A tiny northern Cotswold hamlet
Hidcote Boyce
Ten National Trust-owned dwellings, field paths and ridge-and-furrow form the secluded setting for a visit built around walking and two nearby gardens.
- Hamlet
- 10 dwellings
- Main circuit
- 4 miles / about 2 hours
- On the circuit
- Hidcote Boyce, Hidcote Bartrim and Kiftsgate
The Fox verdict
Come for the paths and gardens, not village facilities
Hidcote Boyce is a ten-dwelling hamlet with no pub, shop or church of its own, while the documented circuit and two nearby gardens give a visit its shape.
A day here can combine the Mickleton–Hidcotes circuit with Hidcote Manor Garden or Kiftsgate, then use Mickleton or Ebrington for food. The hamlet itself is a secluded cluster of old stone buildings approached by lanes or field paths.
Where to go
Places in Hidcote Boyce
Every place below is checked against a published source, listed with what it is and how long to give it.
Local signatures
3 placesHidcote Manor Garden
Major Lawrence Johnston developed 10.5 acres of linked outdoor rooms from 1907 to 1938 and gave the garden to the National Trust in 1948, making it the Trust's first garden-only property.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Plan allocation: 1 hour 30 minutes
- Locality
- Hidcote Bartrim
- Access
- A step-free route covers about one-third of the garden; the rest includes steps or uneven ground. Dogs on short fixed leads are allowed except in the Old Garden complex and Manor House.
Kings Arms
A North Cotswold village pub and restaurant with low beams, log fires, a snug and bar, locally sourced seasonal produce, local ales and craft beer, plus a garden.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Plan allocation: 1 hour
- Locality
- Mickleton
- Access
- Well-behaved dogs on leads are welcome.
The Ebrington Arms
A country inn in Ebrington serving beer-battered fish and chips with crushed peas and tartare.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Plan allocation: 1 hour 15 minutes
- Locality
- Nearby Ebrington
Food & drink
1 placeVegetable Matters
A family-run farm shop established in 2017, selling seasonal fruit and vegetables, many grown at Drinkwater Farm in Ebrington.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Plan allocation: 30 minutes
- Locality
- Ebrington
Walks & outdoors
1 placeKiftsgate Court Gardens
Heather Muir began developing the garden around 1920 with help from Lawrence Johnston, and later generations continued it. Highlights include the White Garden, Rose Border and the 1938 Rosa filipes ‘Kiftsgate’.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Plan allocation: 1 hour 30 minutes
- Locality
- Beside the Hidcote Boyce–Lower Quinton road
- Access
- Children are welcome, with supervision advised because of steep banks and deep water; dogs are not admitted to the garden.
History & heritage
1 placeChurch of St Eadburga
The Grade I church has a chevron-moulded Norman south doorway, an early studded oak door with an approximately two-metre iron bar, a 1679 pulpit, the effigy of Sir John Fortescue and Keyt-family monuments.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Plan allocation: 45 minutes
- Locality
- Ebrington
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Three ways to explore Hidcote Boyce
Signature outings
Hidcote Manor Garden
Lawrence Johnston's 10.5 acres of linked outdoor rooms became the National Trust's first garden-only property in 1948.
Kiftsgate Court Gardens
The White Garden, Rose Border and 1938 Rosa filipes ‘Kiftsgate’ belong to a garden developed across three generations of women gardeners.
St Eadburga's doorway
Ebrington's Grade I church pairs a chevron-moulded Norman south doorway with an early studded oak door and long iron bar.
The village story
Hidcote Boyce: paths, gardens and a ten-dwelling hamlet
The accepted article moves from the hamlet and private manor to its walking circuit, neighbouring gardens, nearby food and church, Domesday record and careful arrival advice.
A ten-dwelling hamlet and its private manor
Ten dwellings, two of them farmhouses, make up Hidcote Boyce, and the National Trust owns every one. They stand in a cluster of stone and thatch reached by narrow lanes or field paths, on the high northern edge of the Cotswolds in Gloucestershire, close to the Warwickshire border. Curved medieval ridge-and-furrow still marks the fields around the hamlet. There is no pub, shop or church in the hamlet itself.
