Michael Dibb, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Daylesford
A hamlet of estate cottages 2 miles from Kingham station, known for Daylesford Organic's farm shop, restaurants and spa; Warren Hastings's house behind the park wall is private, and his grave is in the churchyard of St Peter's.
- Nearest station
- Kingham, 2 miles, on the Cotswold Line from London Paddington; a taxi, or 45 minutes on the bridleway
- Parking
- Car park at the farm shop, signed on to the spa and the other buildings
- Best time
- A weekday morning, when the farm shop opens at 8am and the Old Spot is quiet
- When it's busy
- Saturday from late morning, when the farm shop car park fills; Sundays it closes at 5pm
- Toilets
- At the farm shop and restaurants for customers; none in the hamlet
- Dogs
- Welcome across the Daylesford site with a dog menu at the Legbar and the Old Spot, not in the Trough; on leads on the bridleways, where livestock graze
About Daylesford
Daylesford is a hamlet of stone estate cottages on the Gloucestershire side of the Evenlode, 2 miles north-west of Kingham station, and almost all of it belongs to one estate. The farm shop on the Stow road is what the name means to most people now; the house that Warren Hastings built after his years in India is behind the park wall, and private; and the church, the hamlet's one public building, is where he is buried. Be clear about what you can visit before you come, because it is less than the name suggests.
What to see
Daylesford Farm is the reason most visitors come. Daylesford says it has farmed organically since 1977, and the farm shop sells bread and cheese from its own bakery and creamery, with a butcher's counter, a deli, juices and a wine stall, from 8am to 6pm Monday to Saturday and 9am to 5pm on Sundays. The Trough and the Legbar serve breakfast and lunch, and all three of the farm's restaurants hold a Michelin Green Star; the Old Spot serves lunch from 11am to 4pm, walk-ins only. It is expensive, well run and busy on Saturdays. The farm's history is on its own site; our listing has the hours and the dog rules.
Daylesford House and St Peter's
Daylesford House is the thing you cannot see. Samuel Pepys Cockerell built it in 1787 to 1793 for Warren Hastings, Governor-General of Bengal, whose family had held the manor from 1275 until they lost it around 1709; Hastings bought it back and built a house with a domed west front, a Hindu sacrifice carved on one fireplace and a boudoir painted with a starry sky under the dome. It is listed Grade I. It is also a private house in a private park, closed to the public, and we have found no public viewpoint of it, so do not drive out expecting one.
St Peter's church is open ground. J. L. Pearson, later the architect of Truro Cathedral, built it in 1860 for Harman Grisewood, who had bought the estate in 1853, in the thirteenth-century style and on the site of the church Hastings had rebuilt in 1816; it is Grade I. A white marble monument to Hastings is above the north door, and his grave is in the churchyard near the east end, marked by a stone urn and listed in its own right at Grade II*. The Kingham churches' website says it is open only for accompanied visits, which the vicar arranges on 01608 652888; the churchyard is always open.
A morning here
Come by train to Kingham and walk the bridleway north-west across the farm's fields, about 45 minutes in fine weather on the farm's own reckoning. Be at the farm shop when it opens at 8am for breakfast at the Legbar, then walk down the lane to the hamlet and St Peter's, ten minutes, for the church and the grave. Walk back to the farm for lunch at the Old Spot before the lunchtime rush, and go home by the Evenlode meadows and over the railway. The whole morning is 4.4 miles on foot and flat.
Walks
Kingham, Daylesford and the Evenlode is a flat 4.4-mile (7.1km) circular from Kingham on bridleways across Daylesford's fields to the river and back by the meadows, about an hour and a half, wet and often flooded in winter (walkers on AllTrails reported fields under water from November 2025 to January 2026, and some turned back) and ending at the Wild Rabbit. Adlestrop, Daylesford and the Oddingtons comes at the estate from the Gloucestershire side, past the private property signs where walkers confirm the bridleway is a public right of way; walkers also report a stretch of the A436 near Lower Oddington with no pavement and fast traffic, so we are still checking that route. Keep dogs on leads: cattle, sheep and horses graze along both walks.
