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A wide village high street of stone houses strung with bunting under a blue sky

Ray Bird, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Sherston

A former borough on a spur above the Sherston branch of the Avon, about 5½ miles west of Malmesbury, with a High Street wide enough to have held a market, a Grade I church, the Rattlebone Inn and its legend, and a boules festival on the street each July.

Nearest station
Chippenham or Kemble, each a taxi ride; the 41 bus runs from Malmesbury
Best time
The boules Saturday in July for the spectacle; any weekday for the quiet
When it's busy
Boules Day, when the High Street is closed and full; otherwise quiet, even in August
Dogs
Welcome at the Rattlebone, which keeps dog snacks; on leads on the farmland paths

About Sherston

Sherston is a village that was once a town, and the width of its High Street gives it away. Somebody planted a borough here before 1241, with a market street and long burgage plots behind the houses, and the plots are still there if you look at the garden walls. The village stands on a spur above the Sherston branch of the Avon, about 5½ miles (9km) west of Malmesbury and the same from Tetbury, near enough to Castle Combe to be its quieter cousin.

The High Street and the church

The High Street is the sight: a broad, straight run of stone fronts, many of them seventeenth and eighteenth century, with the Tolsey probably on the site of an early market house and the church tower closing the view. Balcony House, late seventeenth century in its present form, seems to be the one building left from the medieval town, and Queen Anne slept there in 1705 on her way to Bath. The church of the Holy Cross, listed Grade I, has a late twelfth-century north arcade, and its central tower was rebuilt in 1730 by Thomas Sumsion of Colerne; T H Wyatt restored the church in 1876 and 1877. Beside the south porch is a worn fragment of medieval carving that tradition calls Rattlebone, though the listing says it is probably a cleric.

A stone church with a tall pinnacled central tower and blue clock under a clear sky
Holy Cross church, Sherston Photo: Peter Wood, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Rattlebone legend

The story goes that Rattlebone, a Saxon warrior of Sherston, fought for Edmund Ironside against Cnut in 1016 and, wounded in the stomach, held a stone tile over the wound to stop the bleeding. Wiltshire Council's community history is blunt about the record: the figure on the church is now thought to be a priest holding a book, the chest marked R.B. is centuries later than 1016, and historians now place the battle in Hampshire. The name is real enough. The Rattlebone Inn is a late seventeenth-century pub on Church Street, named after him.

A broad street lined with stone houses and parked cars, a church tower at the far end
Sherston High Street, laid out as a market street in the Middle Ages Photo: Ray Bird, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

A morning here

Walk the High Street end to end, which takes ten minutes, and turn down Church Street to the church and the Rattlebone. Carry on down to the Avon, which here is a small clear stream, and follow one of the village's circular walks, the Easton Grey loop upstream being the obvious one. Back in the village, Sherston has a Co-op, a post office, three cafés and an Indian restaurant, so there is lunch without the pub if you want it, and a farmers' market whose day the parish site does not give.

Walks from Sherston

The Sherston Footpath Group, a parish council subcommittee, publishes ten circular walks, last revised in July 2025, in a £10 booklet sold at the Co-op, the Angel and the Rattlebone: Brook End Ford, Commonwood Lane, Ladyswood, Easton Grey, Pinkney, Willesley, the Cliff, Sopworth, Shallowbrook Lane, and Luckington and Alderton. Our own walks on this side of the Cotswolds start in Malmesbury, where the River Avon walk follows the Tetbury and Sherston branches round the town.

Food and drink

The Rattlebone is the pub, with a double garden and terrace, boules pitches and a skittle alley, open from noon every day, until 11pm from Monday to Thursday, midnight on Friday and Saturday and 9.30pm on Sunday. Food is served from noon to 2.30pm and 6pm to 9.30pm Monday to Saturday and from noon to 5pm on Sunday, with roasts. It says it has step-free access to the main bar and garden, and an accessible toilet. CAMRA surveyed it in February 2026 and records Ramsbury Gold as its regular beer. Dogs are welcome, with snacks. The parish's own amenities page lists one pub and an Indian restaurant. The Angel sells the walks booklet. There is also a café with rooms, the church café and a courtyard café, which we have not tried.

