go to Castle Combe and Lacock. Lacock (pronounced Ley-cock), even though it's a very small village with only one main street, is the backdrop of many English period dramas and movies (including Pride & Prejudice), and Harry Potter was filmed in Lacock Abbey. Which was what drew me to it. And then nearby I read that neighbouring village Castle Combe is equally nice. Right, time to set off then.

The village of Lacock

We reached the village of Lacock and even though it's tiny tiny, we were surprised to see many tourists there. Ever since Harry Potter movie was filmed there, droves of people just flock to this small village to have a look. It is ancient to say the least and the English charm very well preserved. The high street is their main road (which isn't very long) lined with a few pubs and shops. Interesting place indeed. We had lunch at their local pub and walked around taking photos just like the rest of the tourists.

The local pub where we had our lunch
The only bakery in the village

Lacock Abbey, where Harry Potter was filmed

Before realising time is running out and we don't have much time left so we decided to drive to the nearby city of Bath for dinner.

Bath Cathedral
Back in time just to see the sunset at about 830pm


Getting dark slowly.  Everything would soon turn pitch dark this being the countryside.

We knew that was the start of an awesome weekend already.

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