Bourton-on-the-Water
The bridges, and the only water the dog gets into. First stop because it is the busiest.
Friday 4 to Sunday 6 September 2026
Nine of us, one dog,
and a nine-seater.
House and van paid for. The base moved from Cheltenham to Little Rissington on 11 August, which took 51 minutes of driving off the weekend and cut the run home after Saturday dinner from 28 minutes to 10. Every drive time here is measured on real roads.
9People, plus a dog
2Nights
372Miles in the van
7h 55Total driving
£126Each, before food
3Tables to book
01
The whole weekend, on one map
Saturday's loop in green, Sunday's run south in rust. Tap a pin for what happens there.
The map needs a connection. Everything below works without it.
Saturday loop, 59 mi
Sunday to Castle Combe, 46 mi
Friday Get there
Rayson lands at Stansted 16:00 and picks up the van. Everyone else takes the Chiltern line to Beaconsfield. Dinner there, or at the far end. House by 20:40 or 22:05.
122 miles2 hr 30 driving
Saturday The loop
Bourton, Bibury, Daylesford, Diddly Squat, Stow. Lunch at the Catherine Wheel, dinner at Sheep on Sheep Street. Back by 21:00.
59 miles2 hr 02 driving
Sunday Go home
Checkout is 10:00, so out at 09:45, south to Castle Combe, lunch at the Salutation, M4 east. London by 16:00.
147 miles3 hr 23 driving
Still open
No restaurant has been rung. Three tables, nine people, a dog, a September weekend.
Friday dinner is A or B, and the group picks it. Section 02.
Saturday night still needs a sober driver, though it is now 10 minutes of lane rather than 28 of A-road. Section 06.
02
Friday
4 September · get to the house · 122 miles in the van
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16:00
Rayson lands RK 144 from Berlin
Off at 16:00, then the border and the walk to the rental village. Reckon on the desk at about 16:50, not 16:20.
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17:00
Collects the van Hertz, Coopers End Road
CM24 1SJ, desk shuts 20:00. Renault Trafic, nine seats, unlimited mileage, back Monday 17:30. Photograph every panel and both wheel sets before driving off and get any existing mark onto the agreement, because the card cover requires it. The booking says 17:30, but he lands at 16:00 and the desk will hand it over when he turns up. Nothing to amend, and it buys half an hour against the one bit of the drive that will be busy.
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1 hr 11 63 mi · M11, M25, M40 · allow 1 hr 30
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18:25
The rest of us get there first Beaconsfield station
Chiltern from Marylebone, 20 minutes, two an hour, £11 to £13 off-peak, dogs free. Leave Marylebone 18:00. The Old Town is 0.7 miles south, a fifteen-minute walk or two minutes once the van has us.
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18:50 to 19:20
Van arrives the honest window
Free-flow is 1 hr 11 from Coopers End Road, and the early release buys back most of what the paperwork and the walk-round cost. The M25 between J27 and J16 at Friday teatime is the one stretch that reliably runs 20 to 40 minutes over, and it is unavoidable whichever way he goes. Nobody books a table for 19:00.
Then it is A or B, and the group picks
A. Eat at Beaconsfield. Table in the Old Town at 19:30, out at 20:45, then 1 hr 19 on the M40 and A40. House at about 22:05. Nothing can close on you, everyone is fed before the long leg. The price is that quiet hours at Bears Court start at 22:00 and the hot tub shuts at the same time, so Friday night is unloading a van quietly in the dark.
B. Meet and run. Roll at 19:20 without eating, house at about 20:40, drop bags and eat at 21:00. The Lamb Inn at Great Rissington is half a mile down the lane, three minutes, dog-friendly. Bourton is two miles. This is the better night by some distance: the hot tub is still open, and the only person who cannot drink is whoever does the three-minute hop to the pub.
