sundancebee

I know it's an island and weather and temps can vary greatly...

I can visit the Cotswolds in either mid-October or late March/early April. I want the best chance of seeing it perhaps still "in bloom" to some extent.

Please let me know if you can recommend one over the other, or maybe neither.
Thank you.

Ackislander

Definitely the late March window if you want blooms. There are quite a lot of blooms in London in February, and by March they have spread to the deeper and cooler country. IIRC, flowering trees come later, end of April into May.

It will rain at either time, but it shouldn't be the kind of rain that keeps you indoors.

aussie_10

WE visited the Cotswolds in October. The weather was lovely and the Autumn colours were stunning.
Loved it.

flanneruk

Define "in bloom"

Cotswold countryside never really stops being green. We don't have the Autumn monochrome "foliage" mania the western Atlantic's obsessed with: a huge range of autumnal colours stays in leaf till at least the middle of Advent. Mid-October's usually the peak - but it's leaves, rather than flowers.

Spring's a bit less predictable these days. Typically by April 1, snowdrops and most crocuses have gone over, daffs are all over the place (to a point where we're getting rather bored with them) and there's the first shimmerings of bluebells if you're lucky. Deciduous trees have mostly got visible buds, but little's come into leaf, though a huge proportion of what you can see at any given moment is green (grass, spring wheat's early green stage, moss on hedges, evergreens, and some hedges come into leaf a bit earlier than full blown trees.)

Apart from the flora, of course, the REALLY big thing about late March is the fauna. Lambs, straight from cute school, by April 1 start popping up all over the place. Birds start making a din. Baby bunnies and leverets so stupid even the Flannerpooch stands a chance of catching them. You might just catch a glimpse of the odd staggering micro-calf: if you do, steer clear. Their mummies can be lethal if they think you're a threat.

Our own preference depends on the weather. After the occasional serious winter, April wins hands down because the landscape can get quite gloomy in Feb. Normally, though, there's something quintessentially English about mid-October: lighting the first fires, drinking dark beer in pubs and all that stuff.