Description
This beautiful and bucolic splash of land in western England has seen more adventure and intrigue than almost any other part of this sceptred isle.
The Cotswolds are often mistaken for a tranquil backwater. But dig deeper and you find a remarkable story of action and conflict, migration and innovation.
Ridge and Vale reveals how these gentle limestone hills and valleys have played an outsized role in British history. Olivier Hein vividly brings to life the ancient tribes, wool merchants, monks, soldiers and monarchs who transformed this unique landscape—from hill forts and Roman roads to medieval market towns and industrial villages. Rich in natural resources and strategically located, the Cotswolds have always been a crossroads of power struggles and social change: a key battleground of the Wars of the Roses and the English Civil War, a wartime base for US troops, and home to important British intelligence, Army and Navy facilities. But above all, this is a region with an extraordinary capacity for reinvention, reimagining itself over time as an agricultural powerhouse, trading hub, upscale rural retreat and much more besides. As the twenty-first century brings new challenges, including overtourism and climate change, the Cotswolds must once again adapt in order to thrive.
This is the Cotswolds as never told before: not as a quaint footnote but as a region that profoundly shaped Britain.
- The perfect book for those hoping to visit the Cotswolds and learn more about its untold history
- Brings to life the ancient tribes, monks, wool merchants, soldiers and monarchs who transformed this unique landscape
- Olivier Hein is a historian and author of many books. He lives in the Cotswolds.