Driving Cornwall to Cotswolds
 

I would love to hear some suggestions for the final six nights of our driving trip in England at the beginning of October.

We are now planning to drive from Port Isaac to a base in the Cotswold area.
We usually don't like one night stops, but is there something along the way that would be worth stopping for?
It looks like Wells is along the way. Will a few hours stopover be enough there?
(FYI We've been to Bath and Oxford)
From our base or bases we would like to visit Chartwell, maybe Stratford on Avon...

I don't think we will choose all six nights in one spot, but can anyone suggest perhaps two places they would choose for the six nights? We prefer small villages with pubs, as well as countryside.
Maybe split between village and countryside guesthouse?
We're really open to any of your ideas!

We will need to be at Heathrow by 11:00am (2:15 flt) the morning after the sixth night, but it looks to me that we would easily make that in the morning from most anywhere in the Cotswold area.

Thanks so much, again!

Depends on the time of you get up but getting from "the Cotswold area" to LHR is or could take along time as you are partly travelling in peak time and maybe bad weather.
I personally would not want to miss my flight.

>>From our base or bases we would like to visit Chartwell, maybe Stratford on Avon…<<

Chartwell is a long ways from the Cotswolds.

>>I don't think we will choose all six nights in one spot, but can anyone suggest perhaps two places they would choose for the six nights? <<

If you mean all 6 nights in the Cotswolds -- I'd pick one place and rent a cottage. No need to pack and move 3 and 3 nights or anything like that.

I'm OK w/ the drive into LHR that morning myself. You'd want to be turning your car in by about 10 AM-ish.

But If Chartwell is a must -- then maybe consider 4 nights in the Cotswolds and 2 nights somewhere in Sussex or thereabouts.

Oh, meant to add -- yes, Wells would be a great stop over for a few hours.

Thank you!

I don't know where I got the impression that Churchill's Chartwell was near Swindon.
I see that the actual location is indeed way too far out of the way for this trip!

If we do decide to stay closer to LHR for our last night, any suggestions?
(We will have already spent some time in Windsor after our arrival.)

DARN site :(

I posted but it froze up on me.

Anyway -- maybe you were thinking of Highclere???

With that late a flight I (personally) wouldn't bother staying near the airport. But if you just want to be closer, maybe one of the Thames-side towns. Henley-on-Thames, Wallingford, Marlowe, etc.

From our base or bases we would like to visit Chartwell, maybe Stratford on Avon...>>

Stratford possibly, Chartwell definitely not - it's in Kent. You might be thinking of Blenheim where he was born; it's just outside Oxford as is Woodstock where he is buried.

As for how to get from Port Isaac to the Cotswolds, my preferred route [I do it regularly as I travel from my home in Cornwall to Coventry where my mum lives] is to take the A30/M5 as far as Bristol, then turn onto the M4 and take the A46 exit, which brings you onto the Fosse Way, which is the remains of the old Roman Road that ran from Exeter to Lincoln. It takes you through Tetbury, Cirencester and then up through the rest of the Cotswolds as far as Stratford.

To detour to see Wells [which I would also recommend] you exit the M5 at the A39 junction; you will need at least 2 hours to do it justice. Another option would be to go up the road that follows the coast [the wonderfully named Atlantic Highway, which leads to a sense of disappointment when you actually see the road in question] and visit Dunster en route; as well as the Castle of the same name [National Trust] the village itself is beautifully preserved and those who have seen as many episodes of Poirot as I have may recognise it as the setting of at least one of the TV programmes, which for some reason is set in Cornwall, though Dunster is in Somerset. You are however beginning to stretch the time needed to see all of this, in which case an overnight somewhere would be a good idea.

Have you decided where to base yourselves in the Cotswolds?

>>You might be thinking of Blenheim where he was born; it's just outside Oxford as is Woodstock where he is buried. <<

I'm in a pedantic/nit picking mood ;)

You might be thinking of Blenheim where he was born; it's just outside Oxford, in Woodstock, as is <strike>Woodstock</strike> Bladon where he is buried.

Dunseter's lovely - and if you do go there then I recommend a side visit to Cleeve Abbey a few miles down the road.

I think that you are being overly-picky in this case, JJ - I can remember his funeral and burial quite distinctly, and if you were to ask 99 out of 100 brits who were alive at the time, we'd all say that he was buried at Woodstock, which is indeed the postal address for the church:

<<St Martin's Church in Bladon near Woodstock, Oxfordshire, England, is the Church of England parish church of Bladon-with-Woodstock. It is also the mother church of St Mary Magdalene at Woodstock, which was originally a chapel of ease. It is best known for the graves of the Spencer-Churchill family, including Sir ... Sir Winston Churchill had expressed a wish to be buried at Bladon.>>

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Mar...Church,_Bladon

Bladon actually is a distinct village and not in Woodstock (I had a friend who rented a cottage there for about 2.5-3 years and visited often) - lots of places have addresses that include the nearest good sized town