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Stow-on-the-Wold
A hilltop market town on the Fosse Way, more than 230m up, with a broad Square, a church that held 1,600 prisoners after the last battle of the Civil War, and a horse fair.
- Nearest station
- Moreton-in-Marsh, then the 801 bus, about 20 minutes
- Parking
- Maugersbury Road (GL54 1HH), from £4.40 for 2 hours, card or PayByPhone; Fosseway car park (GL54 1BX) by Tesco is free
- Best time
- A weekday morning; a farmers' market Thursday on the Square
- Toilets
- Market Square, 50p, 8am to 8pm in summer and 8am to 6pm in winter, with an accessible toilet (RADAR key) and baby change
About Stow-on-the-Wold
Stow-on-the-Wold is a small market town of about 1,900 people on a hilltop more than 230m up, where the Fosse Way and several other roads meet. It grew up round a broad market square, and the Square is still its heart, with the old market cross in its southern half. It is a short bus ride from Moreton-in-Marsh station, and a good base for Bourton, the Slaughters and the wolds.
The Square and the cross
Henry I granted Evesham Abbey a Thursday market here in 1107, and fairs followed: in 1476 the town was granted two great fairs each year, in May and October, and 2026 marks the charter's 550th anniversary. By the seventeenth century sheep were the main business of the fairs. The Square holds a farmers' market on the second and last Thursday mornings of most months, from 9am to 1pm; the next are on 29 October and 12 November 2026.
The market cross is late medieval, restored in 1878, and both listed and a scheduled monument. St Edward's Hall, built in 1878, served as the town's meeting place, library and museum. On the Square, Huffkins, in a listed seventeenth-century building, serves breakfast, lunch and afternoon tea every day. Stow is one of the antiques towns in our guide to antiques and shopping in the Cotswolds. Two places to start are open every day: Durham House Antiques on Sheep Street, where about 30 dealers share four showrooms, and Red Rag Gallery on Church Street, which sells contemporary British painting.
St Edward's church and the battle of Stow
St Edward's church is listed Grade I. It has Saxon origins and twelfth-century work in the nave, was extended over the next two centuries, and gained its tower in the fifteenth century; J. L. Pearson restored it in 1873. Inside are a Crucifixion painting given in 1838 and attributed to Gaspar de Crayer, and a floor slab to Francis Keyt, killed in the battle of 1646. The church is open every day, from 9am to 5pm in summer and until dusk in winter.
On 21 March 1646 Parliament's army beat Lord Astley's Royalists near Stow, in the last battle of the first Civil War, and more than 1,600 prisoners were held in the church afterwards. By 1657 it was described as unfit for use. Our story of the Civil War in the Cotswolds follows the war from Cirencester to Stow.
The north door is a thirteenth-century doorway under a seventeenth-century porch, with a yew tree growing on either side of it. You may hear that it inspired Tolkien; that is a local legend, with no evidence behind it.
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The horse fair
The old fairs became mainly horse fairs by the late nineteenth century, and the Stow horse fair is still held in May and October, in fields on Maugersbury Road, on a Thursday. In 2026 the organisers said they intend to hold it on the third Thursday of the month, so the next is expected on Thursday 20 May 2027, a date still to be confirmed. It can move or be cancelled at short notice, so check before you travel. The Cotswolds in October has the autumn fair with the rest of the month.
Walks from Stow
The Cotswolds National Landscape's Miles without Stiles walk from the cross is 3.75 miles, about two hours, by Maugersbury, St Edward's Well, Hyde Mill and Nether Swell. It has gates and some steps rather than stiles, about 130m of ups and downs on lanes, a bridleway and field paths, and two crossings of the Fosse Way. Bourton-on-the-Water is about 4 miles away by road. For the inns round the Square, see where to stay in Stow-on-the-Wold. Two days in the North Cotswolds is based in Stow, at the Kings Arms on the Square, and our car-free itinerary walks this circuit on its first afternoon, after the 801 from Moreton. Just north-east of the town, the Fox Inn at Broadwell is a Donnington pub overlooking the green. For longer, a week in the Cotswolds by car spends its first four nights in Stow.
