Great Western Coffee Shop

Have received an email today from FGW inviting me to try assorted guided tours by rail and bus, including one called the Cotswolds Experience.

It features visits to, er, Gloucester, Broadway and Stratford-upon-Avon, two of which are most definitely not in the Cotswolds, while the third, although built of Cotswold stone, actually sits at the foot of the Cotswold escarpment in the Vale of Evesham. Maybe someone thinks riding on a train passing through Kemble counts as a Cotswold experience.

They must be hoping Americans won't know the difference.

What do you expect they don't teach geography these days.

But in all fairness, didn't BR start the re-definition of the Cotswolds some years ago? After all, according to my limited knowledge, the current "Cotswold Line" only really skirts the periphery.

Exactly - I'm cotswolds line as we all know but I have no idea if, at any point, we pass through the cotswolds

I know Broadway is in the cotswolds and that is near evesham/honeybourne so I assume it is that section

Somewhat bizarrely to my mind, Bradford on Avon in Wiltshire and the outlying village of Winsley now seem to be sporting signs saying "Welcome to the Cotswolds"

The Cotswolds now (technically) include Lacock, Corsham and Bradford-on-Avon, via a bump on the side of the area which includes places like Biddestone, Box, Castle Combe.

It means that the main London to South Wales and London to Bristol lines, and even the Heart of Wessex, can give you a brief Cotswold experience.

The Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) covers a very wide area. On this interactive map (http://maps.cotswoldsaonb.com/# (http://maps.cotswoldsaonb.com/#)), you'll see that all the stations between Combe and Kingham in Oxfordshire are within the Cotswolds AONB area, with Hanborough on the boundary  - the AONB starts at the top of the station approach road a few metres away! The railway then re-enters the AONB near Chipping Campden otherwise the stations fall outside the area but have bus links between the station and main tourist locations, for example Moreton-in-Marsh to Stow-on-the Wold and Bourton-on-the-Water.

The local councils, with support from First Great Western and London Midland have produced a guide to the Cotswolds Line which you can download here - http://www.railbus.co.uk/moreinformation.htm (http://www.railbus.co.uk/moreinformation.htm)

Quite, the Cotswold council district in Gloucestershire and the AONB are two different things. The AONB covers a wide area of oolitic rocks.

The western edge of the Cotswold Line formation actually forms the AONB boundary from Moreton-in-Marsh to Blockley level crossing, so not in the AONB, but is within the Cotswold council district.

And aren't Stroud and Kemble in the Cotswolds?

I did mention Kemble right at the top of the thread but none of the places you actually get to visit on this tour - as opposed to passing through on a train - are. Hardly "a breathtaking day out to the scenic Cotswolds" to quote the First Group blurb.