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A wide market street of stone and white-fronted Georgian houses under a blue sky

Derek Harper, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Chipping Sodbury

A planned medieval market town below the southern Cotswold edge, with a long, wide market street, a Grade I church and a mop fair twice a year, near Bristol.

Nearest station
Yate, about 2 miles, with the Y6 bus
Parking
Two free car parks off Wickwar Road, run by Waitrose: the town car park (up to 24 hours) and the Waitrose car park (2 or 4 hours); overflow on The Ridings
Best time
Any time; the mop fairs in March and September
Toilets
In the Clock Tower on the High Street, 9am to 4pm daily, with an accessible toilet

About Chipping Sodbury

Chipping Sodbury is a market town in South Gloucestershire, on the little River Frome, about 2 miles west of the Cotswold escarpment. It was laid out as a new town in the early thirteenth century, and its plan has hardly changed: a long, wide market street where the Bristol to Chippenham road was deliberately turned through the middle of the town. The centre is a conservation area, though it lies just outside the Cotswolds National Landscape. Sodbury parish, which takes in Old Sodbury, had about 5,500 people at the 2021 census.

A planned town

William le Gras founded the borough, probably in 1218, the year he was granted a market; a Thursday market and an eight-day fair followed in 1227. You may read that the town is twelfth century, but historians call that a myth. By 1307 there were 176 burgage plots along the street. The George was recorded as "the Great Hospice" in 1439 and was an inn by the sixteenth century; the clock tower in the High Street was put up in 1871. Hobbs House, the fifth-generation family bakery whose story runs through the town, has its Chipping Sodbury shop on the High Street.

A broad high street with a clock tower above shops and parked cars
The wide High Street and its clock tower Photo: Ray Bird, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

St John the Baptist

The church was dedicated in 1284, squeezed in between the burgage plots and the river, and rebuilt larger in the fifteenth century. It is listed Grade I, with a four-stage west tower, a fifteenth-century pulpit built into the north arcade and a thirteenth-century font.

The mop fair

Twice a year, in March and September, the Mop Fair takes over the town centre on a Friday and Saturday, and the High Street and Broad Street close to traffic. In 2027 it is on 19 and 20 March and 24 and 25 September.

A tall stone memorial cross on a stepped base where two broad streets meet
The cross where Broad Street and Horse Street meet Photo: Bill Boaden, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Old Sodbury and the hill fort

Two miles east, Old Sodbury sits under the escarpment, inside the National Landscape. Above it, on the Cotswold Way, is Sodbury Camp, an Iron Age hill fort with a double rampart and a scheduled monument. The Cotswolds National Landscape's 2.5-mile circuit to the fort and the church starts opposite the Dog Inn, with free parking on Chapel Lane and no stiles. Nearby is Dodington House, by James Wyatt, which is private. The loop from Old Sodbury is on our list of short walks. About 5km east of Old Sodbury is Badminton, where the Badminton Horse Trials are held over five days in early May.

A timber bench and a carved stone by a churchyard wall looking out over a green vale
The Cotswold Way seat by St John's, Old Sodbury Photo: Ray Bird, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Food and drink

The pubs and cafés are along the High Street and Broad Street. The Hamptons, an owner-run deli café at 21a High Street, serves breakfast and lunch until about 3pm, Monday to Saturday, and breakfast on Sunday mornings. The Horseshoe, in a fifteenth-century building at 2 High Street, is the beer pub, with seven changing real ales and CAMRA's Bristol and District Pub of the Year award for 2024, though its website shows no food menu. For an evening meal, the Squire on Broad Street, with its Sodbury Steakhouse, opens every day from midday. We have not yet eaten in any of them.

Last verified 1 November 2026 by our editors

A tree-lined village street of stone houses with woodland rising behind

Part of

The South Cotswolds

The southern wolds as they fall towards Bath and Wiltshire: Tetbury's Market House, Castle Combe's street by the By Brook, Malmesbury's abbey and Lacock beyond the edge.

  • Stone cottages and a gabled house on a quiet lane under a blue sky
  • A stone church with a battlemented tower and tall Gothic windows above a churchyard
  • An aerial view of a small town's long main street and church tower among fields
  • A large carved wooden frog sitting on the grassy bank of a river
  • A stone church with a tall pinnacled west tower beside a street under a blue sky

Things to do in Chipping Sodbury

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A baroque country house in its valley seen from the deer park, the vale stretching beyond

Historic houses and heritage · Marshfield

Dyrham Park

William Blathwayt's baroque house of the 1690s below the Cotswold edge north of Bath, with a 270-acre deer park, a West Garden and Delftware, cared for by the National Trust and open through the winter as well as the summer.

Where to stay in Chipping Sodbury

See all
  • The lounge at the Bell, Old Sodbury: tartan wing chairs by a stone fireplace with a log burner, and tables by tall windows

    The Bell at Old Sodbury

    Inn · Chipping Sodbury

    A family-run 18th-century pub with four B&B rooms on Badminton Road, Old Sodbury, near Chipping Sodbury, on the edge of the Cotswold Way.

