Things to do
in Heythrop

Heythrop is a small estate village, rebuilt in the nineteenth century by Albert Brassey, who owned Heythrop Park, and much of what there is to do still follows from the park. The house and its parkland, a little over a mile south-east of the village, are now Heythrop Park Hotel, run by Warner Hotels for adults only. You do not have to stay to visit: the hotel takes day visitors for its café, for afternoon tea and for a guided garden tour with lunch, and Heythrop Park Golf, the 18-hole course in the park, welcomes day visitors too. Book ahead and check before you go.

A second 18-hole parkland course, also open to visitors, belongs to the Cotswold Hotel & Spa at Southcombe, about a mile west of the village on the Chipping Norton side. Close by, Fairytale Farm is a family attraction and the obvious choice with children, since Heythrop Park does not admit under-eighteens. For something quieter, Glyme Valley is a small nature reserve of limestone grassland and woodland east of Chipping Norton, reached only on foot.

If you want to browse plants, Applegarth Nurseries is a garden centre on Banbury Road on the edge of Chipping Norton. None of this amounts to a packed itinerary, and that is rather the point: Heythrop suits visitors who want to walk, play golf or simply settle into somewhere green, with Chipping Norton on hand for anything more.

The surrounding farmland is the main reason to bring walking boots to Heythrop. Walking here means public rights of way across working countryside rather than waymarked visitor trails, so carry an Ordnance Survey map, expect mud after rain and keep dogs under close control around livestock. Stay on the rights of way: the fields, and the parkland of Heythrop Park, are private. In the village, St Nicholas Church is a Victorian building designed by Arthur Blomfield for Albert Brassey; the chancel of the older Norman church survives nearby as a chapel in its own walled churchyard.

The River Glyme rises near Chipping Norton and runs south-east towards Woodstock, and the Glyme Valley Way, a long-distance path devised by Oxfordshire County Council and BBC Oxford, follows it between the two towns along public rights of way. Glyme Valley, east of Chipping Norton, is a small Berks, Bucks and Oxon Wildlife Trust reserve in the same valley. It is not a gentle stroll: the trust describes a steep slope, rough ground and a stile, the approach is by footpath from a layby on the A44, grazing animals may be present and dogs must be on a lead.

Heythrop has no network of marked trails of its own, so it works best as one stop in a longer day's walking planned on the map.

Heythrop is a very small village, and you should not count on finding a pub or café in it. The nearest options are at Heythrop Park and at Southcombe. Heythrop Park Hotel, south-east of the village, has a café open to day visitors and takes bookings from non-residents for afternoon tea; it is for adults only. To the west at Southcombe, Beanstalk Cafe is the café at Fairytale Farm, a family attraction, so check with the farm whether you can use it without a farm ticket and whether it is open on the day.

Beyond those, Chipping Norton, about two and a half miles from the village, is the better bet for a proper meal, with far more choice than the village and its immediate surroundings can provide. Treat a meal in the town as part of the same outing rather than expecting to find somewhere closer to the estate.

The main place to stay is Heythrop Park Hotel, just over a mile south-east of the village in the early eighteenth-century house that Thomas Archer designed for the Duke of Shrewsbury. It is run by Warner Hotels and is for adults only, so it is not an option for a family with under-eighteens. The hotel lists an 18-hole golf course, an indoor heated pool and spa treatment rooms among its facilities, all set in the park.

The Cotswold Hotel & Spa is about a mile west of Heythrop at Southcombe, on the edge of Chipping Norton rather than in the town centre, and has its own 18-hole parkland golf course. Its own website says a new spa is on the way, so check which facilities are open before you book.

Between them, the two hotels make Heythrop a quiet base for golf and walking, with Chipping Norton close by for shops and places to eat.

Heythrop sits among a cluster of small hamlets. Dunthrop is closest, barely a third of a mile to the north-east, followed by Southcombe about a mile to the west, where you will find the Cotswold Hotel & Spa and Fairytale Farm. Old Chalford lies a little over a mile to the south-west, with Lidstone and Chalford Green both just under two miles to the south. These distances are in a straight line; by road or footpath they are longer.

None of these places is set up for visitors, and that is rather the appeal: they share the same quiet, working countryside as Heythrop itself. They are places where people live and farm, so keep to the lanes and public rights of way. Chipping Norton, the hub for shops, food and services, is about two and a half miles west of Heythrop.