A village inside the village
In precisely the right spot stands a miniature of the miniature village, with a smaller one inside it.
Mrfinch — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Chris Whippet — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Chris Whippet — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Sumit Surai — CC BY-SA 4.0
In the 1930s an innkeeper had an odd idea: to build his entire village in his back garden. Work began in 1936; every house in Bourton-on-the-Water was measured, and eight local builders were put to raising roughly a hundred buildings out of the same Cotswold stone at one-ninth scale. It opened to the public on 13 May 1937, during the celebrations for the coronation of George VI. What you get is not a plastic diorama behind museum glass but a real stone village somewhere between knee and waist height, with a miniature River Windrush running under its bridges and alpine plants clipped to scale so they do not loom over the roofs like forests. The best joke is that it contains itself. In exactly the right spot stands a miniature of the miniature village, and inside that one, a smaller one again. From St Lawrence's church, whose interior shows through a clear panel, a recording of hymn-singing leaks out in small voices, and most visitors stop to listen before carrying on round. It is also the only model village in England listed as a Grade II historic building, which it has been since 2013. Know the scale of the thing before you pay: twenty to forty minutes covers it, and the fee is priced accordingly. The real pleasure comes afterwards, when you step out into the actual village a few metres away and match the buildings one by one; that game works far better on children than on adults. The paths between the houses are genuinely narrow and have steps, so pushchairs are not allowed in, and neither are powered wheelchairs or mobility scooters. Plan to carry a small child, or skip it. Getting there: it sits behind the Old New Inn on Rissington Road, in the middle of Bourton-on-the-Water, and Bourton is the most visited and most crowded village in the Cotswolds. On weekends and through the July-August holidays the car parks fill before midday, so come early. It is about half an hour by car from Cheltenham and an hour from Oxford. Without a car, take the train to Moreton-in-Marsh, then the Pulhams 801 bus for roughly twenty minutes, bearing in mind that the 15:30 winter closing leaves no room for a late arrival.
In precisely the right spot stands a miniature of the miniature village, with a smaller one inside it.
St Lawrence's church shows its interior through a clear panel, and a recording of hymns drifts out in small voices.
Around a hundred buildings in Cotswold stone at 1:9 scale, and the only Grade II listed model village in England.
Rissington Road, behind the Old New Inn, Bourton-on-the-Water GL54 2AF
With children under ten, or with anyone who appreciates handwork, yes: it costs less than a coffee and takes forty minutes at most. If your group is all adults in a hurry, skip it without regret and spend the half hour on the bank of the Windrush with its low stone bridges, which is the prettiest thing in Bourton in any case.
Yes: take the train from London Paddington to Moreton-in-Marsh (about an hour and a half), then the Pulhams 801 bus twenty minutes into the centre of Bourton, roughly hourly Monday to Saturday and less frequent on Sundays. Go in the morning, though, because the 15:30 winter closing combined with short daylight makes an afternoon trip a poor gamble.
