The Cotswolds is one of England's most beautiful, and desirable, areas to live. People often compare its architecture to that of Périgord, in France.
The area has recently been made even more popular by droves of 'Celebs' quitting Sadiq Khan's Socialist, Hamas-loving, London, for a safer, less crime-ridden, and friendlier, place to live.
However, as nice a place as it is, with its beautiful old stone-built homes, it does come with ONE HUGE disadvantage;.... droves of bloody, camera-toting tourists. It's become a 'theme park'.
Many decades ago, when my people had a cottage on the North Welsh border, we would always stop en route to buy Pork Pies, etc, at a particularly good butcher's shop in the village of Broadway.
Broadway was, and probably still is, the most iconic Cotswold village. Yes, I suppose we were also 'tourists' of a sort, but we didn't go around peering into people's windows, or eating sandwiches whilst sitting on the pavement. We stopped, did our shopping, and continued on our way. They would hardly have noticed us come and go, other than a small amount of money we contributed to their economy.
These days, coachloads of foreign tourists are ushered around in large groups, treating the area as if it is some sort of huge plastic Disneyland theme park.
If I owned, and lived in, one of the cottages above, I would be absolutely bloody furious.
1 comment:
Your photo shows Arlington Row in Bibury which does get extremely busy especially in summer. Some years ago visitors complained about a resident's yellow van parked outside his own house which spoiled their photos. Cue a procession of yellow vans which paraded along the Row in his support!
Post a Comment