1970, David Verey; revised Alan Brooks, 1999.
ISBN: 0 300 09604 6
"Brooks's magnificent revision of Verey earns every word... by the depth of his research and the clarity, wit and discernment of his writing" Alan Hollinghurst Times Literary Supplement
The celebrated architecture of the Cotswold villages - stone-built manor houses, cottages, and medieval churches - is covered in full. Longer entries describe market towns such as Cirencester, Fairford and Chipping Campden, with their great wool churches, almshouses, and charming civic buildings. The Cotswolds have their share of great country houses, too, from the medieval Sudeley Castle, through the classical splendours of Badminton, Dyrham and Dodington, to the haunting unfinished Victorian masterpiece at Woodchester Park. Victorian churches include outstanding buildings by Bodley, Pearson and Teulon, while the plentiful stained glass is fully described here for the first time. The unique contribution of the Arts and Crafts movement to the Cotswold scene is explored, as are the little-known relics of the early Industrial Revolution, when the local cloth industry was at its peak. Gardens and farmsteads are not forgotten, while pithy descriptions explain the remains of Roman Cirencester, and the mysterious barrows and hill-forts of still older civilizations, scattered through the beautiful Cotswold landscape.
The volume includes perambulations of the Cotswolds towns and villages.
