Eat and drink · Minchinhampton
Winstones Ice Cream, Rodborough Common
A family ice cream maker on the edge of Rodborough Common since 1925, whose parlour is open every day with 18 flavours, waffles, coffee and ice cream for dogs.
Dog-friendly · Family-friendly
Where walks on the commons end. The Winstone family has made ice cream on this spot since 1925, the parlour opens every day, and there is a tub for the dog too.
- Good: Open every day, 10am to 5pm in winter
- Good: 18 flavours, four of them dairy-free
- Good: Gluten-free cones and a plant-based ice cream for dogs
- Good: Tubs to take home, up to 4 litres
- Worth knowing: Summer hours are not published; winter hours are 10am to 5pm
- Worth knowing: A parlour, not a café: no lunches
About
Winstones has made ice cream at Bownham, on the edge of the National Trust's Rodborough Common, since 1925, and the fourth generation of the family runs it now. Its parlour, about 2.5 miles by road north-west of Minchinhampton and 2 miles by road south of Stroud, looks out over the commons and the Five Valleys, with cattle grazing round it.
The ice cream is made in small batches with local milk and double cream. The parlour scoops 18 flavours, four of them dairy-free and suitable for vegans, in cones or tubs, with gluten-free cones too, and makes hot Belgian waffles to order. There are Halloween and Christmas flavours in season, coffee from Oddkin in Bristol, teas and hot chocolate, and a plant-based ice cream for dogs. Every flavour can be taken home, in tubs from 120ml to 4 litres.
In winter the parlour opens every day from 10am to 5pm; from late November it also rents out Christmas trees. It is where the walk over Minchinhampton Common to Amberley passes, and the walk to Rodborough Fort crosses the same common. The family asks visitors to keep the commons free of litter; its coffee cups are compostable and its spoons wooden.
Opening hours and season
| Monday | 10:00 to 17:00 |
|---|---|
| Tuesday | 10:00 to 17:00 |
| Wednesday | 10:00 to 17:00 |
| Thursday | 10:00 to 17:00 |
| Friday | 10:00 to 17:00 |
| Saturday | 10:00 to 17:00 |
| Sunday | 10:00 to 17:00 |
Winter hours, 10am to 5pm every day. Rental Christmas trees from Saturday 28 November 2026.
The details
- Food
- Café food
- Dietary
- Vegan dishes · Gluten-free dishes
- Booking a table
- Walk-ins only
- Features
- Views
- History
- Making ice cream on the same site since 1925
Photos
The flavours board by the door 
Winstones tubs 
Inside the parlour 
Tubs to take home
Location
Places to stay nearby
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The Bear of Rodborough
Hotel · Stroud
A seventeenth-century former coaching inn on the National Trust's Rodborough Common above Stroud, now a hotel in the Cotswold Inns and Hotels group, with dogs welcome.
Dog-friendly · Walker-friendly · Wedding venues
Verified Oct 2026
-
Old Fleece apartments
Self-catering · Nailsworth
Three self-catering apartments behind the Old Fleece pub at Rooksmoor, between Nailsworth and Stroud, with an EV charging point and the garden.
EV charging
Verified Nov 2026
-
The Amberley Inn
Inn · Nailsworth
An inn with 13 en-suite rooms on the hillside above the Woodchester valley at Amberley, near Nailsworth and Stroud, which describes itself as a restored 16th-century inn.
Dog-friendly · Family-friendly
Verified Nov 2026
Nearby walks, places and things to do
- The Bear of Rodborough 0.3 km away
- Stroud Brewery 0.6 km away
- Old Fleece apartments 1.3 km away
- The Black Horse, Amberley 1.4 km away
Sights nearby
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Rodborough Common
Sight · Common or park · Stroud and the Five Valleys
Open limestone grassland on the hill between Stroud and the Golden Valley, owned by the National Trust, known for rare pasqueflowers in spring, early purple orchids in May and over 30 kinds of butterfly, grazed by commoners’ cattle, with Rodborough Fort on its brow.
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Whitfield's Tump, Minchinhampton Common
Sight · Hill fort or barrow · Minchinhampton
Whitfield's Tump is a Neolithic long barrow on Minchinhampton Common, a low mound 26m long where early farmers buried their dead, named from the tradition that the preacher George Whitefield spoke from it in 1743. A scheduled monument on free National Trust land.
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Rodborough Fort
Sight · Historic building · Stroud and the Five Valleys
Rodborough Fort is a battlemented house on the brow of Rodborough Common above Stroud, begun as a folly for Captain Hawker in 1761 and enlarged in 1870 with a four-storey tower, turreted curtain walls and a small chapel. Grade II; a private house, seen from the common.
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Minchinhampton Common
Sight · Common or park · Minchinhampton
Minchinhampton Common is a wide sweep of limestone grassland above Stroud and Nailsworth, in the care of the National Trust since 1913, where commoners' cattle graze and an Iron Age bank, a long barrow, pillow mounds and wartime trenches lie in the turf. Free to wander.