A place in the world
Castle Combe
Castle Combe is regularly called the prettiest village in England, tucked into a wooded valley on the By Brook over the line in Wiltshire. Here is what is worth doing in Castle Combe, when to come, and why the village asks you to leave the car at the top of the hill.
At a glance
- Where
- Castle Combe, Wiltshire, in the far south of the Cotswolds on the By Brook. About five miles north west of Chippenham and ten north east of Bath.
- Best time to visit
- Early morning or late afternoon, or out of season. It is a small honeypot, and the day crowds outnumber the few hundred residents.
- How long to spend
- An hour or two for the village itself, which is tiny. Half a day with a walk along the By Brook.
- Parking
- Cars are kept out of the village. Leave the car at the visitors' car park at the top of the hill, off the B4039, and walk down; the return is uphill.
- Getting there
- Nearest station Chippenham, about five miles off, direct from London Paddington in around seventy-five minutes, then a taxi. A bus runs from Chippenham but is infrequent. By car, just off the M4.
- Dog friendly
- Yes. Both pubs and the riverside walks take dogs.
- Family friendly
- Yes, with the caveats of crowds, narrow lanes and the steep walk down from the car park and back up.
Things to do in Castle Combe
The Market Cross
Where three lanes meet in the centre stands a roofed medieval market cross, kept in its original place from the days when this was a prosperous cloth-weaving village. It is the heart of the village and the first thing the lane brings you to.
St Andrew's Church and the faceless clock
The parish church was rebuilt in the fifteenth century on wool-trade money, and it keeps one of the oldest working clocks in the country: a faceless iron clock, probably made before 1500 by a local blacksmith, that tells the time by striking rather than by a dial.
The By Brook and the bridge
The By Brook runs along the foot of the village, and the view from the little stone bridge up the street to the weavers' cottages on Water Lane is the photograph everyone comes for. It is one of the loveliest streetscapes in England, and it is busiest in the middle of the day.
A village with nothing modern in it
There are no television aerials in the protected heart of the village, no overhead wires, nothing to fix it in the present century. The cabling is buried and no new house has been built in the centre since about 1600, which is why it looks the way it does.
The film village
All of that has made Castle Combe a favourite of film-makers. War Horse and Stardust were both shot in these lanes, and the 1967 Doctor Dolittle before them, the village standing in for somewhere older and elsewhere.
Castle Combe Circuit
A different Castle Combe sits a couple of miles off: a motor-racing circuit laid out on a wartime airfield, racing since 1950 and one of the oldest in the country. It is loud on a race day and nothing to do with the quiet of the village, which is the joke of the shared name.
Visiting Castle Combe: parking, getting there, when to go
Castle Combe is in the far south of the Cotswolds, just off the M4 near Chippenham, dropped into a wooded valley on the By Brook. The historic village is tiny and quickly walked, but it sits at the bottom of a hill, and how you arrive matters more here than almost anywhere else in this guide.
Cars are kept out. Visitors leave the car at the pay-and-display car park at the top of the hill, off the B4039, and walk down into the village, about ten minutes on the way in and a climb on the way back. There is almost no parking in the village itself, and what there is belongs to residents, so do not drive down hoping for a space.
The nearest station is Chippenham, about five miles away, with direct trains from London Paddington in around seventy-five minutes. From there it is a short taxi; a bus runs but is infrequent, so a car or a cab is the practical way in.
Because it is small and famous at once, it fills fast. Come early or late in the day, or out of season, and you can have the bridge and the street more or less to yourself.
Where to eat, drink & stay
The White Hart, a fourteenth-century pub in the market place, is the village local, flagstoned and beamed, with a courtyard behind.
The Castle Inn sits at the very heart of the village and does food and rooms, the obvious stop on the walk down.
The Manor House is the grand option, a country-house hotel in its own grounds at the top of the village, with a back gate that opens straight onto the famous bridge.
Castle Combe questions, answered
- What is Castle Combe famous for?
- Being called the prettiest village in England, and for looking almost untouched: a single medieval street of weavers' cottages, a roofed market cross and no aerials or wires anywhere in the protected centre. It is also a favourite film location, from War Horse to Stardust.
- Can you drive into Castle Combe?
- In effect, no. Visitors are asked to leave cars at the car park at the top of the hill and walk down. There is almost no parking in the village, and the lanes are very narrow, so driving in is discouraged.
- Is Castle Combe free to visit?
- Yes. The village is free to walk around, and the church is open to visitors; you pay only for parking at the top of the hill, and for whatever you eat, drink or stay in.
- Is Castle Combe worth visiting?
- Yes, with timing. It is consistently rated one of the most beautiful villages in the country, and early or late in the day it lives up to it. The only real drawbacks are its small size and the crowds in the middle of a summer day.
There is the village in the photographs, and there is the country above it: gated drives off the high lanes, houses with no name at the gate, the river running on past windows the tour never sees.
On a summer afternoon Castle Combe is a film set with the public let in. Come early, or come out of season, and it returns to being what it has always been, which is somewhere people would rather be left alone.
The story moves through this world. Begin Chapter One →