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Painswick
A former cloth town above the Stroud valleys, with a churchyard of clipped yews and carved tombs, a church clipping every September, and the Rococo Garden.
- Nearest station
- Stroud, about 4 miles, then the 66 bus, about 10 minutes
- Parking
- Stamages Lane car park (GL6 6UT), Stroud District Council, 56 bays with 4 charging bays; free parking at the Rococo Garden for its visitors
- Best time
- Mid to late September for the clipping; spring for the Rococo Garden
- Dogs
- Welcome on a lead at the Rococo Garden, with free dog weekends on 7 and 8, 14 and 15, and 21 and 22 November 2026
About Painswick
Painswick is a small town of about 3,200 people on a hillside 3 miles north of Stroud, built on the wealth of the cloth trade. Its churchyard, full of clipped yews and carved tombs, is the reason most people come.
St Mary's churchyard
The churchyard is on the national Register of Parks and Gardens for its topiary and its monuments. Legend says there are 99 yews; a hundredth was planted in 2000, near the bus stop on the north side, and nobody has published a reliable count.
Between the yews stand altar tombs, pedestal tombs and cylindrical "tea-caddy" tombs of the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries, many of them carved by the Bryan family of local masons. The oldest altar tomb is William Loveday's, who died in 1623, and John Bryan, who died in 1787, has a pyramid of his own, listed Grade II*. A tomb trail map hangs in the church porch.
The church and the clipping
St Mary's is listed Grade I: late fourteenth century, with a fifteenth-century tower and spire. The top of the spire was struck by lightning and rebuilt in 1883, and a section of the old spire stands inside near the pulpit. The church opens from 9am to 6.30pm in summer and 9am to 4.30pm in winter.
Each September the congregation, many of them children, join hands to make a ring round the church in the clipping ceremony, held on and off in the early nineteenth century and every year since 1897. It falls on the third Sunday of September, during the Painswick Feast; in 2026 that was 20 September, and by that rule the next is on 19 September 2027, a date the church has yet to confirm.
The Rococo Garden
Painswick Rococo Garden was laid out in the eighteenth century as a pleasure garden for Painswick House. Thomas Robins painted it in 1748; it was abandoned and planted with timber in the 1950s, and restored from the 1980s using his painting. The garden describes itself as the only complete surviving Rococo garden in England. It opens daily from 10am to 5pm, with last entry at 4pm, until 1 November 2026, then for free dog weekends in November and for snowdrops by advance booking in late winter. Parking is free, and dogs on short leads are welcome. The Cotswolds in February covers the snowdrop season, Painswick's booked valley among it.
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Painswick Beacon
North of the town, Painswick Beacon is crowned by a large Iron Age hillfort, a scheduled monument, damaged by quarrying and by the golf course laid out on the hill in 1891, but surviving comparatively well. Royalist troops held it in 1643 after the failed siege of Gloucester. The Cotswold Way passes close by. For a bed, see where to stay in Painswick. A Five Valleys weekend is based here, and five days in the Cotswolds by car spends its last two nights here.
The golf club on the hill opens Painswick Golf Club's bar and café to guests and their dogs as well as golfers, with a sun terrace looking to the Slad valley and a carvery on set Sundays (29 November and 20 December 2026); ring 01452 812180 for its hours.
Last verified 27 October 2026 by our editors
Part of
Stroud and the Five Valleys
The steep valleys that meet at Stroud: old cloth-mill country, with Painswick's churchyard of yews, Nailsworth's mills and the commons above Minchinhampton.
Things to do in Painswick
Parks and gardens · Painswick
Painswick Rococo Garden
An eighteenth-century pleasure garden restored from a painting of 1748, with snowdrops in late winter, a café and dogs welcome on short leads.
Where to stay in Painswick
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Barn Cottage, Painswick
Self-catering · Painswick
A three-bedroom barn conversion in Painswick, sleeping six in en suite rooms, with off-road parking, an enclosed courtyard and dogs welcome.
Dog-friendly
Verified Nov 2026
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Stable Cottage, Painswick
Self-catering · Painswick
A two-bedroom barn conversion in Painswick sleeping four, with a private garden and a petanque piste, dogs welcome.
Dog-friendly
Verified Nov 2026
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The Falcon Inn
Inn · Painswick
A family-run inn with eleven rooms on New Street, Painswick, established in 1828 and under new owners since February 2026, with dogs welcome throughout.
Dog-friendly · Wedding venues
Verified Oct 2026
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The Painswick
Hotel · Painswick
A 16-room hotel in a Palladian house on Kemps Lane, Painswick, part of the Calcot Collection, with an AA Rosette restaurant and dogs in some rooms.
Dog-friendly · Wedding venues
Verified Nov 2026
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St Anne's
B&B · Painswick
A three-room bed and breakfast in a former wool merchant's house on Gloucester Street, Painswick, suited to Cotswold Way walkers.
Dog-friendly · Walker-friendly · Car-free
Verified Oct 2026
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Cotswold Lodge
Self-catering · Painswick
A one-bedroom lodge on Stamages Lane, Painswick, for two adults and up to two young children, with a deck over the valley and free parking.
