Ian Rob, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Aston Magna
A hamlet in Blockley parish north of Moreton-in-Marsh, cut in two by the Cotswold Line, with a twelfth-century chapel turned cottage, a church of 1846 now a private house, and a Roman small town in the fields towards Moreton.
- Nearest station
- Moreton-in-Marsh, about 4 miles (6km) by road; trains run through the hamlet but there is no station
- Parking
- No public car park. Park with care on the lanes and never across a gateway
- Best time
- Spring and autumn, with Batsford Arboretum's trees a short drive away
- When it's busy
- Never busy: a hamlet with no pub, shop or car park
- Toilets
- None in the hamlet; the nearest public toilets are on Moreton-in-Marsh High Street, 50p; the station ones only while its ticket office is open
- Dogs
- Keep dogs on leads on the field paths of the Diamond Way
About Aston Magna
Aston Magna is a hamlet in the parish of Blockley, about 2 miles east of Blockley village and 2 miles north of Moreton-in-Marsh, west of the Fosse Way. The railway from London to Worcester cuts it in two, most of the houses on the west side and the old church on the east, as the county history found it in 1913. It has no pub, shop or station. Its interest is in two churches that have become homes and in a Roman town under the fields towards Moreton.
What to see
The Norman chapel was the village church in the twelfth century. It was later turned into two cottages, now one house, listed Grade II*, and its plan can still be read: a two-bay chancel and a shortened nave, a pointed chancel arch on twelfth-century imposts, and a small round-headed window with a single stone for its head. A large fireplace went into the chancel when it became a home.
St John's, which replaced it in 1846, is a church in the lancet style with a three-stage west tower and a clock, and Aston Magna became a separate church parish in 1847. It closed some time after 1979 and is a private house now, listed Grade II. At the road junction stands the base of a fifteenth-century cross on an octagonal plinth.
About a mile south-east, beside the Fosse Way at Dorn, is a Roman small town, a scheduled monument. The Royal Commission's survey describes an oblong enclosure of about 10 acres with massive ditches, which excavation in 1937 showed was lived in from the first century to the fifth; building the railway uncovered about twenty pits and two carved stone panels, both since lost, and coins of the third and fourth centuries have turned up in numbers. It lies in farmland and little of it shows. Our guide to the Roman Cotswolds has the wider story, and the Fosse Way the road.
An hour here, and the walks
Half an hour sees the cross and the two churches from the road. The Diamond Way, a circular walk of about 60 miles devised by Elizabeth Bell of the Ramblers, passes through, and so does National Cycle Route 442, the Cotswold Line Cycle Route, OpenStreetMap shows. None of our walks starts here; from Moreton, the stile-free walk to Batsford is the nearest, and Blockley has two short walks from its lanes.
Food and drink
Aston Magna has none. The nearest pub we can vouch for is the Great Western Arms at the bottom of Blockley, a Hook Norton house that opens from midday on Friday to Sunday and from 5pm on other days. Moreton has more, and at Dorn, Old Farm has a campsite and two holiday lets on a working farm.
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When to come
Spring and autumn suit the paths and Batsford Arboretum, about 5 miles away by road. In early September the Moreton Show fills the showground on the Batsford Estate, next on Saturday 4 September 2027.
Last verified 27 October 2026 by our editors
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.
Things to do in Aston Magna
Parks and gardens · Moreton-in-Marsh
Batsford Arboretum
A 60-acre arboretum on the Batsford estate near Moreton-in-Marsh, with a free visitor centre, café and garden centre, open every day and best in spring and autumn.
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Bourton House Garden
Parks and gardens · Moreton-in-Marsh
A garden at Bourton-on-the-Hill near Moreton-in-Marsh, open Tuesday to Friday from April to October, with under-16s free.
Verified Oct 2026
Where to stay in Aston Magna
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Old Farm, Dorn
Self-catering · Moreton-in-Marsh
A working regenerative farm at Dorn, about a mile from Moreton-in-Marsh, with a holiday let in its shearing shed, a studio and a ten-pitch campsite.
