South Cerney

South Cerney is the largest village in the Cotswold Water Park, and is surrounded by 150 lakes that were gravel pits until the 1960s and are now used for sailing, kayaking, birdwatching, and wild swimming. The village itself is quiet, functional, and nothing to do with the picture-postcard Cotswolds aesthetic it's limestone cottages and modern housing estates sitting next to a landscape that looks more like the Norfolk Broads than rolling wolds. But if you're into water sports or just want to be near lakes instead of fields, it's one of the better places to base yourself.

The village has been here since Roman times, the name comes from the River Churn, which flows nearby and there's evidence of a villa just outside the modern village. The All Hallows Church in the centre is Norman with Saxon foundations, and inside there's a carved stone figure called the Cerney Imp which is either Saxon or medieval depending on who you ask. It's odd, it's unsettling, and it's worth seeing if you're into that sort of thing.

The Cotswold Water Park is the reason most people come here. It's 40 square miles of lakes, nature reserves, and wetlands created when gravel was extracted from the Thames floodplain. Some lakes are for watersports including sailing, windsurfing, paddleboarding, others are nature reserves with bird hides and footpaths. The Cotswold Country Park and Beach on the edge of the village has a proper sandy beach, a lido, and is popular with families in summer. It's one of the few places in the Cotswolds where you can actually swim outdoors without freezing to death.

Keynes Country Park is the other main lake area, 40 acres of parkland, a couple of large lakes, and walking trails. It's quieter than the Country Park and Beach, better for birdwatching, and has a decent café. Free entry, free parking, dog-friendly.

The village itself has a Co-op, a few pubs, and not much else, which is fine because most people are here for the lakes rather than the village. The Old George Inn on Silver Street is the better of the three pubs, 17th century, good food, local ales.

It's also the place I'm lucky enough to call home myself which is why I had to include it!