Stanton

The Mount Inn: Table, Tale and Terrace

The Mount Inn stands high above the main street, its terrace facing west across the Vale of Evesham to the Malvern Hills, with the Black Mountains showing in clear weather. It is a 17th-century Donnington Brewery house, which means Donnington BB and Cotswold Gold on draught. The kitchen keeps its supply lines short: beef from Duncan Fairbairn at New Meadow Farm in Winchcombe, cheese from Gorsehill Abbey Farm, and some of the garden produce from a Stanton resident named Mr Ellis.

The building has taken more turns than most. It began as a farmhouse, then served as a cobbler's shop, a tearoom and an off-licence. It was called The Bank when Richard Arkell bought it for £604 on 11 October 1897, and later The Five Elms, after five trees that no longer stand; cider was made in an outbuilding and drunk out beyond the gate. It only received a full alcohol licence in 1947. The pub keeps the name of a former tenant, Billy Richardson, for its house ghost.

Outside there is a gravel boules court, with sets from the bar, along with darts and dominoes. Dogs are welcome, and the beer garden keeps the same wide western view.

Village Practicalities and the Church

Stanton currently has no shop. The nearest supermarket is in Broadway, about 3.7 miles away, so it is worth arriving with what you need. Horse-riding is available in the village through Cotswolds Riding, which offers lessons, hacks and hire.

The street rises gently, lined with old honey-coloured limestone houses. The stone was quarried, the Mount Inn says, on Shenberrow Hill directly above the village. At the top stands the Church of St Michael and All Angels, Grade I listed, with fabric spanning the 12th to 17th centuries. Inside, the north arcade has circular pillars with scalloped capitals, and fragments of medieval wall painting survive in the north transept. There is a 17th-century pulpit with a sounding board, an early-16th-century octagonal font, and medieval glass reset alongside Sir Ninian Comper's work of 1918. The backs of some pews carry deep grooves, said locally to be where shepherds once tethered their dogs during the service.

Walking the Edge and Stott's Stanton

For walking, the Cotswold Way runs along the escarpment above. A six-mile circular takes in Snowshill, Littleworth Wood and old quarries before descending with views over Stanton towards the Severn Vale. A shorter route of about two and a half miles climbs to Shenberrow Hill, where a double-ramparted Iron Age settlement survives on the ridge. Gentler still is the level lane south to Stanway, roughly a mile off, with a small free car park beside the Village Hall.

Much of what you see was shaped by one man. Sir Philip Sidney Stott bought the Stanton Court estate at auction in 1906 — 882.5 acres, four farms and 26 cottages — for £26,971. He added a reservoir, extended the school, built a parish hall and a swimming pool, and put up Arts-and-Crafts street lamps. He lived at Stanton Court from 1913 until his death in 1937. David Verey called Stanton "architecturally perhaps the finest of the small North Cotswold villages." At Domesday the whole place was valued at £3, the same in 1086 as in 1066, when it belonged to St Mary's Abbey at Winchcombe and counted 23 households.

The Guildhouse and Nearby Stanway

On the edge of the village is Stanton Guildhouse, a craft retreat built by volunteers and opened in 1973. Its founder, Mary Osborn, took the idea from Gandhi, whom she met in London in 1931, and his belief in community and work done by hand. It still teaches traditional crafts today.

Stanway House lies about a mile south, a lived-in manor with a gravity fountain that reaches 300 feet; access is limited, so it is worth checking before you go. Broadway and its hilltop tower are about 3.7 miles north, as is Broadway Station on the steam railway, rebuilt by volunteers as a faithful recreation of the 1904 station, which reopened in 2018.

Arriving in Stanton, Ending at the Mount

Stanton is reached from the B4632 between Broadway and Winchcombe; Pulhams service 606 stops at the roadside turn outside the village, and it is worth checking the operator's timetable for the current stop and time.

In the evening, the terrace at the Mount looks west until the light goes.