This gets decided at Beaconsfield, not in advance. The van is there by 19:20 either way, so somebody rings the Lamb on 01451 820388 while we are waiting and asks whether they will still be serving at 21:00. Yes and we roll. No and we sit down in the Old Town and take the 22:05 arrival. A village kitchen at nine o'clock is a coin flip, and it is not worth pinning the evening to a week in advance.
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1 hr 19 59 mi · M40 to J8, then the A40
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20:40 or 22:05
Bears Court Church Lane, Little Rissington
Sat-nav GL54 2SF. The postcode on the listing is an older one that lands you in the village but not down the lane, which the owners say is hard to find. Door left unlocked from 16:00, house key on the kitchen side, so there is nobody to meet and no arrival time to hit. Parking on site.
03
Saturday
5 September · the village loop · 59 miles, 2 hr 02 of driving
The map needs a connection. The timeline below works without it.
The loop, driven clockwise
Lower Slaughter, if we are ahead
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09:35
Leave the house
Bourton takes 300,000 visitors a year against 4,000 residents, and the coaches land mid-morning, so the 09:50 arrival is the fixed point. Twenty minutes earlier under the old base. The extra nine is for nine people and a dog getting out of a house.
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6 min 2.0 mi · the lane down to the A429 · allow 15
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09:50
Bourton-on-the-Water 1 hr 10
Five low stone bridges over the Windrush, shallow enough for the dog to stand in. Park on Rissington Road, charges to 20:00.
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32 min 13.7 mi · lanes via the Barringtons
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11:35
Bibury Arlington Row
A seventeenth-century weavers' terrace, ten minutes on foot from the pub. The roadside lay-by fills by nine and the council is consulting on coach restrictions, so we park at the Catherine Wheel.
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11:45
Lunch, The Catherine Wheel needs booking
Sixteenth century, open fires, function room for groups, dogs on the informal side, own car park. This booking is also the parking plan, so confirm a two-metre nine-seater fits.
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42 min 21.5 mi · the longest hop of the day
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13:45
Daylesford 50 min
A farm shop the size of a supermarket, proper car park, clean toilets. The food hall is the good bit and the restaurant holds a Michelin Green Star. Skip the homeware and clothing.
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14 min 6.1 mi · through Kingham to the A361
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14:50
Diddly Squat shuts 16:30
Six miles on from Daylesford, which is the only reason it works. No booking and no way to check ahead, so the queue is the whole gamble: twenty minutes on a quiet morning, an hour on a Sunday, two and a half at its worst. Read it from the car park and drive on if it is bad, because Stow is the next stop whatever you decide. Card only, no cash. The dog stays outside on a lead.
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18 min 10.3 mi · B4450 through Bledington, then the A436
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16:10
Stow-on-the-Wold
The only loop stop with parking a nine-seater can use. Market Square, the antique shops on Sheep Street, St Edward's church two minutes away with the yews flanking the north door. The Tolkien story about that door is invented.
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17:10
The loose end 1 hr 20 unaccounted
Down from 2 hr 45, because Diddly Squat now takes the middle of the afternoon. Lower Slaughter below fills most of what is left. Broadway Tower is the other answer, 20 minutes each way on the A44, and it is the one to reach for if the queue turned you back.
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17:15
Lower Slaughter optional
Eight minutes out from Stow, now that the route no longer runs past it. Best walk on the trip: flat, a mile and a half along the Eye to Upper Slaughter and back. Residential, parking restrictions, no facilities, so park in Upper Slaughter and walk in.
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18:30
Dinner, Sheep on Sheep Street needs booking
Books by slot, so flag nine plus a dog when you ring. Wood-fired pizza, water bowl on the floor. Sunset is 19:49, so whoever drives home is still doing it dark and sober, but it is now ten minutes instead of twenty-eight.
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10 min 5.5 mi · A429 and the lane, in the dark
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21:00
Back at the house
Parking is on site, so the van sits outside the door. An hour of hot tub before the 22:00 cutoff, which is the other thing the move bought.
