Bill Boaden, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Woodstock
A small town of stone houses at the gates of Blenheim Palace, Churchill's birthplace and a World Heritage Site, with a free county museum and two old sundials.
- Nearest station
- Hanborough, about 3 miles, with the 233 or S7 bus
- Parking
- Hensington Road car park, free, with 4-hour and 10-hour bays, 4 Blue Badge bays and 12 charging bays
- Best time
- Spring to autumn for the park; mid-November to early January for Christmas
- Dogs
- On leads in Blenheim's park and parts of the Walled Garden; not in the palace, formal gardens, play area or most cafés
About Woodstock
Woodstock is a small town of about 3,500 people, 8 miles north-west of Oxford, built along the edge of the park of Blenheim Palace. Most visitors come for the palace, but the town is worth an hour of its own: stone houses, a church with an unusual sundial and a free museum of Oxfordshire. It lies just outside the Cotswolds National Landscape.
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim was built from 1705 into the 1720s, and its park was later landscaped by Capability Brown; together they were made a World Heritage Site in 1987. It is the birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill, and the room where he was born is part of the visit, with an exhibition on his life.
The park opens every day from 9am to 6pm and the palace from 10am; the palace's closing time changes with the season (4.30pm when we checked in late October 2026). In 2026 a ticket to the palace, park and gardens was £41 for an adult online or £44 on the day, and the ticket works as a pass for twelve months. A park and gardens ticket was £31 online. Dogs are welcome on leads in the park but not in the palace or formal gardens. Halloween and Christmas bring evening events, with the Christmas light trail running from mid-November to early January.
The town
The church of St Mary Magdalene, listed Grade II*, has a twelfth-century south doorway carved with zigzag and a classical tower of 1784 to 1786 at its north-west corner. High on the south wall of its nave, towards the west end, is a large sundial on which seven is written IIV and eight IIIV. A near twin, in marble and inscribed Tempus Fugit, sits in a niche on the south wall of the Town Hall of 1766. Look up for its sundial with odd numerals.
In the eighteenth century Woodstock's polished cut steel was known across Europe, and the museum ranks its glove making second only to Worcester's; the town's gallery at the museum tells that story. The town walk, the shortest on our list of short walks, has 21 numbered stops. West of the town by the Evenlode, North Leigh Roman Villa, one of the larger courtyard villas of Roman Britain, is free to visit in daylight all year.
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The Oxfordshire Museum
The county museum, opened in 1966, is free and open Tuesday to Saturday from 10am to 5pm and on Sundays from 2pm to 5pm; it is closed on Mondays. It covers the county's history, has a garden with a dinosaur and a café, and a lift to the upper floors.
Food and drink
Most of Woodstock's eating is on the High Street and round the Market Place, a few minutes from the palace gates. Brothertons Brasserie, at 1 High Street, is Italian and serves lunch and dinner every day, and the Star Inn on the Market Place serves pub food all afternoon, without bookings. For more ambitious cooking, the Back Lane Tavern on Park Lane serves small plates to share and held two AA Rosettes in 2024 and 2025; book it for an evening. For coffee before Blenheim opens, the Missing Bean on Oxford Street starts at 8am on weekdays, and the museum's café is the quiet choice in the afternoon.
Every place to eat in the town, with what each suits, is on our page of places to eat in Woodstock.
When to come
Blenheim's park is at its best from spring to autumn. For the Christmas light trail, from mid-November, book ahead online, which is also cheaper. For a bed, see where to stay in Woodstock. In mid-September the Blenheim Palace International Horse Trials bring four days of international eventing to the park (16 to 19 September in 2027).
Last verified 28 October 2026 by our editors
Part of
The Oxfordshire Cotswolds
The Windrush and Evenlode valleys on the Oxfordshire side of the hills: Burford's High Street, Kingham on the railway, Witney's blankets and Woodstock at Blenheim's gates.
Things to do in Woodstock
Historic houses and heritage · Woodstock
Blenheim Palace
Vanbrugh's palace at Woodstock, Churchill's birthplace and a World Heritage Site, with Capability Brown's park, formal gardens and a ticket that lasts a year.
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The Oxfordshire Museum
Museums and galleries · Woodstock
The county museum in Woodstock, free, with galleries on Oxfordshire's history including Woodstock's gloves and cut steel, a garden and a café.
Rainy days · Car-free
Verified Oct 2026
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North Leigh Roman Villa
Historic houses and heritage · Woodstock
The remains of one of the larger courtyard villas of Roman Britain, by the River Evenlode west of Woodstock, free in daylight all year, with its early fourth-century mosaic shown on volunteer open days from May to September.
Dog-friendly
Verified Oct 2026
Where to stay in Woodstock
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The King's Arms
Inn · Woodstock
A Fuller's inn with 15 rooms on the corner of Market Street, Woodstock, in a Grade II listed building, with dogs welcome and breakfast included.
Dog-friendly · Car-free
Verified Oct 2026
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The Feathers
Hotel · Woodstock
A hotel with 18 rooms and five suites on Market Street, Woodstock, with two AA Rosettes and a Michelin Key, a few minutes from Blenheim's gates.
