The region had quietly attracted several people in the public eye, the likes of Pam Ayres and Jilly Cooper, but now celebrities bought into the Cotswolds seemingly in droves; among them, Amanda Holden in 2012, the Beckhams in 2016, and Simon Cowell in 2021. The burgeoning summer festivals added a big measure of hip, too: Wilderness in Cornbury Park and The Big Feastival, on the farm of Blur bass guitarist Alex James, both started in 2011.
But has the impact of all this tarnished the Cotswolds? Has it become too traipsed, too commercial? That largely depends on where you choose to go. It’s as if there are parallel universes in the Cotswolds. Avoid the honey traps such as Stow-on-the-Wold, Burford, Bibury and Bourton-on-the-Water (where in May this year residents hit the headlines as they remonstrated against tourist hordes and parking chaos) and it is perfectly possible to reach implausibly pretty, pin-drop-quiet villages, often hidden down tiny, meandering lanes.
My neighbour, Elaine, now in her 60s, has lived near Chipping Norton all her life and was equivocal when I asked her about tourism, remarking that while our village is still “lovely and tranquil”, much as it has been for a great many decades, the village pub is a different story. It was sold and refurbished several years ago and is now a sleek and upscale venue like so many others in the area. “That’s a great shame for the local community,” she said.
Conversely, for Sue Heady, a former London PR exec who came to live in the Cotswolds 16 years ago, there are positives in that “the Cotswold type of high-end tourism has really upped the quality of pubs and restaurants, plus there’s a cosmopolitan, happening vibe in many places that used to be a bit drab”. But there’s a big negative, too. “The greatest change,” she said, “is the explosion of weekend and holiday lets, and this has destroyed the community in many villages. Suddenly you don’t have a next-door neighbour, just an endless stream of transient strangers.”