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Eight chocolate-box villages near London

I recently posted another thread about the magazine Discover Britain, but got an email this morning with links to some of their articles. One in particular caught my eye, as it was called Chocolate-box heaven: 8 prettiest villages within a day's reach of London. I checked it out and the article is dead on accurate. Looking through it made me want to immediately jump on a plane, head for London and start making the rounds of these lovely villages!

You'll get a pop-up (maybe 2) but it's worth it to have a look at these places. These towns are just luscious!

Posted by
4777 posts

Batting 3 out of 8 - and that makes me believe the article about the other 5 I haven’t seen!

Posted by
1159 posts

What I find interesting about the list is that 6 of them are not in the Cotswolds. 4 of them can be reached directly by train from London and all are nearer than Bibury and Broadway.

And of course there are hundreds of other examples across the country.

Posted by
7912 posts

John, I know! That was the first thing that caught my eye—that they weren't the typical honey-pot villages of the Cotswolds. I love that they are focusing on relatively unknown (to tourists) destinations.

Posted by
165 posts

I live not far from Gt Missenden. An interesting trip would be to take the train or underground to Amersham and walk down the steep-ish hill to “Old Amersham” at the bottom, possibly going via the (20th century) memorial to Protestant martyrs burnt in the reign of Henry VIII.

Once you get past the large supermarket, the church and town north of it is quite pretty with an old market hall. The wide street has Georgian style houses and there are several old pubs which were once coaching inns in the old town’s heyday before railways. You could get the (hourly) bus up the road to Gt Missenden and train back from there.

Posted by
3864 posts

Mardee, thanks for posting and sharing this! Great article!
Bosham, Chichester and Fishbourne Roman Palace were on my trip and itinerary that I had planned for last spring and didn't get to do. I can't wait to go to those places!

Broadway is my favorite town in the Cotswolds. Broadway Deli is a good stop for lunch, with a sunny terrace out back of the shop. Great sandwiches and a shop full of locally-made jams, jellies, cheeses, breads, and more.

I can't wait to explore the other places mentioned in the article!

Posted by
3864 posts

Hello Mardee! I will take photos when I do my next trip and find a way to post a link here with my trip report.
Yes, I read those two trip reports from TexasTravelMom and CWsocial.
Fabulous trip reports!!
Thanks for those links; I'll read them again.

Posted by
1997 posts

Mardee, thanks so much for sharing. I posted it on my Facebook page. I'm hoping to go to the UK next year with my new knee-scheduled to be replaced this next week. I think the only village I had been to was Broadway and I know I loved it there.