Yanworth

Estate Hamlet and Valley Table

Yanworth's village sign was commissioned by Lord Vestey to carry the Stowell Park estate and its family crest. The estate hamlet sits in the Coln Valley, with a handful of stone houses on lanes that fall towards the river and its mills on one side and climb towards high farmland on the other.

For food and drink nearby, the Inn at Fossebridge has two traditional bars in the oldest part of its building, with flagstone floors, beams, mellow stone walls, an open fire and a log burner. Walkers, children and dogs are welcome. The riverside gardens and terrace have outdoor tables, and food and local cask ales are available.

Open Country and Valley Walks

Around Yanworth, the Coln Valley opens into high farmland and broad views over Stowell Park.

Two documented walking routes pass through Yanworth. The Stowell Park and Coln Valley circuit starts near Hangman's Stone and covers seven miles in around three and a half hours. It follows the Macmillan Way into Yanworth and the Monarch's Way beside the Coln between Stowell and Yanworth Mills, then passes Fossebridge and skirts Stowell Park. The Oxpens–Yanworth–Hangman's Stone walk crosses late-spring bluebell woods, high farmland and Coln-side field edges, with Stowell Park views, a stone sheep-wash and Hangman's Stone. It is hilly in places and includes road walking; the webpage lists four miles, while the leaflet gives about seven, and the optional extension adds about two hours. Hangman's Stone is a holed standing stone with several local explanations for its name. Both circuits run through classic Cotswold countryside.

Norman Stone and Roman Mosaics

The Grade II* Church of St Michael has 12th-century fabric, a chancel arch of about 1200 and a cable-moulded Norman font; 15th-century work followed, and the nave and chancel roofs, pews and east window date to the 19th century. Inside are grotesque corbel heads, a carved woman's face and a post-Reformation wall painting of Father Time as a skeleton carrying a scythe. Outside, a scratch sundial is set to the left of the south-porch entrance. A local tradition attributes marks in the church wall to Cromwell's cannon balls.

Chedworth Roman Villa uses a Yanworth visitor address, although the site lies in Chedworth civil parish. It is walkable from the village, down in a wooded fold of the valley. A gamekeeper is said to have found it by chance in 1864; the archaeologist James Farrer and estate workers then cleared the woodland and exposed one of the largest Roman villas in Britain, and Welbore St Clair Baddeley raised a public subscription to buy it for the National Trust in 1924. There are in-situ mosaics, hypocausts, bath-house rooms, a museum and a shrine over a natural spring, along with a café and a shop selling Roman-themed souvenirs, books and games. Children can try Roman puzzles and games, seasonal trails and archaeological activities; the surfaces are uneven, and only assistance dogs are admitted.

Domesday and the Road In

Long before any of that, the Domesday commissioners counted twenty-three households at Yanworth, along with one mill worth three shillings and twopence, and valued the whole manor at six pounds, down from seven twenty years earlier.

Drivers approach via the A429 from Northleach or Cirencester; the final lanes are narrow, and brown signs point to Roman Villa. Stagecoach 78 has limited journeys from Cirencester to Yanworth Village Hall and the villa. Gloucestershire's bookable Robin connects Kemble station with stops at St Michael's Church and Yanworth Village Hall.

The Village Hall

Yanworth Village Hall is a community venue with a kitchen for catered events. Its alcohol licence is for club members only, and the hall is not registered as a food premises.