Fields, woodland and village history
Fifield
A limestone village that sends you out along field paths, into ancient woodland and back towards a medieval church.
- Best for
- Field walks and Foxholes ancient woodland
- Give it
- Allow 3 to 4 hours for the six-mile circular
- Don't miss
- St John's octagonal tower and stone spire
The Fox verdict
Come to Fifield ready to walk
The strongest day here links open fields and woodland with a small but richly detailed medieval church.
Choose the six-mile Milton-under-Wychwood and Fifield circular or the shorter circuit from The Green through farmland to Foxholes. Add St John the Baptist for its stone-slab porch roof, medieval glass and Mary Bray brass, then choose the Merrymouth for an in-village pub meal or neighbouring villages for cafés and shops.
Where to go
Places in Fifield
Every place below is checked against a published source, listed with what it is and how long to give it.
Local signatures
3 placesFifield Recreation Ground
A recreation ground with table tennis, football and rugby posts, swings, a picnic table and broad views.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 30 minutes
- Locality
- behind The Green
Church of St John the Baptist
An early-13th-century church with a 14th-century tower and porch, medieval glass, an octagonal font and a brass to Mary Bray and her nine children.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 45 minutes
- Locality
- Fifield
- Access
- Visitors are welcome outside services.
Rise and Flour
An independent sourdough bakery and café offering bread, takeaway food, sit-in café service and occasional takeaway pizza evenings.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 45 minutes
- Locality
- The Elms, Shipton Road, Milton-under-Wychwood
Food & drink
4 placesBledington Community Shop and Café
A community shop with fresh and pantry groceries, meat and alcohol; its café offers soup, savouries and sweet items.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 30 minutes
- Locality
- Bledington
The King's Head Inn, Bledington
A privately owned country inn serving traditional and modern British food made with mainly local ingredients and four rotating guest ales.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 90 minutes
- Locality
- Bledington village green
The Hare, Milton-under-Wychwood
A dining pub known locally for fresh fish and seafood specials, and the start and finish refreshment stop for the Milton-under-Wychwood and Fifield walk.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 90 minutes
- Locality
- Milton-under-Wychwood
Cotswold Merrymouth Inn
Fifield's historic coaching inn has a pub, restaurant, garden and courtyard seating, and is home to the Cotswold Blues Club.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 90 minutes
- Locality
- on the A424
Walks & outdoors
2 placesFoxholes Wildlife Walk
A 1.75-mile BBOWT-waymarked circuit within a 23-hectare ancient woodland reserve, with bluebells in May and records of fungi, bats and butterflies.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 90 minutes
- Locality
- Foxholes Nature Reserve
- Access
- Paths can be very muddy and dogs must be on leads.
Milton-under-Wychwood and Fifield Circular
An easy circular following streams, footbridges, fields and the D'Arcy Dalton Way through Fifield, with an optional two-mile extension.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow 3 to 4 hours
- Locality
- Milton-under-Wychwood and Fifield
- Access
- There are stiles and the A424 must be crossed carefully.
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Three ways to explore Fifield
Signature outings
Walk the six-mile circular
Start at The Hare in Milton-under-Wychwood, enter Fifield through the playing field, then follow the D'Arcy Dalton Way out of the village.
Read eight centuries in stone
St John the Baptist pairs an early-13th-century church with a 14th-century octagonal tower, stone spire and stone-slab porch roof.
Take the Foxholes wildlife walk
Drivers face a three-space lay-by followed by a 600-metre walk down the track; vehicles cannot continue to the reserve.
The village story
From Fifield's Green to Foxholes Wood
Walk from a limestone village into fields and ancient woodland, with medieval stonework and neighbouring food stops along the way.
The Green and the Merrymouth
Behind The Green, on the recreation ground, there are swings, a picnic table, table tennis, and football and rugby posts, with open fields beyond and views that run off toward the Wychwood villages. This is Fifield, a limestone village. It tells you what to expect: a place that sends you out to walk.