Last verified 27 October 2026 by our editors
Part of
The North Cotswolds
The high wolds between Chipping Campden and Bourton-on-the-Water: the Fosse Way towns, the Windrush villages, the Slaughters and the escarpment at Broadway.
Things to do in Stow-on-the-Wold
Museums and galleries · Stow-on-the-Wold
Red Rag Gallery
A gallery of contemporary British painting, sculpture and prints on Church Street, Stow-on-the-Wold, with more than 200 original works on two floors and changing exhibitions, open every day.
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Durham House Antiques
Antiques and vintage · Stow-on-the-Wold
An antiques centre on Sheep Street, Stow-on-the-Wold, where about 30 dealers share four large showrooms of furniture, paintings, silver, glass, jewellery and books, open every day.
Rainy days
Verified Oct 2026
Where to stay in Stow-on-the-Wold
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Stow Lodge Hotel
Hotel · Stow-on-the-Wold
A family-run hotel with 20 rooms in Stow's former rectory of 1763 on the Square, with a restaurant, a bar, gardens and a private car park; no pets.
Verified Oct 2026
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The Kings Arms, Stow
Inn · Stow-on-the-Wold
A former coaching inn on Stow's Market Square with ten rooms, three of them split-level stable rooms, a restaurant and its own parking.
Dog-friendly
Verified Oct 2026
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The Old Stocks Inn
Inn · Stow-on-the-Wold
A seventeenth-century coaching inn on the Square at Stow-on-the-Wold, with 16 rooms and a restaurant with two AA Rosettes.
Dog-friendly
Verified Oct 2026
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The Porch House
Inn · Stow-on-the-Wold
An inn with 13 rooms on Digbeth Street, Stow-on-the-Wold, serving breakfast, lunch and dinner every day, which calls itself England's oldest inn.
Dog-friendly
Verified Oct 2026
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The Sheep on Sheep Street
Inn · Stow-on-the-Wold
An inn with 22 rooms and a restaurant on Sheep Street, Stow-on-the-Wold, open from breakfast to late every day, with some rooms for dogs.
Dog-friendly
Verified Nov 2026
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The Bell at Stow
Inn · Stow-on-the-Wold
A Young's pub with 14 rooms on Park Street, Stow-on-the-Wold, with dogs welcome in dog-friendly rooms.
Dog-friendly · Family-friendly
Verified Nov 2026
Where to eat and drink in Stow-on-the-Wold
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The Old Bakery Tearoom
Cafes and tearooms · Stow-on-the-Wold
A tearoom in Fountain Court off Digbeth Street, Stow-on-the-Wold, run by Jackie and Alan since 2005, where all the food is made on the premises and dogs come in.
Dog-friendly
Verified Oct 2026
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The Old Butchers
Restaurants · Stow-on-the-Wold
A restaurant in a former butcher's shop on Park Street, Stow-on-the-Wold, run by Pete and Louise Robinson since 2005 and listed by Michelin.
Family-friendly
Verified Oct 2026
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Huffkins, Stow-on-the-Wold
Cafes and tearooms · Stow-on-the-Wold
The Stow branch of Huffkins, the Burford bakery founded in about 1890, in a listed seventeenth-century building on the Square, open every day for breakfast, lunch and afternoon tea, with dogs welcome.
Dog-friendly
Verified Nov 2026
Walks in and around Stow-on-the-Wold
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Stow-on-the-Wold and Maugersbury
Walk · Starts in Stow-on-the-Wold · 2 hrs · Circular
A 3.75-mile (5.5km) circular walk without stiles from the Cross in Stow-on-the-Wold, easy with 130m of ups and downs and about two hours: past the Porch House and Maugersbury Manor to the Fosse Way, down to Hyde Mill and back up through white gates by Nether Swell.
