Colin Park, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Longborough
A hillside village above the Evenlode valley between Stow and Moreton, with a 500-seat opera house in a garden, a Grade I church of knights and Cockerells, a Donnington pub on the green and a community shop.
- Nearest station
- Moreton-in-Marsh, about 3 miles; on opera days the festival runs a return bus from the station
- Parking
- On the street around the green, little of it. The opera has its own car park on the edge of the village, with disabled spaces
- Best time
- An opera evening, late May to early August; a weekday morning otherwise
- When it's busy
- Opera nights, when the lanes fill from late afternoon; otherwise never
- Dogs
- Well-behaved dogs are welcome at the Coach and Horses, the parish council says; not at the opera, except guide dogs by prior arrangement
About Longborough
Longborough sits on a hillside above the Evenlode valley, off the A424 about 3 miles (5km) north of Stow-on-the-Wold and the same from Moreton-in-Marsh. The 2011 census counted 471 people, who live around a green with a war memorial, a pub on a bank above it, a community shop and a church with more good monuments than a village its size has any right to. On the edge of the village, in the grounds of a private house, is an opera house that seats 500 and stages Wagner.
What to see
St James's Church, Grade I, has a chancel of the twelfth century with its corbel table still in place, a tower of the thirteenth with a fifteenth-century top of finials and winged gargoyles, and a square fourteenth-century bellcote. The south transept of the fourteenth century holds the church's two great tombs: a life-size effigy of a knight, earlier than the base he lies on, with a dog at his feet and two angels at his head, and the canopied chest tomb of William Leigh, who died in 1631, and his wife Elizabeth, who died in 1664, with their children kneeling around them and five columns of black marble. In 1822 and 1823 C R Cockerell added the Sezincote Chapel for the family of the house below the hill, and the monument to Sir Charles Cockerell, who died in 1837, is by Sir Richard Westmacott. The font is of the early fourteenth century, and two Flemish medallions are set in the east window. The earliest record of the church is grim: in 1192 a priest was murdered inside it.
Longborough Festival Opera began in 1991 as Banks Fee Opera, when Martin and Lizzie Graham started promoting opera in the grounds of their home, and grew into a purpose-built opera house of 500 seats. It staged a full Ring cycle in 2013 and a new one between 2019 and 2024, and Polly Graham, the founders' daughter, has been artistic director since 2018. The season runs each summer from late May or early June to early August: four operas in 2026, from Handel's Orlando on 30 May to Hansel and Gretel on 8 August, and in 2027 Die Meistersinger, The Merry Wives of Windsor and La bohème between 3 June and 7 August. Every performance has a 90-minute dinner interval for a picnic or the restaurant, the bars open 90 minutes before curtain, and the dress code is smart or comfortable as you prefer. It is a charity with no public grant, and Martin Graham died in 2025, aged 83.
Sezincote, the Mughal house of 1805 whose chapel is in the church, is under 2 miles away by the Longborough road, with its garden open from March to November on Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and bank holiday Mondays.
An afternoon and an evening here
Walk up to St James's first, for the knight and the Leighs, then down to the shop for a picnic, which is community-run and the only place in the village to buy one. Have a drink at the Coach and Horses on its bank above the green. Opera nights start early, so be at the car park on the edge of the village in time for the bars. Picnic in the grounds in the interval, and expect the village to be dark and quiet by the time you come out.
Walks
None of our walks starts in Longborough, and the nearest routes of ours are Moreton-in-Marsh and Batsford, the stile-free loop from Moreton's war memorial along the deer park, and Stow and Lower Swell, down to the Dikler at Hyde Mill from Stow. Walkers report a circular route between Moreton and Longborough that we have not yet walked or written.
The Cotswolds Info newsletter
Events, new places and the best of the season, about once a month. Unsubscribe at any time.
Food and drink
The Coach and Horses is an eighteenth-century pub of Cotswold stone on a bank above the green, a mile from Donnington Brewery and tied to it, with a single bar, flagstone floors and an open fire. It serves home-cooked food and Sunday lunches, and the parish council says well-behaved dogs are welcome. It opens every day, from 11.30am (noon on Sunday) until 11pm (10pm on Sunday), and serves food from noon to 2pm and 6pm to 9pm, Tuesday to Saturday, and from noon to 3.30pm on Sunday, with none on Mondays. The village shop is community-run, with a café and a post office counter, and opens every day: 8.30am to 4pm from Monday to Saturday and 9am to 2pm on Sunday. The opera's restaurant takes bookings for the interval and its bars serve homemade cakes before the performance.
When to come
The opera season fixes the calendar: public booking for 2027 opens at 10am on 1 March 2027, with members booking earlier, performances run from the end of May or early June to early August, and the village is at its fullest on those evenings. Outside the season Longborough is quiet in every month, and the pub is open all year. Sezincote's garden is at its best in spring and autumn and closes from December to February, and Batsford Arboretum, a short drive north, is open every day for the trees in spring and autumn.
Last verified 1 November 2026 by our editors
Part of
The North Cotswolds
The high wolds between Chipping Campden and Bourton-on-the-Water: the Fosse Way towns, the Windrush villages, the Slaughters and the escarpment at Broadway.
Things to do in Longborough
Parks and gardens · Moreton-in-Marsh
Batsford Arboretum
A 60-acre arboretum on the Batsford estate near Moreton-in-Marsh, with a free visitor centre, café and garden centre, open every day and best in spring and autumn.
