Castle Combe after 7pm , is it too late?

Jen, in all honesty I think you are trying to cram too much into a day.

Your numerous questions have shown you like to plan every minute of every day.

I understand the desire to want to see everything but as mentioned previously you are traveling in the height of tourist season. Places will be crowded, you have travel distances to contend with, there will be queues, no one can predict the weather and there are other unforeseen factors that could affect your itinerary. Illness for one, or a train strike or.....

My point is slow down. Its a vacation, not an obstacle course.

Lastly, given all the advice this forum has shared I hope you will post a trip report after your visit. I would be interested in hearing if you were able to abide by your itinerary and truly enjoyed a relaxing vacation.

Hi Claudia,

I think I'm not cramming much into the day. Just want to know what's ahead since it'd be peak tourist season.
After the oxford's library tour, I'd just have lacock and castle combe for the day which should be doable. But since i don't want to leave my luggage in car, I'd have to stop by at my hotel in south Cerney that's like another 1.5 hrs extra to the trip. So I estimate 7pm arrival at castle combe is after I take into account all traffic and relaxing time. The good thing about summer is the long daylight so no concern about getting in the dark and not able to see the village but I'm afraid there are accesses that's closed already

We stayed in Castle Combe (in a very small B&B) for one night 2 years ago while on a 4-day hike. It's a charming village, but walking the streets is where the charm of the village is. It appears that By Brook is a restaurant in the "fancy" hotel there. The gmaps issue might be that the hotel is "private." We walked through the grounds but then realized we were not allowed in the hotel as we were not guests. I suppose if you are eating in the restaurant, you would be allowed in, but they did not seem to appreciate "looky-loos" like us.

When you arrive in Castle Combe - drive down the hill and through the village (westward) and you should find a free parking space in a lay-by just after you cross the bridge. (Parking is banned in most of the village - well, you wouldn’t want to load of cars spoiling it would you)! You will not find any shops in the village. An inn/pub/restaurant is by the village (stone) cross. The gate that you see denotes that this is a private road in front of some cottage. It is always closed to the general public.

It would extremely unlikely that your car would be broken into in either Castle Combe or Lacock so if it were me, I would not dump off by baggage at a hotel if it took me off route. Indeed, in Castle Combe, someone had put out a table with home made cakes and left an honesty box for you to put the money into for any that you have ‘purchased’.

Hi padams,
that's what i thought too, that it looks like a private property of the hotel. but the view surrounding the bridge over ByBrook is supposed to be one of the view that makes Castle Combe famous. So when you went there, the gate was opened? there should be public toilet by the bridge though. in regards to ByBrook, I'm not sure about this but if i'm not wrong i read somewhere that ByBrook is also a nickname for River Avon.

Hi James,
thanks so much for the info and pics. thanks for the parking tips. it's very difficult and far from the main village. i was initially plan to take a chance looking for parking in the village, the one that's after the archway cottage but really not sure if there's a parking there. by the way, when you say lay-by after the bridge, is it the first bridge after the market cross? the one with a gated entry on right hand side? i couldn't see any lay-by yet around that bridge via gmaps.
and also the gate in front of the manor, does it mean we could not access that (West) street unless we're guests of the hotel or eat in their restaurant? i think the view at the back of that street is the one that's very picturesque. it's said to have a public toilet near the bridge at the end of that street but I could not see still any public access going there.

You will probably approaching CC from the B4039. A large car park is found at the top of the hill - but this is quite a walk from the village. Mu advice is to go down the hill (The St). As you descend the hill, keep an eye out for the odd space on the side of the road that is not marked with the yellow lines denoting no parking. Return to one of these spaces (if available) in the event that you can’t find parking lower down by the brook. Drive through the village to the brook. Just after you cross the bridge, you will see some spaces on the side of the road where you may be able to find a parking slot. (They are by the public toilet). Look on Google Street View and you will see what I am on about.

Click this link and you should see a map which you can zoom down on to the village itself. (Satellite view is also useful). Click and drag the yellow man from the bottom right to see Streetview.
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.4942153,-2.2261446,17.03z/data=!5m1!1e1

Hi James,

thanks so much for the thorough tips. hopefully i'd be able to get a spot by the time i arrive there. i just hope arriving a bit later would ease the traffic. speaking of the public toilet, it's under threat of getting closed. yikess
http://www.gazetteandherald.co.uk/news/14253451.Toilets_regularly_used_by_tourists_in_Castle_Combe_face_uncertain_future/

pretty much all public toilets are - and have been for many years - under threat of closure.

The toilet in CC was open when I last visited. You will find toilet facilities (free) at motorway service areas. It is also worth knowing that on the edges of many towns are large supermarkets with free car parking and that they always have free to use public toilets.

The main chains of submarkets are:> Tesco, Morrisons, Sainsbury, Asda (Walmart). If you Google them, you should be able to find a location map for each to see if any are near your routes.

If course, if you patronise any Inn/pub/restaurant, they would be quite happy for you to use their toilets.