Things to do
in Stow-on-the-Wold

The market square is where any visit starts, ringed with stone buildings and independent shops that reward slow browsing. The medieval market cross stands in the square, and St Edward's Church is just off it and worth stepping inside. Antiques hunters should make time for Tudor House Antiques on Sheep Street. For homeware, Scotts of Stow on the square covers furniture, cookware, tableware and things for the garden, while Sam Wilson's shop is the place for her bold linoprint designs. Clothing and accessories are well represented too, from Fairfax & Favor's leather boots and Country Clothing's countryside gear to Crew Clothing Company on Church Street and Lambswold, which sells scarves, gloves, slippers and sheepskin rugs. Allium and The Stow Flower Shop are both florists, and The Cotswold Cheese Co. is the place for cheese.

Art lovers have Clarendon on the square and Peter Martin gallery in Digbeth Court. Twice a year, on the Thursdays nearest 12 May and 24 October, the Stow Horse Fair, a long-established Gypsy and Traveller gathering, takes place in a field off the Maugersbury Road on the edge of town. It is held on private land and is not run by the council; roads get very busy and many shops and pubs close, so check before you travel on those days. Stow Town Council publishes visitor information, including a town leaflet with a map, on its website.

Stow has enough places to eat and drink that you can graze your way through a day without covering much ground. For coffee and a pause between shops, Coach House Coffee in Talbot Court and The New England Coffee House on Digbeth Street are both right in the town centre, and The Cotswold Farm, a farm shop with a café run by the same group as The New England Coffee House, serves brunch.

For something more substantial, The Stag is a pub with rooms on the square that describes itself as a relaxed gastro pub, while The Old Stocks Inn, a seventeenth-century coaching inn on the square that is now a hotel, has a restaurant and bar. The Talbot is a pub on the square, and Prince of India on Park Street offers Indian cooking if you fancy a change. With these options close together, it's easy to turn an afternoon of browsing into an evening out, though it is worth booking ahead at busy times.

Stow's compact size means the places to stay named here are all on or beside the square, which suits anyone planning to spend their evenings walking between pubs and restaurants rather than driving. Stow Lodge Hotel is centrally located and, by its own account, has been owned and run by the same family for over fifty years.

The Old Stocks Inn is a seventeenth-century coaching inn on the square, now run as a boutique hotel with its own restaurant, and The Stag is a pub with rooms in a restored Georgian townhouse and an older coach house. Staying in Stow itself means you can leave the car and walk to dinner, the shops or St Edward's Church. It also puts you close to the villages of Maugersbury, Lower Swell and Upper Swell, each about a mile away. Stow has no railway station, so if you are arriving without a car, plan around the bus from Moreton-in-Marsh station.

Stow's elevated position, at around 800 feet where several main roads meet, puts it on or close to a number of long-distance paths. The Gloucestershire Way, which runs from Chepstow to Tewkesbury by way of Gloucester, passes through the town. The Diamond Way is a circular route through the north Cotswolds devised by the local Ramblers group. The Heart of England Way, which starts on Cannock Chase in Staffordshire, crosses the countryside near the town on its way to its finish at Bourton-on-the-Water.

None of these is meant to be walked in one go. You can join them for a short stretch and use the town as a base to return to for food and a bed. Take an Ordnance Survey map, keep dogs on a lead near livestock, and do not plan to walk to Bourton-on-the-Water or Moreton-in-Marsh along the A429, which has long stretches without a pavement. The high ground around the town gives wide views across the surrounding countryside, which makes even short stretches of these paths worthwhile.

Stow's position at the junction of several roads makes it a convenient base for reaching smaller settlements nearby. Maugersbury is the closest, well under a mile to the south-east, while Lower Swell to the west and Upper Swell to the north-west are each a little over a mile away in a straight line, offering a quieter contrast to the market town.

Upper Oddington lies just under two miles to the east. Do not assume the roads to these villages have pavements: if you want to go on foot, check an Ordnance Survey map for public footpaths rather than walking along the main roads. For larger places, Stow has no railway station, but the Pulhams 801 bus runs hourly every day to Moreton-in-Marsh, where it calls at the railway station about twenty minutes away, and to Bourton-on-the-Water. The Sunday evening service is reduced, so check the timetable before you rely on a late bus back.