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A stone church with a battlemented west tower among churchyard tombs under a blue sky

Michael Garlick, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Ampney Crucis

A village on the Ampney Brook 4 miles east of Cirencester, with Holy Rood church, its Grade I medieval churchyard cross and its wall paintings, an old coaching inn by the water and two smaller Ampneys a mile or so away.

Nearest station
Kemble, 9 miles, then the 882 bus to Cirencester and the 76 or 77 on to the village
Parking
No public car park; park on the village street, or ask at the Crown at Ampney Brook if eating there (Wild Thyme & Honey lists free parking on Booking.com)
Best time
Spring, for the full brook and the churchyard; a weekday for the church
When it's busy
Rarely busy
Toilets
None in the village; the nearest public toilets are in Cirencester, Forum car park (50p, 8am to 7pm in summer, 6pm in winter)
Dogs
Well-behaved dogs are welcome at the Crown at Ampney Brook, and Wild Thyme & Honey has pet-friendly rooms (£35 a stay); on leads on the lanes between the Ampneys, which have no pavements

About Ampney Crucis

Ampney Crucis is the first village east of Cirencester on the Fairford road, 4 miles (6km) out, where the Ampney Brook crosses under the A417 by a coaching inn. The street runs north from there, away from the traffic, and the church sits off it on its own with its medieval cross. Three Ampneys stand a mile or so apart along the brook, and together they make a morning that nobody on the way to Bibury stops for.

What to see

The churchyard cross is listed Grade I. It is late fourteenth or early fifteenth century: two square steps, a base rising to an octagon, a shaft carved with leaves, and at the top a gabled head with a figure on each face, the Virgin and Child to the west, St Laurence to the south, the Crucifixion to the east and, to the north, Robert FitzHamon, the Norman lord who founded Tewkesbury Abbey. The head was found in 1860 hidden in the church's old rood stair and set back in its place on the shaft; the parish council's history of the church says it had been walled up there to save it from the iconoclasts of the seventeenth century.

Holy Rood itself is Saxon in foundation, with a blocked Saxon doorway in the north wall between two single-light Norman windows, a plain Norman font, a fifteenth-century tower and a Perpendicular stone pulpit. In the north transept are the remains of fourteenth-century wall paintings round the windows, and the tomb of George Lloyd and his wife, dated 1584 on the list entry, two effigies under a canopy on fluted columns. The church was restored in 1870. It is Grade I too.

The other two Ampneys are a mile or so east. St Mary's, Ampney St Mary , stands alone in a field by the A417, because its village was abandoned after the Black Death and grew again on the far side of the road at Ashbrook; it has a Norman doorway carved with a lion and wall paintings from the twelfth to the fifteenth century, St Christopher and St George among them. St Peter's, Ampney St Peter is late Saxon in origin, with an early Saxon carving on its north wall and an 1878 restoration by George Gilbert Scott. Both are small, and both are better than their size.

A tall medieval churchyard cross with a carved gabled head on stepped stone base
The churchyard cross at Ampney Crucis Photo: Michael Garlick, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

A morning in the Ampneys

Leave the car by the Crown at Ampney Brook or on the village street and walk up to Holy Rood, five minutes. Take the cross first, walking round it to find the four figures, then the church for the Lloyd tomb and the paintings. Back at the brook, follow the lane east to Ampney St Peter, a mile, for the Saxon carving, then cross the A417 with care to St Mary's in its field. Lunch at the Crown, and you have seen three Norman or older churches before two o'clock. The Red Lion at Ampney St Peter is a listed pub with a rare early tap room, open Thursday to Saturday evenings only, 5.30pm to 10.30pm, so it is no help for lunch.

A small low stone church with a bellcote alone in a grassy churchyard under trees
St Mary's, Ampney St Mary Photo: Michael Garlick, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Walks

We have no walk of our own here yet. The lanes between the three Ampneys make an easy 3 miles, flat and mostly quiet once you are off the main road, and the Roman Akeman Street, which has a listed milestone on its line in the parish, runs north-east towards the Coln. For a proper walk, Cirencester Park is 4 miles west and the Coln St Aldwyns and Bibury loop about 6 miles north-east.