Hidcote House is a Grade I manor whose gable carries the inscription F.K.1663, for Francis Keyte. Its twentieth-century Arts and Crafts additions include lead rainwater heads shaped with animals and flowers and plasterwork possibly by Norman Jewson, laid over seventeenth-century fireplaces, panelling, a studded door and its locking bar. It is a private house rather than somewhere to visit.
The circuit and two gardens
From Mickleton, a four-mile circuit climbs about 450 feet in roughly two hours, opening views over the Vale of Evesham and Meon Hill. It passes the two hillside gardens and the hamlets of Hidcote Bartrim and Hidcote Boyce, crosses a stream, then returns along the escarpment on the Heart of England Way. Although part of the Miles Without Stiles series, the mapped circuit includes gates, a low stone stile, steps and a stony track. Visitor reception has four route cards for shorter walks, from twenty minutes to two and a half hours.
Hidcote Manor Garden sits beside the circuit in neighbouring Hidcote Bartrim. Major Lawrence Johnston laid out its ten and a half acres of linked outdoor rooms between 1907 and 1938 and gave it to the National Trust in 1948, the first garden the Trust took on for the garden alone. There is a café, a shop, a plant centre and benches; a step-free route covers about a third of the ground, with steps or uneven going over the rest, and dogs on short leads are allowed everywhere except the Old Garden and the Manor House.
Food and parish history nearby
Kiftsgate Court Gardens sit on the scarp beside the Hidcote Boyce–Lower Quinton road, looking out over the same vale. Heather Muir began planting here around 1920 with help from Johnston next door; two later generations of women gardeners continued her work. The White Garden and Rose Border are the set pieces, alongside the Rosa filipes 'Kiftsgate', planted in 1938 and celebrated as England's largest rose. Children are welcome, but the banks are steep and the water deep, and dogs are not admitted.
For a meal, head to the surrounding villages. The Kings Arms at Mickleton has low beams, log fires, a snug and a garden, and takes well-behaved dogs on leads. The Ebrington Arms in Ebrington serves beer-battered fish and chips with crushed peas and tartare. For provisions, Vegetable Matters in Ebrington is a farm shop founded in 2017, selling produce grown at Drinkwater Farm.
Hidcote Boyce in Domesday
Ebrington also has the nearest parish church, St Eadburga's, which is Grade I. The Norman south doorway is moulded with chevron, and the early studded oak door is barred by a length of iron about two metres long. Inside are a 1679 pulpit, the recumbent effigy of Sir John Fortescue in his legal robes, and monuments to the Keyt family. A plaque records William Keyte's Cow Charity of 1632, which gave poor families milk from ten cows and became a money trust in 1952. The tower clock, made by a village blacksmith around 1748, has no face and is still wound by hand.
Hidcote Boyce is old enough to appear in Domesday, under Gloucestershire. The single recorded household was one enslaved person, and there was one lord's plough team; the manor was valued at two pounds a year in both 1066 and 1086, when Winchcombe Abbey held it. The "Boyce" may preserve the name of a de Bois tenant.
Getting here and the old field path
Getting here takes some care. Honeybourne is the nearest station, about four and a half miles from the National Trust property, and has no dedicated taxi rank, so pre-book a taxi. By road the turning is a mile east of the B4632; satnav can send drivers down a farm track, so follow the brown signs through Mickleton. Lower Farm has limited H3B/E and H7 community bus links to Mickleton, Stratford-upon-Avon and Moreton-in-Marsh.
The field path between the two Hidcotes was already on the 1884 Ordnance Survey map, and it remains the route between the two hamlets.
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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.
- Hidcote Manor Garden — nationaltrust.org.uk national body or asset manager
- Kiftsgate Court Gardens — kiftsgate.co.uk operator, sector body or destination organisation
- Kings Arms — kingsarmsmickleton.co.uk operator, sector body or destination organisation
- The Ebrington Arms — theebringtonarms.co.uk operator, sector body or destination organisation
- Vegetable Matters — vegetable-matters.co.uk operator, sector body or destination organisation
- Church of St Eadburga — historicengland.org.uk statutory register or public authority record not machine-readable; publisher restricts automated access