Absolute Touring

Garden cottage in Castle Combe

• Castle Combe lies in a hollow ('combe') and is approached a deep valley, shaded by tall trees
• As elsewhere in the Cotswolds, Castle Combe's prosperity was based on sheep and wool - important enough at one time to be granted the privilege of holding a fair where both were traded
• Built around the 15th-century Market Cross with the old water pump beside it. Nearby are the remains of the Butter Cross, dismantled during the 19th century
• St. Andrew's Church, its tower built in 1434 'at the expense of the clothiers of the district', is rich with decoration in wood and stone
• It contains the 13th-century tomb of Sir Walter de Dunstanville, who built the now-vanished castle which gave the village its name
• Castle Combe is used frequently as a backdrop for period film and television dramas, with the fronts of houses and inns cleverly adapted. In 1966, although 17 miles from the nearest coast, the village was transformed to look like a seaport for the film version of Dr Doolittle
• The manor house, dating largely from the early 19th century, is now a luxury hotel

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Approx 45 minutes west of Oxford