Lechlade

Lechlade-on-Thames is the highest navigable point on the River Thames and the most south-easterly town in the Cotswolds. It sits at the confluence of the Thames, the Coln, the Leach and the Cole — four rivers meeting at the edge of the limestone plateau — making it one of the great river crossroads of central England. The elegant Ha'penny Bridge, named for the toll once charged to cross it, is one of the most photographed spots along the upper Thames.

The town's most striking feature is the Church of St Lawrence, whose distinctive pinnacled Perpendicular tower inspired the young Percy Bysshe Shelley to write his poem 'A Summer Evening Churchyard, Lechlade' in 1815. The building dates largely from the fifteenth century and was built on wool wealth, as was much of this corner of the Cotswolds. The churchyard is unusually large and peaceful, surrounded by meadows running down to the Thames.

Lechlade is a magnet for boaters, cyclists and walkers, sitting at the start of the Thames Path National Trail and close to the Cotswold Water Park, whose 150-plus lakes spread across the gravel pits of the upper Thames valley. The town has good pubs and a pleasant market square, and its position at the meeting point of three counties — Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Wiltshire — gives it a quietly distinctive character of its own.