Players and spectators along a sand boules piste laid on a village street
Sherston's boules tournament, played on the High Street each July Photo: Ray Bird, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

When to come

Sherston Boules Day is the village's big day, a tournament played on the High Street, which is closed to traffic from 7am to 9pm. In 2026, its fortieth year, it was the weekend of 4 and 5 July, with a duck race on the Sunday. The 2027 date had not been announced when we checked, so watch the festival's website, sherstonboules.org. Apple Day at the village hall and field is in October; in 2026 it was Sunday 11 October. The rest of the year Sherston is quiet, and that is the point of coming: the parish says the Sunday Times listed it among the top five villages in the country, and it featured in Channel 4's Village of the Year in 2018, and it stays quiet. It is on our list of Cotswolds places without the crowds.

Last verified 1 November 2026 by our editors

A tree-lined village street of stone houses with woodland rising behind

Part of

The South Cotswolds

The southern wolds as they fall towards Bath and Wiltshire: Tetbury's Market House, Castle Combe's street by the By Brook, Malmesbury's abbey and Lacock beyond the edge.

  • A church tower with a blue clock face above a porch and churchyard path
  • A long stone cottage with yellow shrubs behind a dry-stone wall
  • A stone cottage and a white-painted cottage side by side on a village street
  • A detached stone house with a gabled porch behind railings
  • A long whitewashed stone inn with a stone-tiled roof on a sunny village street

Things to do in Sherston

See all
Walkers beneath red and orange Japanese maples in autumn at Westonbirt

Parks and gardens · Tetbury

Westonbirt, The National Arboretum

The National Arboretum near Tetbury: 15,000 trees, a 300m treetop walkway, dog-friendly Silk Wood and a peak season of autumn colour.

  • A polo ground with a stone clubhouse and crowds along the boards on a summer day

    Beaufort Polo Club

    Sport and activity · Tetbury

    A polo club at Westonbirt near Tetbury, home of the Tomlinson family, where spectators watch free through the summer season, from late April to September.

    Dog-friendly

    Verified Oct 2026

  • An arched tunnel of apple trees over a gravel path leading to a fountain at Highgrove

    Highgrove Gardens

    Parks and gardens · Tetbury

    The gardens at Highgrove, near Tetbury, open by booked guided tour from spring to early autumn, with tours that include lunch or tea.

    Verified Oct 2026

  • A gabled stone town hall with arched doorways and hanging baskets on a street

    Athelstan Museum

    Museums and galleries · Malmesbury

    Malmesbury's free museum in the Town Hall, with the stories of King Athelstan and Eilmer the flying monk, a wheelchair lift and dogs welcome.

    Dog-friendly · Rainy days · Family-friendly

    Verified Oct 2026

Where to stay in Sherston

See all
  • Whatley Manor's gabled stone house above a flower border and lawn

    Whatley Manor

    Hotel · Malmesbury

    A country house hotel and spa with 23 rooms in 12 acres with 22 gardens at Easton Grey, near Malmesbury, with a Michelin-starred restaurant and seven dog-friendly rooms.

    Dog-friendly · Wedding venues · EV charging

    Verified Nov 2026

  • The gabled stone front of the Hare and Hounds beyond its lawn

    Hare and Hounds

    Hotel · Tetbury

    A hotel at Westonbirt near Tetbury, close to the National Arboretum, with the Gamekeeper's Cottage and its hot tub next door, and dogs welcome.

    Dog-friendly · Hot tubs · Wedding venues

    Verified Oct 2026

  • A tall stone vicarage with gables and climbing plants, above a lawn with garden seating

    Parsonage House

    B&B · Badminton

    A bed and breakfast in Badminton's Edwardian former vicarage on Hayes Lane, with three king-size rooms over the garden and a continental breakfast.

    Verified Nov 2026

Where to eat and drink in Sherston

See all
  • A long whitewashed stone inn with a stone-tiled roof on a sunny village street

    The Rattlebone Inn, Sherston

    Pubs · Sherston

    A seventeenth-century village pub on Church Street, Sherston, named Pub of the Year at the Great British Pub Awards 2026, with an AA Rosette, food every day and pizza in the barn at weekends.

    Dog-friendly

    Verified Oct 2026

Walks in and around Sherston

All walks starting here
  • A tree in golden autumn leaf among dark conifers at Westonbirt Arboretum

    Silk Wood at Westonbirt Arboretum

    Walk · Starts in Tetbury · 1 hr · Circular · Dog-friendly

    A 2.6-mile (4.2km) easy, nearly level loop of about an hour through Silk Wood at Westonbirt, the National Arboretum, from the treetop walkway out to the Waste Gate, round by Oak Avenue and the maples and back along The Link. Inside the arboretum, so entry is paid.