-
Bourton House Garden
Parks and gardens · Moreton-in-Marsh
A garden at Bourton-on-the-Hill near Moreton-in-Marsh, open Tuesday to Friday from April to October, with under-16s free.
Verified Oct 2026
Where to stay in Longborough
-
Moreton-in-Marsh Club Campsite
Camping · Moreton-in-Marsh
The Caravan and Motorhome Club's site on Bourton Road, Moreton-in-Marsh, open all year, with 184 touring pitches, ten pods and a dog walk.
Dog-friendly · Family-friendly · Walker-friendly
Verified Nov 2026
-
The Manor House
Hotel · Moreton-in-Marsh
A Grade II listed hotel on Moreton-in-Marsh's High Street with 34 bedrooms, a walled garden and a two-Rosette restaurant, dogs welcome.
Dog-friendly · Car-free · Wedding venues
Verified Nov 2026
-
The Swan Inn, Moreton
Inn · Moreton-in-Marsh
An inn with eight rooms in a Grade II listed nineteenth-century building on Moreton-in-Marsh's High Street, with pub food five days a week.
Verified Oct 2026
Where to eat and drink in Longborough
-
The Coach and Horses
Pubs · Longborough
A Donnington Brewery pub on a bank above the green and war memorial in Longborough, with a log fire, a garden, a changing menu of local produce and Sunday roasts.
Verified Nov 2026
-
The Fox Inn, Broadwell
Pubs · Stow-on-the-Wold
A Donnington Brewery village pub overlooking the green at Broadwell, just north-east of Stow-on-the-Wold, run by Peter Creed and Tom Noest, with seasonal pub food, game and offal, and food all day on Sundays.
Verified Nov 2026
-
The Horse and Groom
Pubs · Bourton-on-the-Hill
A Grade II listed inn at the top of Bourton-on-the-Hill, owned by Donnington Brewery and run since June 2024 by the chefs Nathan Eades and Liam Goff, with a Michelin Bib Gourmand, a large garden and dog-friendly rooms.
Dog-friendly
Verified Oct 2026
Walks in and around Longborough
-
Stow and Lower Swell
Walk · Starts in Stow-on-the-Wold · 1 hr, 45 mins · Circular · Dog-friendly
A 3.6-mile (5.8km) moderate loop from Stow-on-the-Wold of about an hour and three quarters, down the fields by Nether Swell to the River Dikler at Hyde Mill, up Mill Lane to Lower Swell's Norman church and Lutyens war memorial, and back to Stow beside the B4068.
-
Stow-on-the-Wold and Maugersbury
Walk · Starts in Stow-on-the-Wold · 2 hrs · Circular
A 3.75-mile (5.5km) circular walk without stiles from the Cross in Stow-on-the-Wold, easy with 130m of ups and downs and about two hours: past the Porch House and Maugersbury Manor to the Fosse Way, down to Hyde Mill and back up through white gates by Nether Swell.
Sights in and around Longborough
-
Redesdale Hall, Moreton-in-Marsh
Sight · Historic building · Moreton-in-Marsh
Redesdale Hall is Moreton-in-Marsh's market hall of 1887, standing in the middle of the High Street: designed by Sir Ernest George for Bertie Mitford of Batsford, later Lord Redesdale, with an arched ground floor, a clock turret and a tall chimney. Listed Grade II.
-
Pineapple Spa, Lower Swell
Sight · Historic building · Stow-on-the-Wold
The Pineapple Spa is a row of cottages beside the B4068 between Lower Swell and Stow-on-the-Wold that began as a spa over a mineral spring found in 1807, with a front in the Indian style of Sezincote and a stone door hood crowned by a pineapple. Grade II*; private.
-
Curfew Tower, Moreton-in-Marsh
Sight · Historic building · Moreton-in-Marsh
The Curfew Tower is a small sixteenth-century stone bell tower on the corner of Moreton-in-Marsh's High Street and Oxford Street, perhaps the town's oldest public building, with a bell of 1633, a clock of 1648 and a past as the town lock-up.
Getting to Longborough
- By car
- Off the A424 between Stow-on-the-Wold and Broadway, 3 miles from either Stow or Moreton. The opera signs its own car park from the village.
- By bus
- Pulhams' 801 (Stow to Moreton station) stops at Longborough Turn on the Fosse Way, about a mile and a quarter from the green. The 803 comes into the village on Tuesdays only, once each way.
- By train
- Moreton-in-Marsh, about 3 miles. On 2027 performance days the festival and the Hedgehog community bus run a return bus from the station, 90 minutes before curtain; book it separately.
- Parking
- On the street by the green, with little room. The opera house has plenty of parking on site, including disabled spaces.
Access
The village is on a slope with narrow pavements. The opera house has disabled parking and seating, with details on its access page; the church is reached by a path from the lane
| Sezincote | 1.7 mi |
|---|---|
| Stow-on-the-Wold | 3 mi |
| Moreton-in-Marsh station | 3.4 mi |
| Bourton-on-the-Water | 6.8 mi |
| Broadway | 9.9 mi |
Places near Longborough
-
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.
-
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.
-
Bourton-on-the-HillThe village that climbs the A44 west of Moreton-in-Marsh, with a Grade I church open every day, Bourton House Garden and its tithe barn of 1570, the Horse and Groom, and Sezincote and Batsford at the foot of the hill.
-
Upper and Lower SwellTwo villages on the River Dikler a mile west of Stow: Lower Swell with its Norman church, Lutyens war memorial, pineapple-topped spa and Donnington pub, and Upper Swell with a Grade I church and a mill beside the road.