Verified Oct 2026
Where to eat and drink in Painswick
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The Butchers Arms
Pubs · Painswick
A free house in the Sheepscombe valley, about two miles by road from Painswick, in Laurie Lee country, with dogs on a lead welcome in the garden and bar.
Dog-friendly · Walker-friendly · EV charging
Verified Oct 2026
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Painswick Golf Club Bar and Café
Cafes and tearooms · Painswick
The clubhouse bar and café of Painswick Golf Club on Painswick Beacon, open to non-golfers and dogs, with a sun terrace, breakfasts, lunches and a monthly carvery.
Dog-friendly
Verified Oct 2026
Walks in and around Painswick
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The Laurie Lee Wildlife Way
Walk · Starts in Painswick · 2 hrs, 45 mins · Circular
A 5-mile (8.4km) circular walk from Bulls Cross round the Slad valley, moderate with steep climbs and three to five hours with stops: Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust's loop by Longridge Wood, Snows Farm, Catswood and Swift's Hill, with ten posts carrying Laurie Lee's poems.
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The Painswick Stream
Walk · Starts in Painswick · 1 hr, 30 mins · Circular
A 3-mile (4.6km) circular walk from Painswick, moderate, with stiles and one steep climb, in one to one and a half hours: through the churchyard and down Vicarage Street to the Painswick Stream, along it past five old mills, and back up Knapp Lane to the stocks.
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Stroud, Capel's Mill and Rodborough Common
Walk · Starts in Stroud · 1 hr, 30 mins · Circular
A 3-mile (5km) circular walk from the Subscription Rooms in Stroud, graded strenuous, of about an hour and a half: along the Frome Banks to the Capel's Mill viaduct, up over Rodborough Common past the fort, down through Butterow and back along the canal towpath.
Sights in and around Painswick
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Court House, Painswick
Sight · Historic building · Painswick
The Court House is a gabled stone manor house of 1604 on Hale Lane, beside Painswick churchyard, with a panelled court room and a bedroom named after Charles I. Listed Grade I, it is a private home seen from the lane and the churchyard.
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Painswick Beacon
Sight · Hill fort or barrow · Painswick
Painswick Beacon is a hill north of Painswick, about 280m high, crowned by a large Iron Age hill fort with triple ramparts. Royalist troops camped here in 1643. It is open common land on the Cotswold Way, shared with a golf course, with views over the Severn Vale.
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Painswick Stream
Sight · River · Painswick
The Painswick Stream runs south in the valley below Painswick to the River Frome at Stroud. It drove the town's cloth trade: 25 mills stood in the parish in 1820. Footpaths follow it past Loveday's Mill, Skinners Mill and Kingsmill, old mills that are now homes.
Stories about Painswick
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Laurie Lee and Slad
Story · History · 9 minute read
Laurie Lee's life and the Slad valley he wrote into Cider with Rosie: the cottage, the Woolpack, his grave at Holy Trinity, the Sheepscombe cricket field and the Wildlife Way.
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Snowdrops in the Cotswolds
Story · Guides · 10 minute read
Where to see snowdrops in the Cotswolds, from Colesbourne Park's 350 varieties and the five million at Painswick Rococo Garden to Batsford, Rodmarton and Cerney House: when they peak, how each garden opens, what it costs and a winter walk to go with each.
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The best viewpoints in the Cotswolds
Story · Guides · 11 minute read
The best viewpoints in the Cotswolds, from Broadway Tower, Dover's Hill and Cleeve Hill to Haresfield Beacon, Crickley Hill and the Tyndale Monument: what you see from each, where to park and the walk that gets you there.
Getting to Painswick
- By bus
- The 66 runs between Stroud and Cheltenham through Painswick about hourly Monday to Saturday and every two hours on Sundays, about 10 minutes from Stroud.
- By train
- Stroud, on the line from London Paddington, is about 4 miles away; take the 66 from Merrywalks bus station.
- Parking
- Stamages Lane car park has 56 bays and 4 charging bays. The Rococo Garden has free parking for its visitors.
Access
The Rococo Garden's paths are steep and uneven, with handrails on the steepest slopes and plenty of benches; it does not recommend them for wheelchairs or scooters.
| Stroud station | 3.7 mi |
|---|---|
| Gloucester | 6.2 mi |
| Cheltenham | 9.9 mi |
Places near Painswick
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StroudThe cloth town where five valleys meet, with a Saturday farmers' market, a free museum in Stratford Park, a canal coming back to life and Laurie Lee's Slad next door.
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MinchinhamptonA small hilltop town above Stroud with a Market House of 1698, a church with a crown instead of a spire, and a great open common owned by the National Trust, where grazing cattle wander across the roads.
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NailsworthA small valley town 4 miles south of Stroud with old cloth mills, independent shops and some of the best food in the Cotswolds, a 1952 clock tower, a level railway path to Stroud and the commons on the hill above.
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TetburyA wool market town with a Market House on stone pillars, a Georgian Gothic church, Highgrove's gardens nearby and Westonbirt Arboretum 3 miles away.