Sights in and around Sherston

All sights
  • A battlemented stone church tower above a porch and gate piers, with Westonbirt House beyond, on a grey day

    St Catherine's Church, Westonbirt

    Sight · Church · Tetbury

    The former parish church of Westonbirt, south-west of Tetbury, now in the grounds of Westonbirt School beside the Holfords' great house: twelfth to fifteenth century, with Holford monuments including the effigy of Robert Stayner Holford, who began the arboretum.

History of Sherston

A Romano-British farmstead stood near Vancelettes Farm about 350, and Saxon Sherston is first written down in 896 as Scorranston. Domesday Book records the church in the hands of the Norman abbey of St Wandrille, two mills and a population of about 60. Before 1241 the lord laid out a borough south of the church, and in 1241 Matthew Bezill was granted a Tuesday market, with fairs following in 1248 and 1252. A fire in 1511 burned much of the town. The Church House on the High Street was among the first buildings put up again, and the market never recovered. Sherston lost its borough status in 1835 and became a village.

The inns tell the later story: the Swan and the Angel from the late sixteenth century, the Rattlebone, the Carpenters' Arms and the Bell from the late seventeenth. Joseph Davenport and Sons built a silk mill in 1872, which wove cotton too before it closed in 1922 and later made elastic. A tannery closed early in the twentieth century and the corn mill in the 1950s. Piped water came in 1904 and the recreation ground opened in 1934.

Questions about Sherston

Who was Rattlebone?

A legend. The story is that Rattlebone, a Saxon warrior of Sherston, fought for Edmund Ironside against Cnut in 1016 and stopped the bleeding from a stomach wound by holding a stone tile over it. Wiltshire's community history notes that the carved figure on the church is now thought to be a priest, the chest marked R.B. is much later, and the battle was probably in Hampshire.

When is the Sherston boules tournament?

In July, on the High Street, which is closed to traffic from 7am to 9pm. In 2026 it was the weekend of 4 and 5 July, its fortieth year. The 2027 date had not been announced when we checked, and entries open in the spring, so watch sherstonboules.org or ask at the Rattlebone, which has boules pitches of its own in its garden.

Is Sherston a good alternative to Castle Combe?

Yes, if you want a stone village without the crowds. Castle Combe is 8 miles south and fills by late morning on summer weekends; Sherston has a wider, grander street, a Grade I church, a pub open all day and no queue for anything. It is less of a postcard, and that is why it is quiet.

Is the Rattlebone Inn dog friendly?

Yes. The Rattlebone on Church Street welcomes dogs and keeps snacks and water for them, as CAMRA recorded in February 2026. It opens from noon daily, to 9.30pm on Sundays, and serves food from noon to 2.30pm and 6pm to 9.30pm Monday to Saturday, and from noon to 5pm on Sunday, with a garden, terrace, boules pitches and a skittle alley.

Can you get to Sherston by bus?

Yes, Monday to Saturday. Coachstyle's 41 between Malmesbury and Yate stops in the village six or seven times a day each way, calling at Badminton and Chipping Sodbury, and the X79 runs to Bath on Thursdays only, at 9.45am, coming back through Sherston at about 2.20pm. There is no Sunday bus. The nearest railway stations are Chippenham and Kemble, neither with a direct bus to the village.

Getting to Sherston

By car
On the B4040, about 5½ miles west of Malmesbury; from the M4 leave at junction 17. We know of no car park, so park on the street with care. The parish lists EV chargers on the High Street.
By bus
Coachstyle 41 (Malmesbury, Sherston, Badminton, Chipping Sodbury, Yate) runs six or seven times each way Monday to Saturday, none on Sunday. The X79 to Bath runs Thursdays only.
By train
Chippenham and Kemble are the nearest stations, each a taxi ride. Neither has a direct bus to Sherston.

Access

The High Street is wide and level, with a slope down Church Street to the river. The Rattlebone is a seventeenth-century building; ring ahead if access matters.

Distances from Sherston
Westonbirt Arboretum3.8 mi
Badminton4.3 mi
Malmesbury5.7 mi
Tetbury6.5 mi
Castle Combe7.9 mi
Bath18.1 mi
Map of Sherston
© OpenStreetMap contributors

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