The weather damp and a bit gloomy when we arrived in Bibury, a picturesque village in the Cotswolds where the humans had booked a cottage for a couple of nights.
We arrived too early to check into our accommodation, so the humans parked the car and we walked into Bibury.
Many humans visit Bibury to see Arlington Row, a row of 17th century weaver’s cottages situated next to a water meadow. Bibury gets very busy with tourists at weekends and during the main holiday season, but fortunately there weren’t too many there on a damp April morning.
We set off to do a 5 mile circular walk from the village and saw some lovely scenery. I did travel in the bear carrier for a few miles as my short legs get tired quite quickly trying to keep up with the humans with their long legs.
The walk ended at Arlington Row. These cottages were first built in the 14th Century as a monastic wool store before being converted into weaver’s cottages in 17th Century.
I walked on past the lovely old cottages towards the river Coln.
Here I am posing on the bridge with a shop and cafe behind me known as ‘Number Eleven’
Inside ‘Number Eleven’ I had a very delicious meal, sweet potato and paprika salad.
A craft fair was in progress in Bibury Village Hall. I enjoy a mooch around a craft fair especially if the creators of the products for sale are hosting their own stalls.
There were many beautifully crafted items inside. I bought a dried flower arrangement for my human and a rather lovely crocheted teddy bear caught my eye, so we bought, or should I say, ‘adopted’, the bear.
The crocheted bear didn’t have a name, just a label stating ‘Hand Made £15’. We decided to name him Bibury Bear, then he will always remind us of our trip to Bibury
Our holiday accommodation was up a hill and about a 15 minute walk from Bibury Village Hall. We stayed in a cottage situated at the end of a building that had once been a stable block.
I hung up my hat and coat and did my usual holiday home exploration, including trying out the bed.
Bibury Bear seemed very happy with the accomodation too…
The owner of the cottage had left us some chocolate croissants which didn’t take long to eat.
Prior to going to sleep we enjoyed looking through a book about Cotswold houses.
Our plans changed slightly the next day as my human had a migraine and needed to rest for a few hours. I went out for a wander around on my own.
The stable cottage is in the grounds of a large house with lovely gardens all around.
Sometimes we take ready meals with us on holiday breaks especially short breaks as we don’t like to spend all our time cooking! I tucked in to a rather tasty vegetable lasagne made by Charlie Bigham.
My human was feeling a bit better, which was as well as we had tickets booked for ‘An evening with Prue Leith’ in Cirencester. I was hoping to get a photo of me with Prue so I brushed my fur and put on my special batik shirt,
When we arrived at the venue there were lots of other people also waiting to see Prue, though without wishing to sound vain, I do think I was the best dressed individual in the auditorium.
There was a book stall at the event selling Prue’s books. I opted for ‘Bliss on Toast’. After queuing for a little while to see Prue she dedicated my book to me and we had a cuddle.
My human also bought ‘Being Old and Learning to Love’ it. I am looking forward to trying out the recipes in my book.
The following day before driving home (Bristol isn’t far from the Cotswolds) we visited Bourton on the Water, another place which gets very busy in the main holiday season.
The highlight of the trip was the visit to the model village, which was built in 1937 and is a 1/9 scale replica of the town as it was in 1937.
I felt very big inside the model village! The interesting thing is that there is a model village of the model village in the model village, and inside that even smaller model village of the model village….
Here I am leaving the model village inside the model village and outside of it!
Cotswold Motor museum was just up the road so we called in there too.
Lots of very old cars are crammed into the motor museum. There were lots of ‘do not touch’ signs but bears were allowed to sit in the tractor.
In an outside area I was delighted to find some bear sized bicycles. There were also helmets to borrow, so after putting one on my head I had a little pootle about.
Back inside the museum again I was pleased to find some bear sized cars, but with more warnings not to touch!
These little cars are all pedal cars made for children except the grey one, which was one of the first UK attempts at an electric vehicle (made in 1985). The Sinclair C5 didn’t go down very well with humans, it was very low on the ground, didn’t have a roof and could only travel 20 miles before needing to have the battery charged
Cotswold Motor Museum is very proud to be the home of a little car called Brum. Brum was the star of a children’s television show that was on tv from 1991 – 2002.
My human can remember watching Brum with her children, his headlights acted as his eyes!
No one is allowed to sit in the real Brum, but there is a replica model for bears and small humans to ‘drive’, which I very much enjoyed!
We had a lovely couple of days in the Cotswolds, with the highlight for me being finally meeting Prue Leith (followers of my Facebook page may recall that we tried to see her in Bath a few weeks earlier, but got the wrong day!)
For more information see:
Our accomodation https://www.booking.com/hotel/gb/cotswold-stable-cottage
Bibury https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/gloucestershire-cotswolds/bibury
Bourton on the Water Model Village www.theoldnewinn.co.uk/model-village
Cotswold Motor Museum Home – Cotswold Motoring and Toy Museum
Horace the Alresford Bear 23/4/2026