The Cotswolds is an area of outstanding natural beauty stretching from the springs of the River Thames to the Cotswold Edge overlooking the River Severn and from below Stratford upon Avon to just south of Bath. In the time of the Domesday book it was one of the most highly populated parts of England so it is likely that many of us have a distant ancestor who came from this part of the world and who spoke with this soft distinctive burr.

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 It is a rural landscape of upland hills, valleys

and small towns and villages built of the honey

coloured Cotswold stone. During the Middle Ages,

the area became prosperous due to the wool trade

and the famous "wool churches" were built.

In the seventeenth century mills were built on its

streams and cloth weaving settlements sprung up.

At this time, the population was at its highest

until the early nineteenth century saw a change

in textile and farming practices that led

to poverty and migration.