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Stone cottages with flowering shrubs beside a quiet lane

Philip Jeffrey, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Adlestrop

The hamlet where Edward Thomas's train stopped in June 1914. The station has gone, but its sign and bench hang in the bus shelter, the rectory where Jane Austen visited her relations stands by the church, and the Evenlode valley walk starts from the hall.

Nearest station
Kingham, about 5 miles by road, on the Cotswold Line, then a taxi; Adlestrop's own station closed in 1966
Parking
A small car park at the village hall, with an honesty box (a suggested £1 in 2026); park with care and do not block the lane or the bus stop
Best time
Late June, when Thomas came; any bright afternoon for the walk
When it's busy
Never crowded; a trickle of readers at the bus shelter in summer
Toilets
None in the village
Dogs
On leads on the walk, where cattle and horses graze most of the route; the stretch on the A436 has no pavement

About Adlestrop

Adlestrop is a few dozen houses on a triangle of lanes off the A436, about 3 miles (5km) east of Stow-on-the-Wold and half a mile from the River Evenlode. It has no pub and no shop, and its station closed in 1966. People come because an express stopped here for a minute in June 1914 with Edward Thomas on board, and the poem he wrote about the silence and the birdsong made the name known far beyond the Cotswolds.

What to see

The Adlestrop railway sign and seat hang in the bus shelter at the road junction by the village hall: the painted board in Great Western Railway style with its raised letters and the cast-iron bench from the platform, given to the village by British Rail and set up here in the early 1970s. A plaque with the poem was fixed to the bench in June 2014, a century after Thomas's stop, and Historic England listed both at Grade II in 2017. They are free to see at any time.

St Mary Magdalene, the parish church, is Grade II: a thirteenth-century tower arch, a fifteenth-century tower and a fourteenth-century chancel arch survive from the medieval church, which was rebuilt around 1750, again in 1765 and restored in the early 1860s. Beside it is Adlestrop House, the former rectory, where the Rev Thomas Leigh was rector from 1762 to 1813. Jane Austen visited her relations here; Historic England's listing calls Leigh her uncle and her a frequent visitor. Behind the churchyard wall is Adlestrop Park, Grade II*, the Leigh family's house, with a Gothick south-west front by Sanderson Miller of 1759 to 1763 and pleasure grounds laid out by Humphry Repton. Both houses are private, seen from the lane and the footpath.

A wooden bus shelter with an ADLESTROP station sign at a junction of lanes
The bus shelter with the Adlestrop sign Photo: Philip Jeffrey, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

An afternoon here

Park at the village hall and start in the shelter with the poem. Walk the lane to the church and the two Leigh houses, a quarter of an hour, then take the drive south through the Daylesford estate to Daylesford, whose farm shop opens from 8am to 6pm Monday to Saturday and from 9am to 5pm on Sunday, for coffee. Come back the same way or carry on round the loop to the Fox at Lower Oddington.

A stone church with a square tower behind a churchyard path
St Mary Magdalene, Adlestrop Photo: Michael Dibb, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Walks

Adlestrop, Daylesford and Lower Oddington is the 5-mile (8.2km) loop from the village hall, two to two and a half hours of moderate walking on estate drives and bridleways through the Daylesford estate, over the Evenlode to the Doom painting in St Nicholas's Church and the Fox, and back. Walkers' reports on AllTrails from 2024 to 2026 warn about the 530m on the A436 over the river and the railway, with no pavement or verge, a narrow bend and fast traffic, and some turned back there; we suggest walking to Daylesford and back the same way instead. Over the hill, the National Trust's Chastleton House is a 3-mile drive.

A faint path across a green field towards a line of trees
The footpath up Adlestrop Hill Photo: Philip Jeffrey, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Food and drink

There is nothing in Adlestrop itself. The nearest food is at Daylesford, a mile or so south through the estate, with the farm shop's café and the Old Spot, and the Fox at Oddington, a Daylesford pub with rooms about 1.5 miles south-west by road, which serves from midday every day and lets dogs in throughout.

When to come

Thomas's stop was in late June, in heat, with the haycocks drying and a blackbird singing, and that is the day to copy. Wild garlic and bluebells come out along the walk in spring. The lanes are quiet all year, the 803 bus calls on Tuesdays only, and the fields are muddy from November to March, so winter visitors see the shelter and the church and drive on to Stow.

