Postcard from the Cotswolds

The steep western ridge of the Cotswolds has a commanding view of the Severn Valley, the Malvern Hills and the Forest of Dean. To the north is an equally impressive view of the Vale of Evesham, the Worcester plain and Bredon Hill. The source of many rivers, including the Windrush and Thames, are found in the high uplands dipping towards the Oxford plain, and in the south sits the city of Bath. The 790 square miles that comprise the Cotswolds formed between 200 to 150 million years ago and were then shifted, twisted and arranged over the next 100 million. Moreover, in the past ten thousand years, human activity has further shaped and altered the land through agriculture, trade, transport, building of towns and cities - constantly changing, but at the same time adding to the stunning appearance of this landscape. Dry stonewalls criss-cross hills and valleys marking out arable fields and pastures for sheep and cattle, farmhouses built in Oolithic weathered limestone, villages and towns built of the same honey-coloured stone all radiate the warm mellow colour of this local bedrock - the very foundation of this range of hills. A Postcard from the Cotswolds describes this outstandingly picturesque region in words and pictures as immortalised by earlier generations of photographers and artists for countless tourists and visitors to this exceptional part of England.