Food and drink

The old coaching inn on the A417 by the brook, sixteenth century in origin by its own account, now trades as the Crown at Ampney Brook, the pub and restaurant of the Wild Thyme & Honey hotel, which has bedrooms; CAMRA's listing gives its old name, the Crown of Crucis. It serves every day from breakfast at 8am through to dinner, and it is the one place to eat in the village. The Red Lion at Ampney St Peter is a listed village pub, open Thursday to Saturday, 5.30pm to 10.30pm. We found no village shop; Cirencester, 4 miles, has everything.

A shallow clear brook with green water weed under overhanging trees
Ampney Brook at Ampney Crucis Photo: Des Blenkinsopp, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

When to come

Any season; the churches do not change and the village is never busy. Spring brings the brook up and the churchyard into leaf, and a weekday is quietest. The Ampneys are on the road to Fairford and Lechlade rather than to Bibury, which is why they are quiet, and why they are in our guide to the Cotswolds without the crowds. The 76 and 77 buses run from Cirencester Monday to Saturday only, and the little 50 loops out on weekdays. In summer, Poulton Hill Estate, a small family vineyard at Poulton, between Cirencester and Fairford, runs vineyard tours, with tastings in winter.

Last verified 1 November 2026 by our editors

A still river under a weeping willow with stone cottages on the far bank

Part of

Cirencester and the Coln Valley

Cirencester, the Roman town of Corinium, and the River Coln running past Bibury, Coln St Aldwyns and Fairford to meet the Thames by Lechlade.

  • A small stone house among tall trees at a bend in a village lane
  • Stone houses with climbing plants beside a curving village road
  • A row of stone cottages above a raised pavement on a village street
  • A small Saxon stone church with a squat tower behind clipped bushes
  • A faded red medieval wall painting on a whitewashed church wall

Things to do in Ampney Crucis

See all
A marquee and tables beside rows of vines in evening sun

Tours and experiences · Ampney Crucis

Poulton Hill Estate

A small family vineyard at Poulton, between Cirencester and Fairford, planted in 2010, with summer vineyard tours, winter tastings and a cellar door shop.

Where to stay in Ampney Crucis

See all
  • A panelled dining room painted sage green, with round tables, a chandelier and tall windows onto the garden

    THE PIG-in the Cotswolds

    Hotel · Barnsley

    Barnsley House, the 17th-century house with Rosemary Verey's garden, now a 24-bedroom hotel in the PIG group, with a kitchen-garden restaurant and a spa, four miles from Cirencester.

    Verified Nov 2026

  • Bar room with a log fire in a stone hearth, a wooden floor and settles

    The Village Pub

    Inn · Cirencester

    A pub with six bedrooms in the eaves at Barnsley, about four miles from Cirencester, part of THE PIG group, with gravity-fed ales and steak night on Thursdays.

    Dog-friendly

    Verified Oct 2026

  • A bright breakfast room with grey painted chairs, spotted tablecloths and hare pictures on the walls

    Cotswold Hare

    B&B · Cirencester

    A bed and breakfast with seven en suite rooms on Victoria Road, Cirencester, with a parking space for every room, for adults and children over ten.

    Verified Nov 2026

Where to eat and drink in Ampney Crucis

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  • Glass dining domes and parasols on a terrace above the Ampney Brook, behind a wooden rail hung with ivy

    The Crown at Ampney Brook

    Restaurants · Ampney Crucis

    The pub and restaurant of Wild Thyme & Honey at Ampney Crucis, a sixteenth-century coaching inn by the Ampney Brook, formerly the Crown of Crucis, open from breakfast to dinner.

    Dog-friendly · Wedding venues

    Verified Nov 2026

Walks in and around Ampney Crucis

All walks starting here
  • The Broad Ride through Cirencester Park between avenues of trees in autumn colour

    Cirencester Park, Pope's Seat and Stratton

    Walk · Starts in Cirencester · 2 hrs · Circular

    A 5-mile (8km) circular walk from Cirencester's parish church, easy and taking one and a half to two hours: up Cecily Hill and a mile along the Broad Ride to Pope's Seat, past the polo grounds to Stratton, and back by the streams past the open-air pool.