Diddly Squat goes here, and only here
It opens Tuesday to Sunday, 9:30 to 16:30, so either day works on paper. Saturday's route already passes six miles from it, which costs 22 minutes. Sunday's route runs the other way: Diddly Squat to Castle Combe is 1 hr 18, so slotting it into Sunday adds an hour to a day that already has 3 hr 18 of driving and a checkout. Farm shop only. The Farmer's Dog is a different site and stays out.
Two timings in the original plan are impossible
The group plan had Bibury at 11:20 and Daylesford at 13:30. Bourton to Bibury is 32 minutes of single-track lanes, so 11:00 out of Bourton lands at 11:35. Bibury to Daylesford is 42 minutes, so 13:00 out lands at 13:45. Both corrected above, and both survived the change of base, because everything between Bourton and Stow is unchanged. Only the two ends moved.
Bibury
Arlington Row, and the lunch that solves the parking.
Daylesford
Farm shop with a Green Star restaurant attached. Buy food, skip the homeware.
Diddly Squat
Fourteen minutes on from Daylesford. This is the normal queue, and it decides whether we bother.
Stow-on-the-Wold
Dinner, the only van-friendly parking on the loop, and the unfilled afternoon.
Lower Slaughter
Optional. Best walk on the itinerary, and it eats an hour of the Stow gap.
04
Sunday
6 September · Castle Combe, then home · 147 miles, 3 hr 23 of driving
The map needs a connection. The timeline below works without it.
Down to Castle Combe, 46 mi
M4 home, 101 mi
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09:45
Pack, breakfast, check out
Checkout is 10:00, not 11:00. That is the one place the new house is stricter than the old one, and it makes 09:45 a deadline rather than a choice. It also gets us to Castle Combe before the car park fills.
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1 hr 05 42.1 mi · A429, then the A46 past Bath
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10:50
Castle Combe 1 hr 15, to 12:05
No parking in the village at all. Wiltshire runs plate cameras and a recovery truck 07:00 to 19:00, and £150 plus the fine gets a towed van back. Dunns Lane visitor car park, then ten minutes on foot.
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11 min 3.9 mi · narrow lanes, B4039
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12:15
Lunch, The Salutation Inn needs booking
Two miles out at The Gibb on the B4039, which is the point: seventeenth century, barn restaurant, beer garden, dogs inside, own car park. Hardest of the three tables, so ring it first.
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2 hr 07 100.8 mi · M4 east from J17
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15:55
London
Van stays with Rayson overnight. He runs it to Stansted on Monday, 44 miles, 75 minutes, due back 17:30. This one is now settled: his flight is FR 176 at 20:00, so there is two and a half hours between dropping the van and the gate.
Castle Combe
Worth the detour, and the reason Sunday runs 147 miles instead of 100.
Cheltenham
Where we were going to sleep until 11 August. Half an hour from the new house if anyone wants the Regency terraces anyway.
05
Where we sleep
Settled on 11 August. Bears Court, Little Rissington, booked direct and non-refundable
The map needs a connection. The table below carries the same argument.
Saturday's loop
Candidate bases
Saturday stops
Measured road times between real addresses. The Saturday column is the whole loop from that base: out to Bourton, round through Bibury and Daylesford, into Stow, back.
| Base | Saturday loop | Home from Stow after dinner | Sunday to Castle Combe | Friday from Beaconsfield |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stow-on-the-Wold fastest, no house | 1 hr 52 · 55 mi | walk | 1 hr 04 · 43 mi | 1 hr 50 |
| Little Rissington booked | 2 hr 02 · 59 mi | 10 min | 1 hr 05 · 42 mi | 1 hr 19 |
| Moreton-in-Marsh | 2 hr 09 · 64 mi | 9 min | 1 hr 12 · 48 mi | 1 hr 55 |
| Burford | 2 hr 20 · 71 mi | 16 min | 1 hr 02 · 41 mi | 1 hr 34 |
| Cheltenham cancelled | 2 hr 38 · 85 mi | 28 min | 1 hr 00 · 41 mi | 1 hr 36 |
| Cirencester | 2 hr 40 · 87 mi | 29 min | 38 min · 24 mi | 1 hr 53 |
This section used to argue for staying put. The price changed.
