Minchinhampton

Minchinhampton is a trim hilltop village perched on the high Cotswold plateau above Stroud, surrounded by one of the largest areas of common land in southern England. Minchinhampton Common, managed by the National Trust, remains open to grazing cattle throughout the year, giving the landscape around the village an unusually wild and open quality quite different from the enclosed countryside of most of the Cotswolds. On a clear day the views stretch to the Severn Estuary and the Welsh hills beyond.

The village is centred on its market square, dominated by the truncated spire of the Church of the Holy Trinity — the original spire was deemed unsafe and removed in the eighteenth century, leaving the distinctive cone-topped tower that gives the building its unusual silhouette. The surrounding streets contain a well-preserved mix of seventeenth and eighteenth-century Cotswold stone buildings, reflecting the prosperous cloth-making period of the town's history.

The common offers outstanding walking with wide views and a succession of ancient earthworks including the defensive bank known as The Bulwarks, evidence of Iron Age occupation of this commanding plateau. The village itself has good independent shops and pubs, and the neighbouring villages of Amberley and Box provide further quiet walking country on the commons and in the beech hangers that line the western escarpment.