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Why Americans are obsessed with the Cotswolds

Simon Calder’s Travel

This summer, American Vice President JD Vance has opted for a rather un-Trumpian vacation. No golden elevators or Mar-a-Lago this time: he’ll be heading with his family to the Cotswolds in August, reportedly renting a romcom-worthy cottage.

The Cotswolds really is as beautiful as the postcards – and Instagram posts – would have you believe. The region that spans parts of six counties (Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Warwickshire, Wiltshire, Worcestershire and Somerset) has always had a touch of glamour to it: it’s been a hub for the wealthy since the heyday of the wool trade in the late Middle Ages.

And more recently, the region I call home has been drawing the great and the glamorous from both sides of the pond. Taylor Swift based herself here for her London Era tour dates, Shonda Rhimes filmed Bridgerton on the streets of Bath and Jeremy Clarkson continues to cause traffic jams by selling pork scratchings to queues of Clarkson’s Farm fans. Ellen DeGeneres briefly moved here with her wife Portia De Rossi (although she’s just put her property up for sale).

We’ve even had the ultimate seal of American approval – a visit from a Kardashian. Kourtney was recently spotted at Soho Farmhouse in Chipping Norton.

Ellen DeGeneres briefly lived in the Cotswolds with her wife Portia Di Rossi

Ellen DeGeneres briefly lived in the Cotswolds with her wife Portia Di Rossi (Instagram/@ellendegeneres)

So what exactly is the appeal for transatlantic tastemakers? For one, the Cotswolds is, simply, breathtaking, in a seen-it-on-the-telly sort of way. Gorgeous, untouched villages such as Bibury, Bourton-on-the-Water and Castle Combe seem tailor-made for Instagram posts, sitting among golden hills, babbling brooks and gastropubs serving £18 sticky toffee puddings.

For Americans raised on fantastical versions of British life (think Downton Abbey, The Holiday and Harry Potter, all filmed here), it’s a concentrated dose of British fantasy: the accents, the bunting, the Range Rovers.

And this isn’t just an American fascination. The British elite are still rushing to join the “Chipping Norton set”, so-called as they tend to land among covetable postcodes in the north of the Cotswolds. Everyone from Kate Winslet to Kate Moss – and former prime minister David Cameron – have called it home.

Local infrastructure is becoming strained

Local infrastructure is becoming strained (Getty…

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