The Cotswold Merrymouth, a historic coaching inn on the A424 at the edge of Fifield, serves food in its pub and restaurant, including Sunday carvery, and hosts Cotswold Blues Club nights. Its garden and courtyard offer outdoor seating.
Nearby Inns, Cafés and Shops
More places to eat lie in the neighbouring villages. The King's Head at Bledington sits on the village green beside a brook, pours four rotating guest ales, and cooks traditional and modern British food from mainly local ingredients. The Hare, across the fields at Milton-under-Wychwood, is known for fresh fish and seafood specials, and is where the circular walk starts and ends. The Feathered Nest at Nether Westcote has outdoor seating overlooking the Evenlode Valley.
For a bakery stop and grocery shopping, look to the neighbouring villages. Rise and Flour, a sourdough bakery and café at Milton-under-Wychwood, offers sit-in and takeaway food and occasional pizza evenings. Bruern Farm Shop and Café sells vegetable boxes and has a café attached. The community shop at Bledington keeps groceries, meat and alcohol, with most vegetables sourced locally, and serves soup, savouries and cake.
Woodland Walks and Medieval Stonework
The walking is the reason to stay. An easy six-mile circular links Milton-under-Wychwood and Fifield, following streams and footbridges and the D'Arcy Dalton Way through the village, with a two-mile extension toward the edge of the old Rissington airfield. Closer to the door, a 5.8-kilometre loop runs from The Green out through farmland to Foxholes, a 23-hectare stretch of ancient woodland where BBOWT waymarks a 1.75-mile circular. The reserve is best in May for bluebells and has recorded more than 200 species of fungi, seven kinds of bat including Bechstein's, and 23 butterflies. Paths in every direction turn muddy in winter, and wellingtons are worth packing.
St John the Baptist is early thirteenth century, with a fourteenth-century tower and porch. The narrow octagonal tower carries a contemporary stone spire; the porch has a massive stone-slab roof, crenellated sides and carved heads. Inside are a fifteenth-century octagonal font, fragments of medieval glass, an 1852 east window by William Wailes, and a brass to Mary Bray, who died in 1620, and her nine children. A reported '1699 IB' datestone at the spire base may mark a repair. The church welcomes visitors outside services and offers a cool refuge in summer.
Ancient Earthworks and a Tradition of Exploring
On the Gloucestershire boundary, Fifield long barrow is a Neolithic funerary monument: a mound 48 metres long and up to 1.8 metres high. A 1934 excavation found a stone passage and burial chamber. During the Second World War a brick bomb shelter was built into its north-west side, and its remains are still visible.
Kingham station is under four miles off, with trains to Oxford, Worcester and London Paddington; Burford lies about four miles south and Stow roughly four to six miles away. In the 1920s, Idbury and Fifield school head teacher Jessie Jones had pupils map local fields, springs and old field strips as part of a rural survey. She called the exercise Exploring and encouraged children to discover their own surroundings. The same curiosity suits a walk here.
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A guide with a point of view
Written from research. Edited for real journeys.
Use the Official site links for live practical details, then use this guide for context, ideas and room to explore.
Sources
Every place on this page is checked against a published source. Each entry links the record we used and names who publishes it.
- Fifield Recreation Ground — fifieldvillage.co.uk operator, sector body or destination organisation
- Church of St John the Baptist — historicengland.org.uk statutory register or public authority record not machine-readable; publisher restricts automated access
- Foxholes Wildlife Walk — bbowt.org.uk other published source
- Milton-under-Wychwood and Fifield Circular — cotswolds-nl.org.uk other published source
- Rise and Flour — riseandflour.co.uk operator, sector body or destination organisation
- Bledington Community Shop and Café — fifieldvillage.co.uk other published source
- The King's Head Inn, Bledington — fifieldvillage.co.uk other published source
- The Hare, Milton-under-Wychwood — fifieldvillage.co.uk other published source
- Cotswold Merrymouth Inn — cotswoldmerrymouth.co.uk operator, sector body or destination organisation