An Area of Outstanding Beauty a delightful part of England, full of traditional tea rooms, gift shops and charming limestone cottages. The Cotswolds provided JRR Tolkien for the inspiration of middle earth. There are many gorgeous villages to visit including Burford where the levellers were held prisoner in St John the Baptist Church, Stow on the Wold which is home to the oldest pub in England and the location where King Charles I surrendered the first Civil war in the 17th century and Bibury that William Morris described as the most beautiful Village in England.