Wotton-under-Edge

Wotton-under-Edge is a small market town clinging to the western escarpment of the Cotswolds, with dramatic views across the Severn Vale towards the Welsh hills. Its name describes its position below the edge — the dramatic limestone scarp that defines the western boundary of the Cotswolds plateau. The town has a distinctly different feel from the honey-stone villages of the high wolds, with the local stone giving buildings a greyer, sterner character that speaks to the harsher climate of this more exposed position.

The town has a long history as a cloth-making centre. Isaac Pitman, inventor of the shorthand system that transformed office work in the Victorian era, was born here in 1813. The Church of St Mary the Virgin contains some impressive medieval monuments and a famous seventeenth-century organ originally built for the Chapel Royal in Whitehall Palace, which found its way to Wotton by a circuitous route that is itself an interesting story.

The Cotswold Way long-distance footpath runs directly through the town, making Wotton one of the best places to access the high escarpment walks for which this corner of Gloucestershire is renowned. Newark Park, a National Trust property just outside town, occupies a dramatic clifftop position and offers some of the finest views in the county across the Severn estuary and beyond.