The old verdict was that an eastern base was worth having and not worth paying for. The cheapest house that beat Cheltenham on driving was a listed cottage in Moreton at £1,143, which was £783 on top of the £360 already committed, £87 a head, to save 29 minutes. Nobody was going to vote for that.
Bears Court came in at £500. Listed at £655 on the owners' own site and about the same on Airbnb, brought down by asking them directly what the platform fee was worth to them. So the whole eastern-base argument cost £140, or £15.55 a head. It buys 36 minutes off Saturday, half of that being the run home after dinner dropping from 28 minutes to 10, and another 17 off the Friday leg. Sunday pays five minutes back. Fifty-one minutes of driving for £140.
What we gave up is the one thing Cheltenham was genuinely best at, which was walking out to an unbooked Friday dinner. Little Rissington has no pub. The Lamb Inn at Great Rissington is half a mile down the lane and Bourton is two miles, so it is a short hop rather than a walk, and it is why Friday now has two shapes instead of one.
This one does not cancel. Booked direct, paid by transfer, non-refundable from the day it was made. There is no Wednesday deadline to hold open any more and no reason to keep looking.
Bears Court, No. 8 Booked and paid
- Where
- Church Lane, Little Rissington GL54 2SF. Sat-nav that postcode, not the listing's
- In
- From 16:00 Fri, door unlocked, key on the kitchen side
- Out
- By 10:00 Sun
- Beds
- Two king rooms, both en-suite, plus a family room with two doubles. Three bathrooms
- Also
- Private hot tub, off-road parking, dog welcome, 60-acre estate
- Cost
- £500 for two nights, £55.55 each, paid
- Owners
- Sean and Maddy, 07912 089733
House rules In the booking terms
- Quiet
- 22:00 to 08:00, and the neighbours are other lets on the same estate
- Hot tub
- Shuts at 22:00. No glass in or near it
- Parties
- Prohibited without written permission, which nine people and a dog are not
- Damage
- They reserve the right to pre-authorise a card before arrival
06
The van, the driver, the excess
One vehicle, one name on the agreement, and a £2,500 hold if the backup gets used
Hertz Booked and paid
- Vehicle
- Renault Trafic, 9 seats, unlimited mileage
- Where
- Stansted Airport, Coopers End Road CM24 1SJ, 08:00 to 20:00
- Out
- Fri 4 Sept, 17:30 on the booking, released early at the desk. He lands at 16:00
- Back
- Mon 7 Sept, 17:30, against a 20:00 flight
- Cost
- £450 paid, £50 each
- Driver
- Rayson, sole named driver, no second being added
Green Motion Held, £0 paid
- Why
- One desk at 17:30 on a Friday, with nine of us already on a train
- Where
- Novotel Stansted, Round Coppice Road CM24 1SF, off-airport via the Bay 18 shuttle
- Cost
- £337.43 at the desk, £112 cheaper than Hertz
- Catch
- Off-airport via a shuttle, so falling back to it puts Beaconsfield past 20:00 and forces Friday into option A
- Kill it
- Once Rayson has the Hertz keys. Email or website, they do not cancel by phone
Rayson is the only name on the agreement
No second driver is going on, and it could not be added after the van leaves Stansted anyway, so every mile of the weekend is his. That makes him the sober one on both nights, and on the Sunday run home.
The move made that a lot lighter. Under the old base one person lost most of Saturday evening to 28 minutes of dark A-road; now it is 5.5 miles of lane, ten minutes, after sunset at 19:49. Friday is either a 1 hr 19 leg after dinner or a three-minute hop down to the Lamb. Worth buying him the first round on Monday.
