Winson is a chapelry of Bibury and is a sleepy little place just a few metres off the lane that runs the length of the river.

It built up next to a ford over the stream, making good use of the extremely fertile river valley and the huge benefits that came with water power. There were three mills in the village, only one of which, Winson Mill, about a mile northwest, still exists. When we passed it on this lovely sunny late summer’s day, the people who live there were making the very most of the sunshine next to the river.

It is now, as far as we can see, entirely residential, even the old school, in the corner of the churchyard, has been converted into a house. There is a small triangular green in the centre of the village, overlooked by a very handsome house indeed.

Winson Manor is described in Pevsner’s architectural guide as “a charming compact, double-pile classical house, handsomely detailed, built in 1740 for Richard Howes, Surgeon General to the army.”

It stands, raised slightly, above the green, but close enough to study with ease. It has often been attributed to the architect James Gibbs, and there is no doubt that Howes could have known Gibbs as they were both involved with St Bartholomew’s hospital in London, but it seems more likely that the house was designed by a local architect using Gibbs’s highly influential “book of architecture” published 12 years or so previously.

Running off the green in a southerly direction is Ditch Lane. Walking down here you pass the lovely 17th-18th century Manor Farm, and at the end some beautiful cottages of the same period, one of them thatched.