Last verified 1 November 2026 by our editors

Sheep grazing a hillside above a stone village in a valley

Part of

The North Cotswolds

The high wolds between Chipping Campden and Bourton-on-the-Water: the Fosse Way towns, the Windrush villages, the Slaughters and the escarpment at Broadway.

  • A wooden shelter carrying the ADLESTROP station sign beside a lane in spring
  • A large stone house with a bow front and a gravel forecourt
  • A long ironstone cottage with mullioned windows beside a lane
  • A row of ironstone cottages with blue doors along a lane
  • A long stone cottage range beside a lane under a summer sky

Things to do in Adlestrop

See all
The Jacobean front of Chastleton House at the end of a gravel path under summer clouds

Historic houses and heritage · Moreton-in-Marsh

Chastleton House

A Jacobean house near Moreton-in-Marsh, built on the estate Robert Catesby sold in 1602, where rules for croquet were written.

Where to stay in Adlestrop

See all
  • The Fox's stone buildings around a gravel forecourt under a blue sky

    The Fox at Oddington

    Inn · Kingham

    A Daylesford pub with rooms at Lower Oddington, with the four-bedroom Coachman's House opposite for self-catering groups of up to eight.

    Dog-friendly · Family-friendly

    Verified Oct 2026

  • A long stone cottage with climbing plants and a table laid on its lawn

    Daylesford Stays cottages

    Self-catering · Kingham

    Self-catering cottages in Daylesford village and on Daylesford's organic farm near Kingham, all within two miles of the farm shop, and all of them dog-friendly.

    Dog-friendly

    Verified Nov 2026

Where to eat and drink in Adlestrop

See all
  • The gabled farm shop at Daylesford lit up at dusk

    Daylesford Farm

    Farm shops and delis · Kingham

    The farm shop, restaurant and café at Daylesford near Kingham, open every day, with the Trough holding a Green Michelin star.

    Dog-friendly

    Verified Nov 2026

  • A two-storey stone pub with a hanging sign and picnic benches beside a lane

    The Fox Inn, Broadwell

    Pubs · Stow-on-the-Wold

    A Donnington Brewery village pub overlooking the green at Broadwell, just north-east of Stow-on-the-Wold, run by Peter Creed and Tom Noest, with seasonal pub food, game and offal, and food all day on Sundays.

    Verified Nov 2026

  • A dining room with green banquettes, framed prints and a table laid for dinner

    The Chequers, Churchill

    Pubs · Kingham

    A Lionhearth Group gastropub on Church Road in Churchill, about 2 miles from Kingham, with an open fire, a garden terrace, two private dining rooms and dogs and children welcome.

    Dog-friendly · Family-friendly

    Verified Nov 2026

Walks in and around Adlestrop

All walks starting here
  • St Andrew's church at Kingham across its churchyard in autumn

    Kingham, Daylesford and the Evenlode

    Walk · Starts in Kingham · 1 hr, 30 mins · Circular · Dog-friendly

    A flat 4.4-mile (7.1km) circular walk of about an hour and a half from Kingham: north-west on bridleways across Daylesford's fields to the Evenlode, back down the river meadows and over the Cotswold Line on the level. Walkers report it wet and often flooded in winter.

  • A wooden footbridge over a ditch on a field path towards trees

    Kingham station and Bledington

    Walk · Starts in Kingham · 3 hrs · Circular

    A 3.5-mile (6km) car-free circular walk from Kingham station, easy and two to three hours with stiles and a boggy patch: along the River Evenlode into Gloucestershire, over the old railway and past a pond, then to Bledington's green and the King's Head, and back by the river.

  • The weathered stones of the King's Men circle at Rollright under a dramatic sky

    Salford and the Rollright Stones

    Walk · Starts in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds · 2 hrs, 30 mins · Circular · Dog-friendly

    A 5-mile (8km) circular walk from the green at Salford, moderate and about two and a half hours, with stiles: up bridleways and field paths to the Whispering Knights, the King Stone and the King's Men stone circle, then down through Little Rollright and back.

Sights in and around Adlestrop

All sights
  • A stone church tower rising beyond a churchyard of headstones scattered with autumn leaves

    St Andrew's Church, Kingham

    Sight · Church · Kingham

    Kingham's ironstone church of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, with a pinnacled tower, a nave roof dated 1774, an Elizabethan brass in the Easter Sepulchre and the old rectory of 1688 next door. Grade II*.