If the backup gets used, the excess is £2,500
A nine-seater sits in Green Motion's minibus band: £2,500 damage excess, £2,500 card pre-authorisation, up to 30 days for the hold to clear. Rayson's Chase card covers the excess to $75,000, since the exclusion starts at thirteen seats.
Rayson pulls the letter of coverage himself, from chasecardbenefits.com, which wants his card number. Check the card has a PIN while he is in there: Green Motion insist on chip and PIN and can ask for written proof at the desk. The benefit follows whoever paid, so the booking has to be in his name.
One or the other. Taking Green Motion's own excess product voids the card benefit and is not reimbursable. Theirs is £120 to £180. Either way £2,500 sits on the card for up to a month.
The return inspection is strict. No fair-wear allowance, a 40mm scratch or a 1mm glass chip is chargeable, tyres and glass sit outside the excess cover, dog hair alone starts at £150. Lost keys, wear and tear, and off-road driving fall through both rulebooks, so nobody parks on grass.
07
Three tables to book, plus the one we ring on the night
All dog-friendly, all take bookings, none has been called
The Catherine Wheel Bibury · Saturday 11:45
Ask for the function room, confirm the car park takes a two-metre nine-seater. Also the Bibury parking plan, so this one has to land.
Sheep on Sheep Street Stow · Saturday 18:30
Books by slot. Flag nine plus a dog. 18:30 is right now that Diddly Squat holds the afternoon, and the house is ten minutes away when it ends.
The Salutation Inn The Gibb · Sunday 12:15
The hardest of the three. Sunday lunch for nine in Wiltshire wants ringing this week. Confirm the car park on the call.
The Lamb Inn Great Rissington · Friday 21:00
Not booked in advance. Half a mile from the house, dog-friendly, and the only question is whether the kitchen is still going at 21:00 on a Friday. Ring from Beaconsfield at about 19:15: yes means option B and the hot tub, no means we eat where we are standing.
01451 820388 · GL54 2LN · thelambinn.com
Friday, Beaconsfield Old Town 19:30 · fallback
Only if the Lamb says no. The Old Town is 0.7 miles from the station and five minutes from M40 J2, so it costs nothing on the route. The Royal Standard of England at Forty Green is the one with a car park big enough for the van, 1.7 miles out.
Veggie and vegan still unchecked
All three were picked partly on having real options, but nobody has read the current menus.
08
Money
Nine ways, before any food or drink
| Item | Total | Each | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| House, two nights | £500.00 | £55.55 | Paid, non-refundable |
| Van, Friday to Monday | £450.00 | £50.00 | Paid |
| Fuel, about 372 miles | £70 to £80 | £7.80 to £8.90 | Estimate |
| Train, Marylebone to Beaconsfield | £100.00 | £12.50 | Settled, the van does not come into town |
| Per head, all in | – | £126 to £127 | Plus food and drink |
The 372 miles: 122 Friday, 59 Saturday, 147 Sunday, 44 for the van back to Stansted on Monday. The move east took 28 miles off the weekend and £140 onto the house, so the per-head figure went up by about £15 and the driving came down by 51 minutes. The old Cheltenham line was £360, and it is gone rather than refunded.
09
Practical
The things that go wrong on the day
Parking
The house off-road, on site, so the van sleeps outside the door and the old free-after-18:00 street-parking dance is gone. Bourton Rissington Road, charges to 20:00. Bibury the pub car park, the lay-by fills by nine. Daylesford proper car park. Stow the only easy one on the loop. Castle Combe Dunns Lane only, cameras and a recovery truck 07:00 to 19:00, £150 to get a towed van back.
Height
The Trafic is about two metres and UK multi-storeys commonly barrier at 1.9 to 2.0m. No longer a question at the house, but still ask both pubs, since we lean on their car parks twice.
