Bourton-on-the-Water: A quaint and popular village in the English Cotswolds.



Bourton-on-the-Water, Cotswolds, England.

This evening, I am posting information on Bourton-on-the-Water, a quintessentially English village and popular visitor attraction in the Cotswolds, about 83 miles N.W. of London and 25 miles south of Stratford-upon-Avon.

Bourton has a population of about 3300 and is located in Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

The village straddles the River Windrush which is spanned by a series of low bridges. Many of the houses are traditional honey-coloured, sourced from local Jurassic limestone.

There is a record of the village in AD 714. ‘Bourton’ indicates a fortified place, probably connected to the nearby hill-fort. The affix obviously refers to the River Windrush.

Bourton is well endowed with hotels, tourist accommodation, eateries and unique visitor attractions which include:
  • Birdland.
  • Model Village Exhibition.
  • Model Railway Exhibition.
  • Motor Museum and Toy Collection.
  • Dragonfly Maze.
  • Greystones Farm Nature Reserve.
NB: Through archaeology we have learned that the locale covering Bourton-on-the-Water has been occupied by man for an incredibly long period of time: Roman, Iron-Age, Middle Bronze and late Neolithic. New work has pushed the dates back to around 8500 BC and the early Mesolithic period.



Riparian scene


Kingsbridge Inn


Bridge over the River Windrush


River Windrush flowing through Bourton-on-the-Water


Village scene

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