About the Cotswolds

At 790 square miles, the Cotswolds National Landscape is the largest of 46 AONBs in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. It was designated in recognition of its rich, diverse, and high quality landscape.

The Cotswolds is the third largest protected landscape in England, after the Lake District National Park and the Yorkshire Dales National Park. It stretches from Bath and Wiltshire in the south, through Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire to Warwickshire and Worcestershire in the north. It cuts across 15 local authority areas.

The Cotswold Hills are the area’s central feature – rising gently from the broad, green meadows of the upper Thames to crest in a dramatic escarpment above the Severn Valley and Evesham Vale. Rural England at its most mellow, the landscape draws a unique warmth and richness from the harmonising presence and limestone beauty of its buildings. Beech woods, meadows, and bucolic valleys are also treasured features of the Cotswolds landscape.

Within the Cotswolds National Landscape boundary though, there is a wide variety of landscapes, each displaying distinctive patterns of landform, vegetation, and landscape elements.

Understanding the Cotswolds Landscape Character Assessment, and the Landscape Strategy and Guidelines

The Cotswolds Landscape Character Assessment, and the Landscape Strategy and Guidelines are two key tools we use to deliver our work and offer advice to others. They are vital for managing change and delivering regeneration which protects landscape character and promotes local distinctiveness.

Landscape Character Assessment

The Landscape Character Assessment provides a detailed review of the Cotswolds National Landscape, which is a designated AONB. The study was undertaken in accordance with guidance and methodology set out by the Countryside Agency.

The assessment acknowledges that each landscape character type and landscape character area has a recognisable and consistent pattern of elements that makes it different from another. Character makes each part of the landscape distinct, and gives each its particular sense of place, regardless of perceptions of quality or value. The assessment provides a descriptive map that draws attention to the contrasts in landscape character.

Landscape Strategy and Guidelines

Following on from the Landscape Character Assessment of the Cotswolds, a further study produced the Landscape Strategy and Guidelines for the Cotswolds. By building on the findings of the Landscape Character Assessment, the Cotswolds Landscape Strategy and Guidelines provides an overview of the forces for change that are influencing the landscape, and outlines a series of landscape and land management strategies to help guide change in a positive and sustainable way.