Ilmington

What to see

St Mary's Church, Grade I, is Norman in its nave and the lower stages of its tower, with a chancel of the early thirteenth century and a porch of the early sixteenth, and it is open every day from 9am. Its twentieth-century oak pews came from the workshop of Robert Thompson, the Mouseman of Kilburn, and carry eleven of his carved mice, which the parish invites you to find. Look too for the brasses to the Brent family between their carved wyverns, the priest's effigy in the tower, and the Apple Map, an embroidered record of the village's old orchards, which still survive in part. Outside, a medieval cross base stands west of the tower.

The village's morris tradition is said to go back more than 300 years. Cecil Sharp came here in the early 1900s to collect the dances, and the fiddler Sam Bennett, who revived the village revels around 1906 and taught until about 1945, was one of his sources. The current side formed in 1974 and still dances to the hobby horse Bennett had made in 1899. Their best-known dance is Maid of the Mill, and the broom dance, performed by one man with a household broom, probably came from Blackwell next door. They dance at village events, pubs and festivals at certain times of the year, the parish council says.

The community shop on Upper Green occupies the former Catholic church of St Philip, consecrated in 1935, and a chalybeate spring found in 1684 a quarter of a mile from the church was once given to public use by Lord Capel. On the hill above are the two Ilmington masts, the landmarks of the ridge walk.

A morning here

Begin with coffee at the shop's café on Upper Green, then go down Church Path to St Mary's and count the mice. Walk the lanes between the two greens, which climb and dip more than you expect, and finish at the Howard Arms on Lower Green, under the old chestnut, or at the Red Lion on Front Street. If you have the day, make the morning the start of the walk over the hill to Hidcote instead.

Walks

Ilmington, Ebrington Hill and Hidcote starts beside St Mary's: 5.9 miles (9.5km) out by Park Lane and a busy stretch of the Admington road, up across the fields to the edge of Hidcote, then east along the ridge over Ebrington Hill, past the masts and steeply down to Front Street by the war memorial. It climbs about 228m, takes two and three quarter hours, and the start by the row of cottages is hard to find. The National Landscape also publishes a short, easy walk in the village, which our guide to the accessible Cotswolds lists.

The Cotswolds Info newsletter

Events, new places and the best of the season, about once a month. Unsubscribe at any time.

Leave this field blank

Your name

Your email address

Yes, send me the Cotswolds Info newsletter

Sign me up

Food and drink

The Howard Arms on Lower Green, built in Shakespeare's time by its own account and listed Grade II, is the village's inn, with eight bedrooms, breakfast from 7.30am on weekdays, lunch and dinner every day and food all afternoon on Sundays. It is in the Michelin Guide for 2026. The Red Lion on Front Street is a Hook Norton Brewery pub, open from noon every day, with food at lunch and in the evening, Sunday lunch to 5pm and dogs welcome by its open fire. The volunteer-run Ilmington Community Shop and Café on Upper Green opens from 7.30am on weekdays and 8.30am on Sundays, with the café from 9.30am to 4.30pm, Tuesday to Friday, and 9.30am to 4pm on Saturday, and a post office counter on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. The shop warns that café hours can change when volunteers are short, so ring 01608 682838 before a long journey.

When to come

Blossom time in late April and May shows why the village made an Apple Map, and the ridge walk is best in a dry spell from late spring to early autumn: walkers report deep mud in the fields after rain and overgrown stretches with nettles in high summer. The 51 bus does not run on Sundays, so a car-free visit is a Monday to Saturday one. Ilmington is quiet in every season. The one crowd is the morris side's audience on a dancing night.