Last weekend we got outta town and snapped up a last min cottage at 3pm on Friday in Blockley, the Cotswolds. I suspect I’ve been a bit of an inverted snob about the area in the past – but now I’m a bit older I’m a bit more at home with the chi chi. I OD on that oh so Farrow & Ball Cotswolds sage green that is utterly ubiquitous. I now understand its not all down to Daylesford but many regions have their colour – that yellow in Dorset and umm that charcoal in London.
We were doing some not very committed tabloid editor spotting….but Blockley turned out to the village of the Guardian Ed. So I failed there. Redhead Brooks hangs out at the Kingham Plough further down the road….no joy there. We’d missed her secret love-in with Murdoch by a good couple of weeks. So no media hos but plenty of cabbages.
The bees just love the purple.
Below: The Churchill Arms: exceptional food, fiiiine wine (Mussar). Ignoring the tres Anglaid church the garden out the back was overwhelmingly French in feel. An umbrella lime tree here and there and some gravel underfoot – that’s all it takes.
Below: The Kingham Plough: I wasn’t convinced when we arrived. Thought it looked a bit modern and flippant. But lo – the food was extraordinary. My fellow diners, two experienced eaters said it was the best roast they’d ever had. And that is saying something. And they both had different….mine was an altogether more delicate, reserved number which inspired me to do some more experimental cooking.
Below: Lower Brook House: sweet! Little mini hotel with the smallest restaurant – it was like a supper club. They had some cracking 70s sunbeds in the garden which totally didn’t fit with the rest of the hotel but I would insist they stayed too.
Lower Brook House, Blockley
The Kingham Plough, Kingham nr Chipping Norton
Churchill Arms, Paxford
