On the surface, Ablington is another pretty central Cotswold village – but it is in fact the very place featured in J Arthur Gibbs’ classic book A Cotswold Village, published in the 1880s, which described his first view of the village, and the Manor house he was to call home for the rest of his short life.

It sits along the River Coln just a few miles away from its far more popular counterpart of Bibury, and marks the start of a number of beautiful villages that nestle in the Coln Valley.

The cottages, like the manor house, and farm buildings are all built of the native stone, and all are gabled and picturesque. Indeed, save for a few new cottages most of the dwellings appeared to be two or three hundred years old.

– A Cotswold Village

In this small hamlet I noticed that there were no less than three huge barns. At first I thought they were churches, so magnificent were their proportions and so delicate and interesting their architecture. One of these barns is four hundred years old.

He writes that in this village, in spite of bad times, some of the old customs have not been allowed to pass away and right merry is the “Harvest Home. And Christmastide is kept in real English fashion; nor do the Mummers forget to go their nightly rounds, with their strange tale of St George and the Dragon.