Des Blenkinsopp, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Coln St Aldwyns
Two villages facing each other across the River Coln a few miles below Bibury, with a Norman church, a Knights Hospitaller gateway and a pub, and few visitors.
- Nearest station
- Kemble, then a taxi
- Parking
- Roadside in the village; there is no public car park
- Best time
- Spring and summer; a weekend when Bibury is at its busiest
- Toilets
- No council toilets in either village; the nearest are by the bridge in Bibury and on Fairford High Street
About Coln St Aldwyns
Coln St Aldwyns and Quenington stand on either side of the River Coln, a few miles downstream from Bibury. The river, the stone and the water meadows are the same as Bibury's, and so is the age of the place, but the coaches never come. On a summer Saturday, when Bibury's street is full, this is where to come instead.
Two churches and a gateway
Quenington's church, St Swithin's, has two carved Norman doorways. Over the north door is the Harrowing of Hell; over the south, the Coronation of the Virgin. The church is listed Grade I.
Close by stands the gateway of a preceptory of the Knights Hospitaller, the order of monks and knights that held land here until Henry VIII dissolved it in 1540. The gatehouse survives and is listed Grade I. Across the river, St John the Baptist's church at Coln St Aldwyns has a tower built up in stages from about 1200, with a fifteenth-century top. John Keble the elder was its vicar from 1782 until his death in 1835, and his son, the poet and churchman, was his curate for the last ten years. Our story of the Templars and Hospitallers in the Cotswolds tells its history.
Food, drink and the village shop
The New Inn in Coln St Aldwyns is the village pub, an eighteenth-century inn with rooms that serves food every day. The Keepers Arms in Quenington welcomes dogs. Coln Community Stores, owned by more than 250 local shareholders, is the village shop, café and post office. The shop opens 8am to 4.30pm on weekdays, 8am to 2pm on Saturdays and 9am to 1pm on Sundays, and the post office counter 9.30am to 1.30pm on weekdays and 9.30am to 12.30pm on Saturdays; when we checked, the café opened 8am to 3.30pm on weekdays, 8am to 1pm on Saturdays and 9am to 1pm on Sundays.
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Walking from Bibury
The best way to arrive is on foot. The Cotswolds National Landscape's 6-mile (10km) circular walk starts at the crossroads in Coln St Aldwyns, crosses the farmland by the Roman Akeman Street to Arlington and Bibury, and comes back along the Coln through the water meadows, with gates but no stiles and about 152m of up and down, in about three hours. Start it from Bibury and you can see Arlington Row early, then reach Coln St Aldwyns in time for lunch. Walkers on AllTrails report places where dogs can swim in the river, and sheep, cattle and horses in some fields, where dogs go on a lead. It is one of our dog-friendly walks.
When to come
Spring and early summer, when the meadows by the river are at their best, and any weekend when Bibury is too busy to enjoy. The villages are small and lived in, so park with care and keep to the paths.
Last verified 1 November 2026 by our editors
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.
Things to do in Coln St Aldwyns
Family days out · Bibury
Bibury Trout Farm
A working trout farm on the River Coln at Bibury, founded in 1902, with a café, a shop, catch-your-own fishing and its own pay car park.
Where to stay in Coln St Aldwyns
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The New Inn
Inn · Coln St Aldwyns
A 16th-century coaching inn with rooms in Coln St Aldwyns, reopened in 2020 by Baz and Fred, with a Garden Suite and food every day.
Verified Nov 2026
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The Keepers Arms
Inn · Coln St Aldwyns
A family-run free house in Quenington with four adults-only bed and breakfast rooms above the pub, independent real ales and dogs welcome.
Dog-friendly
Verified Nov 2026
Where to eat and drink in Coln St Aldwyns
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Coln Community Stores
Cafes and tearooms · Coln St Aldwyns
The village shop, café and post office on Main Street, Coln St Aldwyns, owned by local residents and the Countryside Alliance's best shop in the south west for 2026.
Walker-friendly
Verified Oct 2026
Walks in and around Coln St Aldwyns
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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.
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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.
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Quenington to Fairford
Walk · Starts in Coln St Aldwyns · 3 hrs · Circular
A 5.75-mile (9.25km) circular walk from the Keepers Arms in Quenington, moderate with several stiles, in two and a half to three hours: down the river valley and through a permitted wood to Fairford's Mill Bridge and church, and back. The permitted path is closed on Tuesdays.
Sights in and around Coln St Aldwyns
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St John the Baptist, Coln St Aldwyns
Sight · Church · Coln St Aldwyns
Coln St Aldwyns' parish church: a late Norman doorway of chevrons, a demon carved over a blocked window, a two-tier chandelier of about 1767, and windows remembering the two John Kebles, father and son, who served here. Grade II*.
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Knights Hospitallers' Gateway, Quenington
Sight · Historic building · Cirencester and the Coln Valley
The fourteenth-century gatehouse of the preceptory the Knights Hospitallers founded at Quenington in about 1193, partly rebuilt in the early sixteenth century, beside St Swithin's church. Grade I; on private land, seen from Church Road.
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St Swithin's Church, Quenington
Sight · Church · Cirencester and the Coln Valley
Quenington's Norman parish church in the Coln valley, recorded by 1100, with two richly carved Norman doorways: the Harrowing of Hell over the north door and, over the south, what may be the earliest carving of the Coronation of the Virgin. Grade I.
Stories about Coln St Aldwyns
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Templars and Hospitallers in the Cotswolds
Story · Strange Things · 5 minute read
The crusading orders held land in the Cotswolds: the Templars at Temple Guiting until their fall in 1308, and the Knights Hospitaller at Quenington until 1540.
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The Cotswolds without the crowds
Story · Guides · 15 minute read
Five Cotswold villages take most of the visitors: Bibury, Bourton-on-the-Water, Castle Combe, Broadway and the Slaughters. Here is when each is busiest, what the councils have done about it, the best and worst hours, and the quieter village on the same river or ridge.
Getting to Coln St Aldwyns
- By bus
- Stagecoach West's 76 between Cirencester and Highworth calls at Quenington and Coln St Aldwyns, but only once or twice a day each way, Monday to Saturday. The 855 to Bibury does not come here.
- By car
- From Bibury, follow the lanes down the Coln valley; there is no car park, so park considerately in the village.
Places near Coln St Aldwyns
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BiburyA village on the River Coln with a row of medieval cottages that draws up to 20,000 visitors on a peak weekend, by press estimates. Come early or late, and walk on down the river.
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FairfordA small town on the River Coln with the only complete set of late medieval glass in an English parish church, and the home of the Royal International Air Tattoo.
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NorthleachA small wool town in the Leach valley with one of the great Cotswold wool churches, its floor full of brasses to the merchants who paid for it, and a Georgian prison.
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Lechlade-on-ThamesThe town where the Thames becomes navigable, with the highest lock on the river, a toll bridge and Father Thames, and William Morris's Kelmscott Manor 3 miles away.