janisj

>>IIRC picking up a rental car in Oxford isn't convenient to the train station.<<

Budget and Avis are near the station and Enterprise will come pick you up.

tuscanlifeedit

I've done something similar to this one:

http://www.georgeherbert.org.uk/Herb...bury_walk.html

and we've done this:

http://www.coolplaces.co.uk/places/u...r-meadows-walk

http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/winchester-city-mill

Some comments on TA:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUser...e_England.html

tuscanlifeedit

I hit submit too quickly: both Salisbury and Winchester are easy train rides from London.

I don't think you'll bet the same sense of old town mixed with country side, and maybe a sheep viewing, if you take the day trip to Bath.

We drive in England frequently and really love to see deep countryside and sheep. We just took a trip to the Peak District and saw more cows than sheep, but we spent some very nice days driving about through beautiful country and visiting charming little towns.

I was once sort of attacked by sheep climbing Maiden Castle in Dorset, but it's not that accessible by train.

nytraveler

We actually nearly ran over a couple of lambs while driving on a country lane one day. They were very tiny and apparently escaped under a fence and couldn;t figure out how to get back under to their mothers. We stopped in time and then tried to herd them back under - or even over the fence. But they were slippery little devils.

After about 10 minutes a sheep dog came running down the lane followed by the farmer and between them they corralled them and put them back inside the fence. We got out of there - so not sure if the solution lasted.

Helsie

Please don't go to The Chilterns area looking for villages like you see in Midsomer Murders. They may have been filmed there but they are snippets of many locations put together and take quite a bit of finding.

PatrickLondon

It seems reality has annoyingly not kept up with my memories of Richmond Park: they did have sheep there but apparently stopped keeping them there (do Petersham Dairies still keep cows on their fields, even?).

But if sheep are the focus, there are even city farms in London itself:
http://www.mudchute.org/farm-animals/

Or picking up on annettetx's walk, if you look at the green bits on the maps of London you'll see it's possible to get some quite long walks in assorted varieties of heathlands and commons, particularly, say, from Putney, across Putney and Barnes Commons, Putney Health and Wimbledon Common, and/or into Richmond Park. No sheep, though.

Odin

I wrote this:

<i>I've never seen sheep in Richmond Park, Ham nor Teddington. There are cows in the field by the river opposite the Petersham hotel but that's about it.</i>