Longborough

Longborough, Gloucestershire

Longborough is a small north Cotswold village with a 12th-century church. Though near a host of popular Cotswolds tourist destinations and transportation routes, Longborough has remained blessedly peaceful and undisturbed.

The village is spread out on the slopes of a hill above the broad valley of the Evenlode only a few miles northwest of Stow-on-the-Wold and just off the A429 Fosse Way. The village boasts a small school, a post office shop, and two inns.

The village

Longborough is named for the presence of a long barrow, or Neolithic burial chamber, on the hill above the village. The Domesday Book has this to say about Longborough:

Humphrey the chamberlain holds of the king Longborough. Paganus held it. There is 1 hide. In demesne is 1 plough and 3 slaves, and 4 bordars with 2 ploughs. It was worth 30s now 20s.

There are three manors mentioned, one of which, as mentioned above, was in royal hands. This manor was eventually passed to the Mortimer family, one of the most powerful families in medieval England.

Typical Cotswold cottages

The most notable building in the village is the parish church of St James. This is a 12th-century building with Norman underpinnings, featuring a 13th-century tower with striking 15th-century pinnacles.

Inside, there is a beautifully carved Jacobean memorial to William and Elizabeth Leigh, and an effigy of a 14th-century knight in armour. A mechanical clock (17th century) is on display in the Sezincote Chapel, which is in the north transept.

The Gentleman's Reading Room (built 1904)

In a field on the outskirts of Longborough is the site where the final battle of the English Civil War was begun in 1646. The bloody Battle of Stow on the Wold was the final throw of dice by supporters of King Charles and ended in disaster for the Royalists.

A short distance away is the stately home of Sezincote, famous for its garden and Oriental decor. You can pass by the Sezincote estate on the Heart of England Way long-distance footpath, which links Longborough to the nearby village of Bourton-on-the-Hill.