Blwetorch

Hi...I just saw this link about daily tours from London to Cotswold, which doesn't seem so bad:
http://www.londontoolkit.com/tours/p..._stratford.htm

what is your opinion on this one?

Blwetorch

Even this link below also gives some good ideas to have a quick tour of Cotswold:
http://www.the-cotswolds.org/top/eng...rt/sample.html

jamikins

I can comment on the above as I have never done it, but we did the Cotswolds on a day trip from London with London Walks. They offer lots of day trip ideas and they are very affordable: www.walks.com

Blwetorch

Thanks a lot jamikins......that really looks very nice.

nona1

Rochester in Kent is a nice small town you can get to fairly quickly by train. Lots of Dickens connections, old fashioned Victorian style High street, Norman castle, alms houses, guild hall. Lots very central so perfect for a few hours on foot, and pretty 'quaint'. It definitely meets the requirement of picturesque.

At the moment there is a Christmas market on in the grounds of the castle most days, but don't know when you'll be here.They have a lot of public events - sweeps days, morris dance festivals, Dickens/Victorian fairs etc.

Blwetorch

Thanks a lot all of you! These bits of info will be very useful to me. My proposed tour is more than an year away( April 2013)...and I am still building up my itinerary, bit by bit........yes, goes without saying...with your help. Cheers!

PalenQ

How small is small? If it's too small will have a pub and that's about all.

For a larger town but still small check out Royal Tunbridge Wells, a historic spa town with lots to see and do and a small town feel - but ain't a small village - good rail links.

PalenQ

For a bona fide small village that is cute enough to win awards for such things and also has in it the castle of your dreams take the train to Chilham - spend a few hours there and you could then even take the train to nearby Canterbury to see the world-famous cathedral there - Chilham I suppose about an hour or so by frequent trains from London.

http://www.chilham-castle.co.uk/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chilham

wiki mentions a 1940 film A Canterbury Tale being filmed in Chilham

lavandula

Second KayF on Richmond - really sort of a suburb of London but there are boat trips there, some nice pubs and shops, and not too far from Hampton Court Palace. If you combined the two it would make a nice day and you could count it as part of the time you assign to London.

Lavandula

PalenQ

Richmond is fine but hardly fits the monniker of a small village or even a village but part of the London metropolis - a big city feel. But yes a great day out but not the village of OP's dreams. Kingston, up the Thames is also a neat regional type town like Richmond - both with thriving pedestrian shopping streets.

tarquin

I was going to suggest Tunbridge Wells too. It's 55 minutes by train from Charing Cross, has a lovely picturesque high street with small shops, the Pantiles and a huge common, Kentish vernacular architecture. And it doesn't look or feel like London.

Blwetorch

Turnbridge Wells has a special association with India. If you are a cricket fan, you'll understand better. This was where India finally turned it around in the World Cup and ultimately won it in 1983( that was in Lords though). Turnbridge Wells is immortalized in the Indian cricket fans' psyche....they were totettering at 17 for 5...and again 23 for 6 against lowly Zimbabwe, when the captain of the Indian team Kapil Dev, basically a bowler, thought 'enough is enough' and belted the Zimbabwe bowling to score 175 n.o. That was the highest individual score by an Indian at that time( now Sehwag is the highest ever with 219 and Tendulkar the 2nd highest with 200 n.o). That innings of Kapil Dev turned the momentum in favour of India....and inspite of being the underdogs they won the World Cup, in that tournament. And come to think of it, there is no photographic or video recording of that innings, thanks to some strike by the photographers and journalists on that particular day, for some reason. Any photograph of that match will be a national treasure for India.
Sorry for digressing into cricket, in a travel-website, but Turnbridge wells is really special.
Madame KayF...I really appreciate your idea of Kingston on Thames.....and I am currently trying to fit in all that I want to see in and around London......and Cotswolds area too remains part of my wish-list.....and all these in just 3 full days. God help me!

MissPrism

Barnes is again part of London but has a villagey feel. There is a common and a pond and several nice pubs. It also has a shopping street without chain stores.
It's also home to the London Wetland Centre if you like water birds.

Blwetorch

Thank you MissPrism, I shall certainly keep this in mind.

Gordon_R

No offence intended, but anyone who thinks the likes of Barnes, Richmond, Kingston etc are "village-like" (a phrase beloved of estate agents here in the UK), has obviously spent way too much time in the city and not the real countryside the OP is searching for! Speaking as someone who actually lives in the English countryside, the aforementioned places are just another part of London.

PalenQ

If OP wants to do a little walking over Britain's iconic public footpaths and see two old towns (not villages however) they can take the train to Cookham or Marlower and do the famous walk along the Thames for a few miles between them.

http://www.nationaltrail.co.uk/Thame...Cookham(1).pdf

you will get a kind of country feeling from the Thameside footpath.

braaiseason

Just to clarify Rye is more like a 100 miles from London.

MissPrism

I live in rural Cheshire and can hear sheep bleating as I type.
I still think that Barnes has a small town/village feel about it for somewhere in greater London.
It has a common, duck pond and a proper shopping street. A small Sainsburys has been opened to local opposition but there are still several "proper" shops

PalenQ

Crystal Palace with its park I guess is rather Barnes-like as well - Crystal Palace Park is an amazing place - inside of London Crystal Palace and its park and remnants of the original Crystal Palace, originally built for some huge Expo in Hyde Park in the 1800s and then transported to today's Sydenham - but it burnt down in a huge conflaguration that could be seen from all over London (Crystal Palace is on one of London's highest hills) - today there are remnants of foundations, etc - still an awesome sight

and Crystal Palace Park is a gem - really popular with Londoners on a nice day - huge park with its marquee attraction some life-size models of dinosaurs created in the 1800s.

PalenQ

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_Palace,_London