Food, drink and the spa
Everything to eat is on the farm: the Trough, which takes bookings, and the Legbar for breakfast and lunch, the Old Spot for a walk-in lunch, and the farm shop for a picnic to carry down to the river. The Bamford Wellness Spa (opens in a new tab) is on the same site, open from 8am to 8pm Monday to Saturday and 8.30am to 5.30pm on Sundays, with a wet spa, treatment rooms, a hair hut, a nail salon, classes and a wellness café; treatments and spa days are booked on its website or on 01608 692861, and we found no prices on its site. There is no pub in the hamlet. The Daylesford Stays cottages, 15 of them in the hamlet and four on the farm, are the way to sleep here.
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When to come
A weekday, in any month. Saturdays from late morning are the farm shop's busy time, and the car park shows it; Sundays are shorter, with the shop closing at 5pm and the Old Spot at 4pm. Summer dries the Evenlode meadows; in winter the walk from Kingham is wet and sometimes flooded, so drive. The farm shop and restaurants close on Christmas Day and Boxing Day.
Last verified 1 November 2026 by our editors
Part of
The Oxfordshire Cotswolds
The Windrush and Evenlode valleys on the Oxfordshire side of the hills: Burford's High Street, Kingham on the railway, Witney's blankets and Woodstock at Blenheim's gates.
Things to do in Daylesford
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 Daylesford
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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
Where to eat and drink in Daylesford
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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 Daylesford
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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.
Sights in and around Daylesford
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St Nicholas's Church, Lower Oddington
Sight · Church · Stow-on-the-Wold
A Grade I church in the woods at Lower Oddington, near Stow-on-the-Wold, left almost unaltered when a new church was built in 1852. Its north wall carries a huge fourteenth-century Doom, hidden under whitewash until 1913. Open daily; no electricity.
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Adlestrop railway sign and seat
Sight · Monument · The Oxfordshire Cotswolds
The Great Western Railway sign and bench from Adlestrop's lost station stand in the village bus shelter, where they were set up in the early 1970s. Edward Thomas's train stopped here in June 1914, and his poem Adlestrop made the name famous. Grade II; free to see.
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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*.
Getting to Daylesford
- By train
- Kingham station, 2 miles, is on GWR's Cotswold Line from London Paddington, about 80 minutes; the farm suggests a pre-booked local taxi or, in fine weather, the 45-minute walk on the bridleway.
- By car
- Daylesford is on the road between Kingham and Stow-on-the-Wold; the farm shop is signed from it (GL56 0YG).
- Parking
- At the farm shop, with signs on to the spa, the Club and Heritage House. The hamlet's lane has no parking.
- By bus
- No regular bus. The Villager community bus (V6) leaves from opposite St Peter's on Thursday mornings for Kingham, Bledington and Stow, coming back about 11.30am; ring 01608 811617 to be picked up.
Access
The farm shop has its own car park; Daylesford publishes no access details, so ring 01608 692871 to ask. The hamlet's lane is narrow with no footway, and the bridleway from Kingham is unsurfaced and muddy in winter.
| Kingham station | 1.9 mi |
|---|---|
| Stow-on-the-Wold | 3.7 mi |
| Chipping Norton | 6.2 mi |
| Moreton-in-Marsh | 7.8 mi |
| Charlbury | 11.2 mi |
| Burford | 13.7 mi |
Places near Daylesford
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KinghamAn Oxfordshire village in the Evenlode valley with a station on the line from London, two dining pubs, and Daylesford's farm shop two miles down the road.
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Stow-on-the-WoldA hilltop market town on the Fosse Way, more than 230m up, with a broad Square, a church that held 1,600 prisoners after the last battle of the Civil War, and a horse fair.
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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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BledingtonA Gloucestershire village on the county boundary with a wide green, a brook running through it, a Grade I church with glass of 1470, a 16th-century inn on the green, and Kingham station a short walk away across the Evenlode.