Verified Nov 2026
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The Crown, Woodstock
Inn · Woodstock
An inn on Woodstock's High Street, in a building it describes as Grade II listed and eighteenth century, with five en-suite rooms, a three-bedroom cottage, a townhouse apartment and a restaurant.
Wedding venues
Verified Oct 2026
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The Punchbowl
Inn · Woodstock
A family-run Arkell's pub with nine rooms, most of them family rooms, on Oxford Street, Woodstock, with EV charging and dogs welcome.
Dog-friendly · Family-friendly · EV charging
Verified Oct 2026
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The Duke of Marlborough
Inn · Woodstock
A family and dog-friendly pub with thirteen rooms and a large car park at Woodleys, on the A44 just north of Woodstock.
Dog-friendly · Family-friendly
Verified Nov 2026
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The Star Inn
Pubs · Woodstock
A Grade II inn on the north side of the Market Place in Woodstock, serving pub classics and burgers all day without bookings, with cask ales and four rooms.
Family-friendly
Verified Oct 2026
Where to eat and drink in Woodstock
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The Woodstock Arms
Pubs · Woodstock
A bistro pub with rooms on Market Street, Woodstock, showing two AA Rosettes, open every day from 9am with food all day and dogs and children welcome.
Dog-friendly · Family-friendly
Verified Nov 2026
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Brothertons Brasserie
Restaurants · Woodstock
An Italian restaurant at 1 High Street, Woodstock, a few minutes from the gates of Blenheim Palace, serving pizza, pasta and daily specials at lunch and dinner every day.
Family-friendly
Verified Oct 2026
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The Back Lane Tavern
Pubs · Woodstock
A pub, wine bar and small-plates restaurant on Park Lane in Woodstock, with two AA Rosettes in 2024 and 2025 and a Sunday roast.
Verified Nov 2026
Walks in and around Woodstock
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Combe and Blenheim Park
Walk · Starts in Woodstock · 3 hrs · Circular
A 6.7-mile (10.8km) circular walk from Combe, moderate and about three hours: over stiled fields to East End, into Blenheim Park, mostly on its public footpaths, past Fair Rosamund's Well and the lake, north to the park wall and back down the western edge to Combe's green.
Sights in and around Woodstock
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Queen Pool, Blenheim
Sight · Lake · Woodstock
Queen Pool is the northern arm of the lake Capability Brown made at Blenheim from 1764, above Vanbrugh's Grand Bridge, with Rosamund's Well just west of the bridge and the Column of Victory above. Reached free on public footpaths from Combe; the lakeside road is permissive.
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St Mary Magdalene, Woodstock
Sight · Church · Woodstock
St Mary Magdalene is Woodstock's church on Park Street, founded with the twelfth-century town and long a chapel of Bladon, with a Norman zigzag doorway, a classical tower of 1784 to 1786 with chimes of 1792 made to play tunes, and a sundial with odd numerals. Grade II*.
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Woodstock Town Hall
Sight · Historic building · Woodstock
Woodstock Town Hall in the Market Place was designed by Sir William Chambers and built in 1766 to 1767 at the Duke of Marlborough's expense, over an open market hall enclosed in 1898, with a marble sundial on its south wall. Grade II.
Stories about Woodstock
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Afternoon tea in the Cotswolds
Story · Guides · 10 minute read
Where to have afternoon tea in the Cotswolds: country house hotels at the Slaughters and Buckland, old inns in Woodstock, Broadway and Malmesbury, and tearooms in Chipping Campden, Stow and Bourton, with times, prices and booking.
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Autumn in the Cotswolds
Story · Guides · 10 minute read
Autumn in the Cotswolds, from Westonbirt's maples and Batsford to the beech woods of the escarpment, Blenheim's park and the Slad valley: when the colour comes, the best autumn walks, the October events, how to miss the half-term crowds, what to wear and where to stay for a fire.
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Country houses and castles of the Cotswolds
Story · Guides · 11 minute read
Blenheim, Sudeley, Berkeley, Snowshill, Chastleton, Stanway, Kelmscott, Rodmarton, Dyrham, Lacock and the ruins: the Cotswolds' great houses and castles, who built them, when they open, and which suit children, gardeners or a day by train.
Getting to Woodstock
- By bus
- The S3 runs about hourly from Oxford station to Woodstock, stopping outside Blenheim, in about 35 minutes. With the S7 (Hanborough and Witney), buses run from Oxford about four times an hour.
- By train
- Hanborough, on the line from London Paddington, is about 3 miles away; Blenheim suggests the 233 bus from the station, and the S7 calls there too.
- Parking
- Hensington Road car park is free, with 4-hour and 10-hour bays, Blue Badge bays and 12 charging points.
Access
The Oxfordshire Museum has a lift to its upper floors.
| Hanborough station | 3.1 mi |
|---|---|
| Oxford station | 9.3 mi |
| Witney | 11.2 mi |
| Chipping Norton | 11.8 mi |
Places near Woodstock
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WitneyThe blanket town on the Windrush, just outside the National Landscape, with a Butter Cross, a long Church Green and Cogges manor farm, and free parking.
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OxfordThe university city at the eastern end of the Cotswold Line, where the S3 leaves the station for Woodstock and Blenheim about every hour and the X52 runs the A40 to Witney and Burford. The hills begin about 20 miles west; the colleges are the day before them.