Milton-under-Wychwood and Shipton-under-Wychwood

Milton-under-Wychwood and Shipton-under-Wychwood are two villages named after a royal hunting forest, grown together so completely that only residents know where one stops and the other starts, and they will explain it at length. It is the Cotswolds with the coach parties filtered out, which suits buyers who wanted Burford's honey stone and could never face Burford's car park in August. The cottages are as pretty as the listings promise. The four-by-fours parked outside them have seen less mud than the average Labrador.