England
Gloucestershire

Adlestrop

Yes. I remember Adlestrop—
The name, because one afternoon
Of heat the express-train drew up there
Unwontedly. It was late June.

The steam hissed. Someone cleared his throat.
No one left and no one came
On the bare platform. What I saw
Was Adlestrop—only the name

And willows, willow-herb, and grass,
And meadowsweet, and haycocks dry,
No whit less still and lonely fair
Than the high cloudlets in the sky.

And for that minute a blackbird sang
Close by, and round him, mistier,
Farther and farther, all the birds
Of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire.

These words were penned by poet Edward Thomas in 1914. The railway station is long gone, a victim to cost-conscious revamping of the national rail network in the 1960s. Still, people come to Adlestrop to find some vestige of the idyllic, timeless England that Edward Thomas wrote of. Now the only real reminder of the rail station is contained within the bus shelter at the entrance to the village; here a single bench salvaged from the station stands under cover, a brass plaque upon it engraved with the words that Thomas wrote.

Adlestrop is the kind of place that first-time visitors to Britain imagine all English villages are like. A quiet lane or two, a thatched village store, an old Rectory and manor house on either side of the parish church, and a wide green with footpaths leading here and there across a countryside of green fields and stone walls, hedgerows and rolling hills. The architecture is pure Cotswold; lovely golden stone cottages, hedges all around and trailing vines across the door.

The most widely known local resident is equestrian Mark Todd, who maintains a very sizeable stables in the village, with the entrance just by the bus shelter.

Jane Austen's uncle was vicar here, and the author was a frequent visitor. The Rectory, a jumble of Georgian and older buildings, is located just opposite the parish church of St Mary Magdalene, which boasts some intriguing Elizabethan and Stuart tombs, including fancifully carved memorials to James and Caroline Leigh flanking the chancel arch. In the church is lovely carved wooden box dated 1713. The atmosphere is one of timeless peace. Several footpaths lead through the village, and one enjoyable walk takes you on a lovely path through the Daylesford estate.

Located on a minor road signposted from the A436 near Stow on the Wold.

Related:
St Mary Magdalene church, Adlestrop

Photos of Adlestrop >>