Hawkesbury Upton

What to see

The Somerset Monument stands beside the lane to Hillesley just north of the village. Lewis Vulliamy built it in 1846 in memory of General Lord Robert Edward Henry Somerset, a son of the fifth Duke of Beaufort, who fought at Waterloo. It is about 30m high, listed Grade II*, and crowned with a railing hung with chains and the Beauforts' portcullis, then a strapwork top and a cross. It is on Historic England's Heritage at Risk register and is not open to climb, so you see it from the lane.

In the village, the pond by the road is the one the National Trail calls an ancient drovers' pond. The Beaufort Arms on the High Street is in a building listed Grade II, which the pub, quoting the local family historian Robert Millard, says dates back to 1602. Down the hill at Hawkesbury, the parish church of St Mary the Virgin is listed Grade I, mostly Perpendicular, with a fifteenth-century tower. The village, the monument and Hawkesbury below were made conservation areas in 1981 and joined into one, with more of the landscape around them, in 1999.

Three miles south, at Horton, is Horton Court, listed Grade I: a Norman hall of about 1140 in its north wing, and the rest of the house built about 1521 for William Knight, later Bishop of Bath and Wells, with a separate Renaissance ambulatory in the garden, listed Grade I too. The National Trust owns it and lets it as a holiday house, and it opened for Heritage Open Days in September 2025. Above it on the Cotswold Way is Horton Camp, an Iron Age fort with its rampart still 3m high.

A day in Hawkesbury Upton

The best way to arrive is on foot. Park in Wotton-under-Edge, where Stroud District Council's long-stay car parks at The Chipping and Potters Pond are free for up to 23 hours, or come on the Y8, walk the Cotswold Way south over the hills by Newark Park, Alderley and Lower Kilcott, and come into the village past the monument for a late lunch at the Beaufort Arms. It serves food from midday to 2.30pm every day. Then ride the Y8 back from the pond. On a shorter visit, walk from the pond up the Hillesley road to the monument and back.

Walks

Two sections of the Cotswold Way meet here. Wotton-under-Edge to Hawkesbury Upton, 7.4 miles by the National Trail's measure, climbs from Lower Kilcott past the monument into the village. We found nowhere to eat between the two places. Hawkesbury Upton to Tormarton, 7.7 miles, leaves down Bath Lane, passes Horton Camp and Sodbury Camp, and crosses Dodington Park to Tormarton. It passes the Dog Inn at Old Sodbury about halfway, but we could not confirm its opening hours, so do not rely on it.

Food and drink

The Beaufort Arms (opens in a new tab) is the pub to plan round: two bars and a dining room with low beams and a collection of pub and brewery memorabilia. It opens from midday to 11pm, Monday to Saturday, and midday to 10.30pm on Sunday, with food every lunchtime from midday to 2.30pm and from 6pm to 9pm, Monday to Saturday. Some of its vegetables come from its own market garden, which a charity, Props, plants and tends. Dogs are welcome in the public bar. The Fox Inn, also on the High Street, lets rooms on Airbnb, where its owners say the pub opens on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays and serves no food. Check before you rely on it. The post office on Back Street opens 9am to 1pm, Monday to Saturday, closing at midday on Wednesdays, and the village has a community-owned shop.

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When to come

Spring and autumn are the seasons for the Cotswold Way here, which runs over open, exposed ground. On the last Saturday of August the Hawkesbury Horticultural Show takes over the village: the 140th was held on 29 August 2026. The organisers say the show returns in 2027 but have not announced a date; on the usual pattern it would be Saturday 28 August 2027, to be confirmed. In early May (5 to 9 May in 2027) the Badminton Horse Trials are held 4 miles south at Badminton, and in September Heritage Open Days can open Horton Court. The buses do not run on Sundays.