England Guide
Oxfordshire, the Chilterns and the Cotswolds
Northleach
Secluded NORTHLEACH is one of the most appealing and least developed villages in the Cotswolds – a great base to explore the Cotswolds. Rows of immaculate late-medieval cottages cluster around the village's Market Place with more of the same framing the adjoining Green, but the most outstanding feature is the handsome Perpendicular Church of St Peter and St Paul, erected in the fifteenth century at the height of the wool boom. The floor of the nave is inlaid with an exceptional collection of memorial brasses, marking the tombs of the merchants whose endowments paid for the church. On several, you can make out the woolsacks laid out beneath the corpse's feet – a symbol of wealth and power that features to this day in the House of Lords, where a woolsack is placed on the Lord Chancellor's seat.
Northleach's other main attraction is Keith Harding's World of Mechanical Music (daily 10am–6pm; £7.50; 
www.mechanicalmusic.co.uk ), comprising a bewildering collection of antique musical boxes, automata, barrel organs and mechanical instruments all stuffed into one room. The entrance fee includes an hour-long demonstration tour, of which the highlight is hearing the likes of Rachmaninov, Gershwin or Paderewski playing their own masterpieces on piano rolls.
Practicalities
Cotteswold House ( 
01451/860 493, www.cotteswoldhouse.com ; Price: ₤61-70 is a smashing place to stay: a wonderfully well-preserved stone cottage with exposed stone arches and antique oak panelling right in the centre of the village on the Market Place. Alternatively, head for the excellent 
Wheatsheaf Hotel ( 01451/860 244, www.wheatsheaf.cotswoldsinns.com ; Price: ₤71-90), a former coaching inn just along from the Market Place on West End. The hotel's old stone exterior has been left intact, but the public rooms have been remodelled in a bright and brisk modern style and the same applies to the eight, en-suite guest rooms, though here the design is softened by period furniture. The Wheatsheaf'srestaurant is first-rate too, offering delicious British cuisine – roast rack of lamb, cod in beer and so forth – with mains averaging around £14.