  • The stone weavers' cottages of Arlington Row lining a lane that climbs through Bibury

    Bibury and Ablington

    Walk · Starts in Bibury · 1 hr, 45 mins · Circular

    A 5-mile (8.2km) circular walk from Arlington Row in Bibury, an hour and a half to two hours of moderate walking with a few stiles. It goes up Packhorse Lane and the Salt Way over open wold, down to Ablington and its Elizabethan manor, and back beside the River Coln.

  • The stepped gables of Arlington Row rising above a path and green in Bibury

    Bibury, Oxhill Wood and Akeman Street

    Walk · Starts in Bibury · 1 hr, 45 mins · Circular · Dog-friendly

    A 4-mile (6.6km) circular walk from the bridge by the Swan in Bibury, an hour and a half to two hours with a few short, steep climbs. It goes out by the church and up above the Coln to Oxhill Wood, along the line of the Roman Akeman Street and back over farmland to Arlington Row.

Sights in and around Ampney Crucis

All sights
  • The ornate golden-stone south porch and tall tower of a wool church on a market square

    St John the Baptist, Cirencester

    Sight · Church · Cirencester

    Cirencester's great wool church on the Market Place, free to visit: a fifteenth-century tower you can climb on set Saturdays, a three-storey porch of about 1490 that served as the town hall, fan vaults, medieval glass and the Boleyn Cup. Grade I.

History of Ampney Crucis

Holy Rood is a Saxon foundation; its blocked north doorway is the evidence, and the church grew by Norman windows, a fourteenth-century transept with painted walls and a fifteenth-century tower. The cross in the churchyard was put up in the late fourteenth or early fifteenth century, and at some point its carved head was taken down and hidden in the stair to the rood loft, the parish council's history says to save it from seventeenth-century iconoclasts, where it was found in 1860 and restored to the shaft. George Lloyd, who died in 1584, lies with his wife in the north transept. The church was restored in 1870, and the cross again in the late twentieth century. A mile east, the village of Ampney St Mary moved away from its church after the Black Death and resettled north of the road, so St Mary's has stood alone in its field for centuries.

Questions about Ampney Crucis

Why is it called Ampney Crucis?

Crucis is Latin for 'of the cross'. The church is dedicated to the Holy Rood, the cross of the Crucifixion, and the name tells the village apart from Ampney St Peter and Ampney St Mary, the two other Ampneys on the brook a mile or so east. The medieval cross in the churchyard, with its carved head, is listed Grade I.

What are the three Ampneys?

Ampney Crucis, Ampney St Peter and Ampney St Mary, three villages a mile or so apart on the Ampney Brook east of Cirencester, each named for its church. Down Ampney, about 4 miles to the south-east, is a fourth with the same name; it is not one of the three.

Is Holy Rood church open?

The Church of England's listing for Holy Rood says the church is open to visitors but gives no hours, so be ready to find it locked, and services are on the third Sunday of the month at 10am. The churchyard and the cross can be seen at any time.

Where do you park in Ampney Crucis?

On the village street north of the A417, which is quiet; if you are eating or staying at the Crown at Ampney Brook, ask there about parking; Wild Thyme & Honey lists free parking on Booking.com. There is no public car park, and do not park on the main road. The church is a few minutes' walk up the street from either.

Getting to Ampney Crucis

By bus
The 76 and 77 (Stagecoach West, Cirencester to Highworth via Fairford) stop here Monday to Saturday, about 7 minutes from the Forum; the 50 (Cotswold Green) loops out on weekdays. No Sundays.
By train
Kemble is the nearest station, 9 miles; take the 882 bus or a taxi to Cirencester for the 76 or 77.
By car
On the A417 Cirencester to Fairford road, 4 miles from Cirencester. Park considerately on the village street north of the main road, or ask at the Crown at Ampney Brook if you are eating there.

Access

The village street is level; we have not confirmed step-free access to the church

Distances from Ampney Crucis
Cirencester3.7 mi
Fairford5.9 mi
Bibury8.7 mi
Kemble station9.3 mi
Lechlade9.9 mi
Cheltenham18.6 mi
Map of Ampney Crucis
© OpenStreetMap contributors

Places near Ampney Crucis

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