Sapperton and Frampton Mansell

What to see

St Kenelm's is listed Grade I, a cruciform church founded in the early twelfth century, with a fourteenth-century tower and broach spire, largely rebuilt in classical style by the Atkyns family at the start of the eighteenth century. Its pew ends, panelling and gallery front came from Sapperton Park, the manor house demolished in the eighteenth century. The monuments are the thing: a Poole knight of 1574, Sir Henry Poole of 1616 kneeling with his family, and Sir Robert Atkyns, the historian, who lived at Pinbury Park and died in 1711, reclining under an Ionic canopy. Gimson and both Barnsley brothers lie in the churchyard under plain ledger stones. Our story on the Arts and Crafts movement has the wider picture.

The craftsmen's own houses stand in the village: Upper Dorvel House, Beechanger and the Leasowes were built for them at the start of the twentieth century and are all listed, as is the village hall of 1912, the gift of Lilias, Countess Bathurst. Down the hill at Daneway is Daneway House, a Grade I manor of the mid-fourteenth century with a four-storey tower of about 1620, which Lord Bathurst lent to Gimson and the Barnsleys around 1900 as a showroom for their work. It is private.

The canal tunnel's western portal is at Daneway, a Gothic archway listed Grade II and restored by the Cotswold Canals Trust in 1996. The tunnel is blocked by a roof fall not far inside and has no towpath; nobody may enter it. Beside the portal is the Daneway Inn, built in 1784 to house the navvies who dug the tunnel, and across the bridge are two Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust reserves: Daneway Banks, 18 hectares of limestone grassland famous for the large blue butterfly, and Siccaridge Wood, 27 hectares of coppiced ancient woodland with lily of the valley.

A day here

Give the morning to Sapperton: the church and its monuments, the craftsmen's houses on the village street, and the lane down to Daneway, strengthened in the 1780s to carry coal up from the wharf. At the bottom, the portal is a few minutes along the old canal from the inn. Daneway Banks is on the far side of the bridge, steep in places with gates and stiles; in June and July the large blues fly on its slopes.

After lunch at the Daneway, climb the ridgetop path through Siccaridge Wood, where the paths are muddy and steep lower down and flatter and stonier higher up, keeping to them for the flowers. Frampton Mansell is a further mile west: St Luke's, the chapel of ease Lord Bathurst built in 1841 in the Norman style, the Crown, and the valley view from its front garden.

Walks

The Thames and Severn Way and the Wysis Way link the two ends of the tunnel over the top: 2.7 miles (4.3km) from the Daneway portal up through Sapperton village, across the A419 and through Hailey Wood to the classical Coates portal, which the Cotswold Canals Trust restored in 1976 and 1977. Westwards, the towpath follows the dry canal down the valley towards Chalford.

Our Eastcombe and Toadsmoor valley walk, 6.5 miles through beech woods and past an old cloth mill, starts 4 miles west. Cirencester Park's Broad Avenue runs about six miles from the town to Sapperton, as the Bathurst Estate gives it.

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Food and drink

The Daneway Inn is a Wadworth house with 6X and Henry's IPA on cask, a garden and car park overlooking the old canal, a real fire and a family room, and it is dog friendly. In October 2026 CAMRA recorded it open from midday to 9.30pm from Monday to Saturday and until 7.30pm on Sunday, with food until 8pm and 6pm. The Bell in Sapperton village, recorded as a pub from 1781, is the other pub. When we checked in October 2026 its website said it was open seven days a week, with food at lunchtime and in the evening, and advised booking to eat; it also has rooms.

At Frampton Mansell, the Crown is listed Grade II as a late seventeenth- or early eighteenth-century inn and says of itself that it began as a cider house in 1633. Its own website names the local ales it regularly keeps (OPA, Tom Long, Uley Bitter, Laurie Lee's, Wicked Lady and Coachman) and a changing guest beer, and gives a bar open from midday to 11pm every day, food from midday to 2.30pm and 6pm to 9pm from Monday to Saturday and midday to 8.30pm on Sundays and bank holidays, dogs and children welcome, and 12 bedrooms in a hotel annexe. Jolly Nice, on the A419 at the old White Horse filling station, is a farm shop, café and drive-through, open every day from 8am to 7pm, and to 8pm on Thursdays and Fridays.

When to come

June and July for the large blue. May for lily of the valley, bluebells and wild garlic in Siccaridge Wood, and October for the beech. The Daneway's garden is the place on a summer evening, and the Crown's fires on a winter one. The 54 bus runs only on weekdays, two journeys a day, so a car-free visit needs planning.