Sheepscombe sits in a steep small valley just behind the Cotswold Scarp and the nearby Painswick Beacon. Like Painswick, and as its name suggests, the village owes its existence largely to the wool trade, with its heyday coming in the 17th and 18th century, when much of the village was built.

As that trade declined, so did the prosperity and population of the village and these days like many a Cotswold village it has been gentrified with a rural classes beeing replaced by affluent middle classes.

That may be the reason for the less-than-welcoming vibe I got there overall, culminating in a man telling I didn’t have permission to take picture of an abandoned building which was his ‘private property’. I pointed out I was on a footpath so can take pictures of anything I see and he insisted he was right and got belligerent. I got the shots anyway.

Despite that it is a beautiful little village but neither the easiest to get to or to park in. Walking around it is fine if a little steep in places, and there are plenty of footpaths to explore, and some lovely shaded trails in the Blackstable Woods above.