Verified Oct 2026
Where to eat and drink in Aston Magna
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Great Western Arms
Pubs · Blockley
A Hook Norton Brewery pub on Station Road, Blockley, with a large patio, a car park, Hooky ales and dogs welcome.
Dog-friendly · Walker-friendly
Verified Nov 2026
Walks in and around Aston Magna
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Moreton-in-Marsh and Batsford
Walk · Starts in Moreton-in-Marsh · 2 hrs · Circular
A 4-mile (6.4km) circular walk from Moreton-in-Marsh's war memorial, easy, stile-free and about two hours: west through field gates to Batsford, along the deer park below Batsford House, east on the watershed lane to Dorn and back past the mound of a Roman fort.
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Blockley and Norcombe Wood
Walk · Starts in Blockley · 1 hr, 15 mins · Circular
A 3-mile (5km) circular walk from Park Road at the top of Blockley, about an hour and a quarter, moderate with one longer climb and muddy woods. It goes up beside Northwick Park into Norcombe Wood, then down the brook valley and back through the old silk-mill village.
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Blockley and Batsford Park
Walk · Starts in Blockley · 2 hrs, 15 mins · Circular · Dog-friendly
A 4.9-mile (7.9km) circular walk from Bell Lane in Blockley, about two and a quarter hours of moderate walking with two climbs and deep mud in winter. It goes up Pasture Lane, down to Batsford's church, through Batsford Park past the arboretum, and back over the hill.
Sights in and around Aston Magna
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St Mary's Church, Batsford
Sight · Church · Moreton-in-Marsh
St Mary's is the estate church of Batsford, near Moreton-in-Marsh: rebuilt in 1861 and 1862 for the Mitford family in a neo-Norman style, with a spired tower, an apsidal chancel, Kempe glass and monuments to the Freemans and Mitfords. Grade II*.
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Curfew Tower, Moreton-in-Marsh
Sight · Historic building · Moreton-in-Marsh
The Curfew Tower is a small sixteenth-century stone bell tower on the corner of Moreton-in-Marsh's High Street and Oxford Street, perhaps the town's oldest public building, with a bell of 1633, a clock of 1648 and a past as the town lock-up.
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Redesdale Hall, Moreton-in-Marsh
Sight · Historic building · Moreton-in-Marsh
Redesdale Hall is Moreton-in-Marsh's market hall of 1887, standing in the middle of the High Street: designed by Sir Ernest George for Bertie Mitford of Batsford, later Lord Redesdale, with an arched ground floor, a clock turret and a tall chimney. Listed Grade II.
Getting to Aston Magna
- By train
- Moreton-in-Marsh, on GWR's Cotswold Line from London Paddington, is about 4 miles (6km) by road. The line runs through the hamlet, but there is no station.
- By bus
- No daily bus. Pulhams' 608 calls on Thursdays only, one each way (about 9.20am out, 2.50pm back), the Hedgehog H7 on Fridays only, and the Robin, the county's bookable minibus, stops at the phone box.
- By car
- By the lanes north from Moreton-in-Marsh or east from Blockley; there is no car park, so park with care.
| Paxford | 1.9 mi |
|---|---|
| Blockley | 3.1 mi |
| Stretton-on-Fosse | 3.1 mi |
| Moreton-in-Marsh station | 3.7 mi |
| Chipping Campden | 5 mi |
Places near Aston Magna
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BlockleyA village of former silk mills along a brook in a steep valley near Moreton-in-Marsh, with a Norman chancel in its church, a spring under a raised pavement, two short walks from its lanes and Father Brown's Kembleford on screen.
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Moreton-in-MarshA market town on the Fosse Way with a station on the line from London, so the easiest place to start a car-free Cotswold trip, with Batsford Arboretum close by.
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Bourton-on-the-HillThe village that climbs the A44 west of Moreton-in-Marsh, with a Grade I church open every day, Bourton House Garden and its tithe barn of 1570, the Horse and Groom, and Sezincote and Batsford at the foot of the hill.
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Stretton-on-FosseA Warwickshire village just off the Fosse Way between Moreton-in-Marsh and Shipston-on-Stour, with stone and thatched cottages on looping lanes, a church rebuilt in 1841, a seventeenth-century pub and a brewery on a farm nearby.