The dog
Welcome at the house, free on the train, inside all three pubs and the Lamb. Water at Bourton, best walk at Lower Slaughter, and 60 acres at the door. Bring a blanket for the back seats: hair alone in the backup van is £150.
Finding it
Use GL54 2SF. The owners registered the houses under an older postcode that stops at the village and leaves you looking for an unmarked lane. Arriving after dark on Friday, this is the detail that matters most.
10
What still needs doing
Ordered by when it stops being possible
-
Ring the Salutation Inn
Sunday 12:15, nine plus a dog, and confirm the car park takes the van. Hardest table of the three.
This week -
Book the Catherine Wheel
Saturday 11:45, function room, two-metre clearance. Doubles as the Bibury parking plan.
This week -
Book Sheep on Sheep Street
Saturday 18:30, nine and a dog. Diddly Squat now covers the afternoon, so 18:30 is the right slot to ask for, and the house is ten minutes away whenever it ends.
This week -
Fill the Stow afternoon
Down to 1 hr 20 now Diddly Squat is in. Lower Slaughter is free and eats most of it. Broadway Tower is 20 minutes each way and the better view.
This week -
Rayson: pull the Chase letter of coverage
From chasecardbenefits.com, which needs his card number. Check it has a PIN, is a credit card, is in his own name, clears a £2,500 hold, and does not expire before November.
This week -
Get Green Motion's real numbers in writing
Email the branch for the excess and pre-authorisation in writing; £150 and £2,500 are very different fallbacks. Their insurer refuses licences from a list of countries, so check Rayson's against it.
Before it matters -
Ask Bears Court what is in the kitchen
Linen and towels are included and there are two ovens and a five-ring hob, which is more than the old place had. Worth asking what else is there before anyone plans to cook for nine, and worth confirming the van fits the parking.
Before we pack -
Friday, A or B
Deliberately left to the group and settled on the night. Somebody rings the Lamb on 01451 820388 from Beaconsfield around 19:15 and asks whether they will still be serving at 21:00. Yes and we roll and eat there. Otherwise we eat in the Old Town and get in at 22:05.
On the night
11
On the bench
Dropped, kept here so nobody re-proposes them
Broadway Tower near miss
Best view in the region, directly on the A44, 20 minutes each way. Saturday is back to five stops so it no longer fits as a plan, but it is the answer if the Diddly Squat queue is too long to join.
Diddly Squat back in
Dropped for being 40 miles east of everything, which was measured from Cheltenham. From Daylesford it is six. It costs the loop 22 minutes and takes the afternoon nobody had planned, so it is now Saturday 14:50 in section 03. Farm shop only, no pub.
Cheltenham, Clare Street cancelled
£360, lockbox, three bedrooms and a sofa bed, and 22 miles west of everything Saturday does. Replaced on 11 August by Bears Court at £500. Section 05 has the arithmetic.
St Albans, Epping, Berkhamsted out
Friday rendezvous options, all measured. The surprise is that the van barely cares: against a direct Stansted run, St Albans costs it 9 minutes, Amersham 9, Beaconsfield 8, Berkhamsted 11. Rayson is on the M11, M25 and M40 whichever we pick. So the choice came down to the train and to how much dark driving is left afterwards, and Beaconsfield wins both at 20 minutes from Marylebone and 1 hr 19 to the door. St Albans would have been the northern answer and leaves 1 hr 43. Epping is 22 minutes from Stansted and leaves 2 hr 06, which is the wrong trade entirely.
Moreton Show voted out
£31.25 a head, £281.25 for nine, and it eats all of Saturday. 25,000 people, one van, one dog.
Dover's Hill and the Slaughters, split voted out
Two groups, two places, one van, about 50 minutes of ferrying. Lost to Castle Combe.
Blenheim Palace never on the ballot
£40 a head and four hours, so it would have replaced Castle Combe, not joined it.
The Farmer's Dog out
Friday dinner. Hard cap of eight per table, and September is full.