Looking for Cotswolds Guidebook....
 

Greetings All,

Any ideas on a good guidebook for the Cotswolds. Looking for something with lots of architectural and historical details and just on that area - not a general UK guidebook.

Thanks in advance,
Kevin

Hi, Kevin--

Have a look at these, for starters.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/se...285698-0173410

For do-it-yourself, just search on the Amazon site for "Guides to Cotswolds England."

2 websites I think are good

http://www.digital-brilliance.com/hyperg/

http://www.the-cotswolds.org/

Just a suggestion. If you go to the amazon UK site thay have a lot of books not available on the us amazon.com (I love British mysteries - and have found they have the new releases much sooner.) You will have to pay British prices and shipping - but I find the selection great - and the books arrive in about a week.

Thanks for the help.

McLaurie - those are great websites, much appreciated.

And Amazon does seem to have a large selection. As much as I love shopping via Amazon, for something like a guidebook it's really nice to be able to thumb through them before buying. Unfortunately, the selection of English (or even French) guides to the Cotswolds available at my local bookstores is, as we say here, nulle!

So that's why I was hoping someone had a personal favorite or two.

-Kevin

The book I will suggest is not a guidebook but rather a very good study of Cotswolds architecture.

It is called _Cotswold Stone Homes_ by Michael Hill and Sally Birch. Copyright 1994 Alan Sutton Publishing Inc., Stroud. ISBN 0-7509-0322-8

Although it's not a guide per se, the book will provide an excellent and comprhensive overview of the history, conservation and care of many of the typical buildings in the villages you will visit. Lots of photograghs. Hardback.

excerpted from the dustjacket overleaf:

This book describes the architecture of the Cotswolds in terms of its characteristic building material, Cotswold stone, and provides a practical and informative guide to its use and care. Illustrated with over 150 colour and black and white photographs and diagrams, its combination of visual inspiration and practical advice will stimulate a greater appreciation of the qualities and treatment of Cotswold stone by enthusiasts, building professionals and the general public.

A unique and timely appreciation of Cotswold stone, its properties, conservation and care, _Cotswold Stone Homes_ will be required reading for all who live in stone homes, and an invaluable introduction to the area for everyone who cares about Cotswold buildings and traditional English stone architecture.

I love this book and highly recommend it.

This won't help you much if you want a guide before tavelling but....

Human knowledge about the Cotswolds hasn't advanced much in the past century. Except about its substantial Roman history, where the torrent of recent excavations haven't really got into the guidebooks (though they are covered in Mc Whirr's out of print 'Roman Gloucestershire' and Honig's still in print 'Roman Oxfordshire').

Roman stuff apart, though, the Cotswolds' all too literate residents have been churning out accounts of the area for the past three centuries. In the tourist trap towns, good secondhand bookshops have generally been squeezed out by the Beatrix Potter teatowel merchants. But some of the handsome towns off the tourist trail, like Chipping Norton and Witney, as well as Oxford, have shops with almost entire rooms devoted to the outpourings of generations of retired academics and Imperial administrators about their new home.

On a characteristically drizzly day, these shops are an infinitely more enjoyable way of staying dry than marvelling at the markups it's possible to expect on a made-in-China porcelain thimble.