Henry Ford’s obsession with the Cotswolds started in 1920 and saw him secretly buy a cottage and transport it brick by brick to be rebuilt in Michigan, where it still stands today. He tried to repeat the trick with a Northleach ballroom, but that has disappeared without trace….

Once the wool from the Cotwold Lions, a breed introduced by the Romans, was the most in-demand in the world, creating a wealth engine that made the region rich. I look at the Cotswolds’ past and examine the ‘living museum’ of Painswick, all because of a chance photograph on an unused door…..

There is no road nearby, no car park, no sign posts or easy access. You have to walk a mile or more along bridleways and through a lot of sheep, cows and abandoned farm buildings. There is a little information board when you get to it, in a clearing in the middle of a small wood, but nothing else. Just some crumbling walls and a low wooden structure covered in corrugated iron, ivy and moss.