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Lower Slaughter to Upper Slaughter
Walk · Starts in Lower Slaughter · 45 mins · Circular · Dog-friendly
A 2-mile (3.1km) there-and-back from Lower Slaughter, easy and almost level, in 45 minutes to an hour: on the Wardens' Way from Lower Slaughter's mill up the River Eye through riverside fields to Upper Slaughter's ford, church and manor, and back the same way.
Sights in and around Stow-on-the-Wold
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Lower Swell war memorial
Sight · Monument · Stow-on-the-Wold
Lower Swell's war memorial is a flaming urn on a stone pedestal on the village green, designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens and unveiled in 1921. Lutyens had worked at Abbotswood nearby for Mark Fenwick. It is on the Stow and Lower Swell walk, open at all times. Grade II.
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Market cross, Stow-on-the-Wold
Sight · Monument · Stow-on-the-Wold
Stow's market cross stands in the southern half of the Market Square: a medieval calvary and socket stone, probably of the fourteenth century, carrying a shaft and lantern head restored in 1878 and again in 1995, when its four carved panels were restored. Grade II and scheduled.
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St Edward's Church, Stow-on-the-Wold
Sight · Church · Stow-on-the-Wold
St Edward's is Stow-on-the-Wold's Grade I parish church, beside the Market Square, with a fifteenth-century tower seen across the wold and a north door framed by two yews. Royalist prisoners were held inside after the battle of 1646. Open daily.
Stories about Stow-on-the-Wold
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Antiques and shopping in the Cotswolds
Story · Guides · 9 minute read
The antiques towns of Stow, Tetbury, Burford, Broadway and Cirencester, the shopping villages, the makers of Chipping Campden and Stroud, the fairs, the bookshops, Daylesford and Burford Garden Company, and what the Cotswolds are known for buying.
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Cotswold food and drink: farm shops, breweries, distilleries and markets
Story · Guides · 10 minute read
What the Cotswolds make and where to buy it: Cotswold lamb, the Gloucester cheeses, Donnington and Uley beer, whisky from Stourton, wine from Woodchester Valley, the farm shops, the markets at Stroud, Moreton and Cirencester, and the tastings worth booking.
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Cotswold pubs and the breweries behind them
Story · Guides · 4 minute read
Donnington, Hook Norton, Arkell's and Wadworth, the newer breweries at Uley and Stroud, the old coaching inns and the village pubs with rooms: a guide to Cotswold pubs.
Getting to Stow-on-the-Wold
- By bus
- Pulhams' 801 runs between Cheltenham, Bourton, Stow, Moreton-in-Marsh station and Chipping Norton, about hourly for most of the day, Sundays included, with a shorter day on Sundays.
- By train
- Moreton-in-Marsh, on the line from London Paddington, is about 4 miles away; the 801 takes about 20 minutes from the station (about 13 minutes back).
- Parking
- Maugersbury Road is paid by card or phone (Blue Badge free for up to 10 hours), with five coach bays and four EV bays. The Fosseway car park (GL54 1BX) by Tesco is free.
Access
There is a step-free way into St Edward's churchyard by the passage behind Huffkins. The church has no parking of its own.
| Bourton-on-the-Water | 4.3 mi |
|---|---|
| Moreton-in-Marsh | 4.3 mi |
| Chipping Norton | 8.7 mi |
| Cheltenham | 18 mi |
Places near Stow-on-the-Wold
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Bourton-on-the-WaterThe River Windrush runs shallow through the middle of the village under a run of low stone bridges. The county council puts visitors at around 10,000 a day at peak times, so arrive before ten.
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Moreton-in-MarshA market town on the Fosse Way with a station on the line from London, so the easiest place to start a car-free Cotswold trip, with Batsford Arboretum close by.
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KinghamAn Oxfordshire village in the Evenlode valley with a station on the line from London, two dining pubs, and Daylesford's farm shop two miles down the road.
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CondicoteA hamlet round a green on the high wold north-west of Stow, with a twelfth-century church, a medieval cross over a spring, a Roman road for its western lane and a henge in the fields.