Painswick Travel

Take Stagecoach bus 66 from Stroud (approx 10 minutes) or drive along the A46 onto the Painswick ridge. Entering the village, steep stone streets are lined with honey-coloured terraces left by medieval wool merchants – many attic windows face south, once workrooms for weavers. First visit St Mary's Church (14th-15th century core, spire added 1632), a "cathedral-grade" Cotswold parish church. But the true wonder is the churchyard: 17th-18th century table tombs and pedestal monuments of clothiers and craftsmen, intricately carved with angels, skulls and foliage by local masons. Architectural historian Alec Clifton-Taylor called it "the most magnificent churchyard in England." Among the tombs stand about a hundred clipped dome yews – legend says there can only ever be 99; the 100th will be torn out by the devil. In the year 2000 the church bravely planted a 100th tree, which remains unharmed to this day. The church tower still bears two cannonball scars from a Royalist attack during the Civil War in 1643. In the afternoon head down to the Painswick Rococo Garden (adult £12.80, Mar-Sep Wed-Sun 10:00-17:00), built in the 1740s by landowner Benjamin Hyett for entertaining guests – England's only complete surviving Rococo garden. Winding paths, the Gothic Eagle House pavilion, the white-painted Exedra screen, the Red House woodland lodge, a maze and a woodland swing create theatrical scenes, restored in the 1980s based on Thomas Robins' 1748 painting. End the day at the 1554 Falcon Inn for a pint, where the bar and bowling green have been in continuous use since Elizabethan times.

Use Painswick as a base for walking the Cotswold Way on your second day. Start from the green waymarker outside St Mary's Church and follow the Cotswold Way main trail up Painswick Beacon – 283 metres above sea level, crowned by an Iron Age hillfort (Kimsbury hill fort) dating from the 1st century BC, also a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) protected for rare orchids and wildflowers. 360-degree panoramic views stretch across the Severn Vale, Malvern Hills and the Welsh border. Descend past Painswick Golf Course (watch for flying golf balls) to join the Wysis Way long-distance path (Monmouth to Kemble, 55 miles), following the Painswick Stream through hamlets and old mill buildings back into town – approximately 4.4 miles / 7.1 km, 1.5-2 hours, ascent approx 666 feet, moderate difficulty. In the afternoon drive 10 minutes to Cranham Ancient Woodland (National Trust, spring bluebells like a purple carpet) or head south to Prinknash Abbey (an 11th-century Benedictine monastery selling its own Prinknash incense with a tearoom). Return to the village for dinner at The Painswick hotel, ending your "Queen of the Cotswolds" tour.