    Dog-friendly · Family-friendly

    Verified Nov 2026

  • A pale three-storey Georgian-fronted house beside older stone houses on Chipping Sodbury High Street, with cars parked outside

    The Moda House

    B&B · Chipping Sodbury

    A bed and breakfast in a Grade II* listed house of the late seventeenth century that closes the top of Chipping Sodbury's High Street, with eight en-suite rooms and breakfast cooked on the Aga.

    Verified Oct 2026

Holiday cottages in and around Chipping Sodbury

Where to eat and drink in Chipping Sodbury

See all
  • A stone pub between a yellow and a red-painted building on a market street

    The Squire

    Pubs · Chipping Sodbury

    The Squire Inn, home of the Sodbury Steakhouse, a pub on Broad Street, Chipping Sodbury, serving food every day from midday.

    Verified Nov 2026

  • A row of High Street shops in stone and brick, with the orange Hobbs House Bakery signs on the stone building at the left and a black-and-white gabled house beside it

    Hobbs House Bakery, Chipping Sodbury

    Farm shops and delis · Chipping Sodbury

    The Chipping Sodbury shop of Hobbs House, the fifth-generation family bakery whose story runs through the town, on the High Street, selling bread, cakes and Extract coffee from Monday to Saturday.

    Verified Oct 2026

  • A wide market street of stone and white-fronted Georgian houses under a blue sky

    The Hamptons Deli Café, Chipping Sodbury

    Cafes and tearooms · Chipping Sodbury

    An owner-run delicatessen and café on the High Street in Chipping Sodbury, serving breakfast and lunch six days a week and breakfast on Sunday mornings.

    Verified Oct 2026

Walks in and around Chipping Sodbury

All walks starting here
  • A kissing gate in a woodland edge opening on fields and a wide vale

    Cotswold Way: Tormarton to Cold Ashton

    Walk · Starts in the South Cotswolds · 3 hrs, 45 mins · Dog-friendly

    A 6.6-mile (10.6km) one-way walk on the fourteenth section of the Cotswold Way, moderate and about three and three quarter hours: from Tormarton over the M4, round the wall of Dyrham Park, through Dyrham village and up through Dyrham Woods to Cold Ashton.

Sights in and around Chipping Sodbury

All sights
  • A grassy rampart bank topped by trees with a wide vale beyond

    Horton Camp hill fort

    Sight · Hill fort or barrow · Chipping Sodbury

    A small Iron Age hill fort on a spur of the Cotswold edge above Horton, north of Old Sodbury: one rampart 3m high on the plateau side and steep natural slopes on the rest, never excavated. A scheduled monument beside the Cotswold Way.

  • Grassy banks and ditches of an Iron Age hill fort winding across open downland under a soft sky

    Sodbury Camp hill fort

    Sight · Hill fort or barrow · Chipping Sodbury

    An Iron Age hill fort with two wide-spaced ramparts on the Cotswold edge above Old Sodbury, where Edward IV camped on his way to the battle of Tewkesbury in 1471. A scheduled monument, crossed by the Cotswold Way and our stile-free circuit from the village.

  • A stone church with a tall pinnacled west tower beside a street under a blue sky

    St John the Baptist, Chipping Sodbury

    Sight · Church · Chipping Sodbury

    Chipping Sodbury's Grade I parish church off Wickwar Road, dedicated in 1284 and rebuilt larger in the fifteenth century, with a tower over 30m tall holding eight bells, a fan-vaulted pulpit built into the arcade, St Katherine's chapel and a thirteenth-century font.

History of Chipping Sodbury

Chipping Sodbury was founded as a market town in the early thirteenth century beside the older village of Old Sodbury, and the two were reunited as one parish in 1945. Its church was a chapel of ease to Old Sodbury for centuries. A station called Chipping Sodbury opened in 1903, though it was in Old Sodbury parish, and closed in 1961.

Questions about Chipping Sodbury

When is Chipping Sodbury Mop Fair?

Twice a year, on a Friday and Saturday in March and September. In 2027 it is on 19 and 20 March and 24 and 25 September.

Is Chipping Sodbury in the Cotswolds?

Just outside the Cotswolds National Landscape. Old Sodbury and Sodbury Camp, 2 miles east, are inside it.

Is parking free in Chipping Sodbury?

Yes, in the two car parks off Wickwar Road, which Waitrose runs: the town car park is free for up to 24 hours, and the Waitrose car park has 2-hour and 4-hour sections. Sodbury Town Council also says parking on the High Street is free, with some spaces time limited, so check the signs for the limit.

Getting to Chipping Sodbury

By bus
The Y6 runs from Bristol by Bristol Parkway and Yate, every 90 minutes or so, and every two hours on Sundays. The 620 links Old Sodbury with Bath and Tetbury, Monday to Saturday.
By train
Yate station is about 2 miles away; Bristol Parkway about 9.
Parking
Two free car parks off Wickwar Road, run by Waitrose, with Blue Badge bays: the town car park (up to 24 hours) and the Waitrose car park (2 or 4 hours). Overflow on The Ridings, 300m up the road.
Distances from Chipping Sodbury
Yate station1.9 mi
Badminton6.2 mi
Wotton-under-Edge8.1 mi
Bath14.3 mi
Map of Chipping Sodbury
© OpenStreetMap contributors

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