Quenington

What to see

St Swithin's was recorded in 1100, and its two Norman doorways were carved in the twelfth century. Over the north door Christ stands over the fallen Satan, freeing the dead; over the south is a crowning scene framed by the symbols of the Evangelists, read as the Coronation of the Virgin and, by Historic England's listing, possibly the earliest representation of it. The rest of the church was heavily restored in 1882, when the west tower came down and a bellcote went up, so the doorways are the thing. It is listed Grade I.

At the end of Church Road, beside the church, is the Knights Hospitallers' Gateway, the fourteenth-century gatehouse of the preceptory the order founded here in about 1193 and kept until the order was suppressed in England in 1540. Edward I stayed often between 1276 and 1290. The gatehouse is Grade I, on private land and seen from the road; our story of the Templars and Hospitallers in the Cotswolds explains what a preceptory was.

Quenington was also, for 34 years, the home of Fresh Air (opens in a new tab), the sculpture show that Lucy Abel Smith and her late husband David launched in 1992 in the garden of the Old Rectory and held every other summer. The trustees decided in 2024 that the seventeenth show, in 2026, would be the last, and it was; the Quenington Sculpture Trust now funds bursaries instead. If you came for Fresh Air in the past, come for the river now.

A morning in Quenington

Start on the green, pick a book from the telephone box by the Keepers Arms, and walk down Church Road to the church, 300m or so. Give the two doorways ten minutes each, look at the gatehouse from the road, then take the lane down to the river and over the bridge into Coln St Aldwyns, five minutes away, for coffee at Coln Stores and a look at St John the Baptist's, where the Kebles, father and son, were vicar and curate. Back over the bridge for lunch at the Keepers Arms, if it is serving that day: when we checked, lunch was at weekends, and on Thursdays and Fridays in summer.

Walks

Quenington to Fairford starts at the Keepers Arms: 5.75 miles (9.25km) down the valley through a permitted wood to Mill Bridge and the painted glass of Fairford church, and back, in two and a half to three hours with several stiles. The permitted path is closed on Tuesdays. Upstream, Coln St Aldwyns and Bibury starts over the bridge and follows the river to Arlington Row and back over the wold, 6.5 miles (10.6km). The parish council's own River Walks leaflet, three short routes from the village, is in the telephone box and at Coln Stores.

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Food and drink

The Keepers Arms on Church Road is a family-run free house with independent ales, four adults-only bed and breakfast rooms upstairs and dogs welcome; it was one of two beerhouses here by 1891, and the other, the Earl Grey, has gone. It is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, and its site lists Wednesdays as closed too outside summer, so ring 01285 750349 before you plan a meal. Across the river, the New Inn at Coln St Aldwyns serves food every day, and Coln Stores, owned by local shareholders, is the shop, café and post office for both villages. Quenington has no shop of its own; a fish and chip van calls on alternate Tuesday evenings.

When to come

Spring for the meadows and a dry path to Fairford; Thursday to Sunday if you want the pub. In summer there are car boot sales on the green on a Sunday morning once a month. Quenington is never crowded, and with Coln St Aldwyns it is the first place we send anyone who has seen Bibury at midday on a Saturday: see our guide to the Cotswolds without the crowds. Park with care; the lanes are narrow and the verges are people's.