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Abbey House Gardens in Malmesbury was put up
for sale last summer and consequently its four-acre
Michelin star garden was closed to the public
leading to the suspension of our Cotswolds Gold
Tour. But no one has come forward to snap up the
eleven bedroom Tudor house from the Naked
Gardeners for an asking price of £3.5 million
(you can see what’s on offer by clicking your mouse
So the beautiful garden is back open for 2015
and our lovely Cotswolds Gold tour is back on.
The Cotswolds Gold Tour
On this day we explore some very beautiful
countryside in the South Western Cotswolds and
the Gloucestershire Golden Valleys with visits
to Tetbury, Painswick and The Abbey House
Gardens in Malmesbury, of which Alan Titchmarsh
said, “The WOW factor is here in abundance”.
Tea and cake in the garden is included in the tour
price of £22.95 per person.
We begin our day in sleepy and charming
Malmesbury to buy morning coffee at 10-30am.
During the morning sit back to enjoy a scenic drive
through the steep Golden Valleys of Gloucestershire.
This is Laurie Lee country, the inspiration for his
childhood memoir
Cider with Rosie
. The way of life
may have changed but the beauty of the countryside
remains untouched. We’ll drive up to Minchinhampton
Common for the stunning landscape views as we chart
a course towards Painswick – Queen of the Cotswolds.
Genteel, dignified and beautifully turned out in a pale
Dove grey, Painswick is a gem. Join the guide to visit
the churchyard where ninety-nine ornamentally clipped
yews form a maze effect around the Georgian tabletop
tombs. Painswick starred as a rather lovely backdrop
(along with Northleach, another hidden gem that we
visit on our new Cotswolds Country File Tour) in the
recent television adaptation of JK Rowling’s A Casual
Vacancy. When the BBC film crew temporarily decked
out a Painswick shop as the risqué Pagford lingerie
Cotswolds Gold