  • A gentle river bending through meadows past an old pollard willow

    River Evenlode

    Sight · River · Kingham

    The Evenlode is the river of the valley below Kingham, rising in the Cotswold limestone and flowing south-east to the Thames; near Kingham it runs beside the Cotswold Line past Bledington and Daylesford and for a stretch marks the Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire boundary.

  • A stone church with a pinnacled tower and clerestory in a sunny churchyard

    St Leonard's Church, Bledington

    Sight · Church · Kingham

    Bledington's Grade I church by the green, recorded in 1175 and rebuilt in the fifteenth century, with fifteenth-century painted glass, one panel dated 1470, a Norman tub font and a tower built inside the nave. Open daily.

Stories about Adlestrop

All stories
  • A stone church with a battlemented tower behind a churchyard wall and iron gate

    Edward Thomas and Adlestrop

    Story · History · 8 minute read

    The express that stopped at Adlestrop in June 1914, the poem Edward Thomas made of it, the station that closed in 1966, and the sign and bench in the village bus shelter today.

History of Adlestrop

The Crown sold the manor of Adlestrop to Sir Thomas Leigh in 1553, and the Leighs shaped everything that is visible today. William Leigh, who died in 1690, turned a barn into a house soon after he inherited in 1632. James Leigh had Sanderson Miller rebuild it with a Gothick front between 1759 and 1763. A road was moved in 1803 to make a park of more than 100 acres, with pleasure grounds by Repton. The Rev Thomas Leigh, rector from 1762 to 1813, repaired the rectory and made its garden, and Jane Austen, of her mother's family, visited her relations there.

The Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway came along the valley in 1853 and the station, in Oddington parish, opened the same year. The school closed in 1936 and the parish was joined to Oddington in 1937. Edward Thomas's express halted at the station on a June afternoon in 1914, he wrote the poem in 1915, and he was killed at Arras on 9 April 1917. The station closed in 1966, and the sign and bench went into the shelter in the early 1970s.

Questions about Adlestrop

Is Adlestrop worth visiting?

Yes, for an hour or for an afternoon with the walk. The railway sign and bench in the bus shelter are the point, and they take ten minutes. The church, the Leigh houses from the lane and the 5-mile loop by Daylesford and the Fox at Oddington make it a half day. There is no pub or shop, so bring what you need.

Where is the Adlestrop sign?

In the bus shelter at the road junction by the village hall, where the GWR platform sign and bench from the closed station were set up in the early 1970s. It is free to see at any time, and the bench carries a plaque with Edward Thomas's poem.

Can you get to Adlestrop by train?

Not directly. Adlestrop station closed in 1966. The nearest station is Kingham, about 5 miles away by road on the Cotswold Line from London Paddington, from which a taxi is the practical way in. The 803 bus calls at the Evenlode turn on Tuesdays only.

Did Jane Austen stay in Adlestrop?

Yes. She visited her relations at the rectory, now Adlestrop House, when the Rev Thomas Leigh, of her mother's family, was rector; Historic England's listing calls him her uncle and her a frequent visitor. Her cousins owned Adlestrop Park next door. Both houses are private and seen from the lane.

Getting to Adlestrop

By car
Off the A436 between Stow-on-the-Wold and Chipping Norton, signed from the Evenlode turn. The lanes are single track in places.
Parking
A small car park at the village hall, by the bus shelter, with an honesty box for parking (a suggested £1 in 2026). Park with care and do not block the lane or the bus stop.
By train
Kingham, about 5 miles by road, on the Cotswold Line from London Paddington in about 80 minutes. Take a taxi from the station.
By bus
Pulhams' 803 between Bourton-on-the-Water and Moreton-in-Marsh stops at the Evenlode turn on Tuesdays only, once each way: 9.54am towards Moreton and 12.40pm back towards Bourton.

Access

The bus shelter is at the roadside by the village hall, with its small car park beside it; we have no formal statement on the kerb or surface

Distances from Adlestrop
Lower Oddington1.4 mi
Daylesford2.8 mi
Chastleton House3.1 mi
Stow-on-the-Wold3.9 mi
Kingham station4.7 mi
Moreton-in-Marsh station7.3 mi
Map of Adlestrop
© OpenStreetMap contributors

Places near Adlestrop

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