Cotswolds & Oxford

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D1 Friday, 15 May

National Herb Centre & Broughton Grange

Tim will collect you from the Sheraton Heathrow Hotel, immediately north of Terminal 5, Heathrow Airport and, once we are all together, we drive just north of Banbury, Oxfordshire, to the National Herb Centre for lunch and a look around their extensive range of herbs – from kitchen to medicine cabinet.

Tim will collect you from either Stansted Airport or from the Sheraton Heathrow Hotel, immediately north of Terminal 5, Heathrow Airport and, once we are all together, we drive west for lunch and the afternoon at Waterperry Gardens, the gardens of the famous, former School of Horticulture for Ladies, founded in 1932 by Miss Beatrix Havergal. Among many other things, the gardens include one of the finest herbaceous borders in the country.

From Waterperry it is about an hour's drive to our hotel in the picturesque Cotswold market town of Burford, where we will arrive in good time to check in and relax, before drinks and dinner at The Lamb.

Today's total driving is about 100 miles/160 km

D2 Saturday, 16 May

Upton Wold, Batsford & Sezincote

We start our day in Burford, one of the Cotswolds principal market towns and one of its finest, before a morning visit to Kelmscott Manor, the one-time Cotswold retreat of William Morris – quite possibly the 19th-century's most celebrated designer and a key figure in the Arts & Crafts Movement – and of his friend and colleague Dante Gabriel Rossetti, the Pre-Raphaelite artist.

We will have lunch at Kelmscott, and then the afternoon at nearby Buscot Park an Italianate country house, built between 1779 and 1783, now the home of Lord Farringdon and his extensive and fabulous art collection. Surrounded by pleasure gardens, the former kitchen gardens, on one side of the house, now shelter the ever-colourful Four Seasons garden and, in an unusual marriage of Italianate formality with an English parkland landscape, woodland walks lead to a splendid Harold Peto water garden on the other side of the house.

We dine at a long-time favourite, The Village Pub, Barnsley, on our way home to Lower Slaughter.

Today's driving is about 60 miles/100 km

D3 Sunday, 17 May

Hidcote & Kiftsgate

After a suitably lazy start for a Sunday, we spend the morning meandering along the Coln Valley, stopping in Bibury, to visit Arlington Row, a row of 17th-century weavers' cottages, and stopping again, at the Saxon church of St Andrew in Coln Rogers, before retracing our steps for lunch and a midday shop at the excellent Burford Garden Company, a garden centre and so much more.

We spend the afternoon in other peoples' private gardens courtesy of the National Garden Scheme (NGS). During the year some 3,000-4,000 gardens across England & Wales open their gates to the public and donate an entrance fee to the NGS. Indeed, by opening their gardens to the public, gardeners have been raising money for nursing charities, and the NGS is now the most significant charitable funder of nursing charities in the country, having donated a total of £55m since 1927.

We return to Lower Slaughter for dinner.

Today's driving is about 80 miles/130 km

D4 Monday, 18 May

Oxford

Our day starts with a private guided tour of Upton Wold, like Broughton Grange, an exceptional private garden. Created by its owners, Ian and Caroline Bond, it is astonishing to think that there was no garden here at all, when they moved to Upton Wold in 1973, just a piece of land surrounding a beautiful house, two very ancient yews, an imposing holly, some old apple trees and a very beautiful view.

Our second visit is to nearby Batsford Arboretum, for lunch and to explore its wide-ranging collections, including the National Collection of Japanese Flowering Cherries. Batsford Park, the house (closed to the public), was home to the Mitford sisters.

We enjoy the whole of the mid part of the day at Hidcote before crossing the road to neighbouring Kiftsgate Court. Another Arts & Crafts garden, Kiftsgate is a romantic garden enjoying stunning, far-reaching views over the Vale of Evesham and, of course, it is home to the Kiftsgate Rose. Unusually, Kiftsgate has twice passed from mother to daughter – from Heather Muir, who created the garden, via Heather’s daughter, Diany Binny, to Diany’s daughter, Anne Chambers, who, with her husband, Jonny, gardens Kiftsgate today.

We stop for dinner at The Halfway, Kineton, en route home to Lower Slaughter.

Today's driving is about 50 miles/80 km

D5 Tuesday, 19 May

Kelmscott & Buscot

We start the day exploring Chipping Campden, a busy, honey-stoned Cotswold market town, where we visit St James' Church, a fine example of a medieval wool church. Then to Hidcote Manor, the world-famous Arts & Crafts gardens created by Lawrence Johnston. Johnston, an American anglophile who settled in Britain with his mother, bought Hidcote in 1907, was gardening by 1910 and, by the 1920s, had 12 gardeners! Hidcote was his life's work and remains one of England's most influential 20th-century gardens.

We’re not far from Broughton Grange, where we spend the afternoon exploring this wonderful contemporary garden. Set amongst some 350 acres of parkland and farmland, with planting that owes its origins to the Victorian era, the gardens at Broughton Grange were brought into the modern era by the current owner, Stephen Hester, when he bought the estate in 1992. Hester commissioned leading landscape designer Tom Stuart-Smith to transform the six-acre south-facing field into a walled garden and now Broughton Grange is widely recognised as one of the most significant private contemporary gardens in Britain.

It is not too far from our hotel, The Slaughters Country Inn, in Lower Slaughter, a picturesque Cotswold village, where we will arrive in good time to check in, relax and enjoy a drink before dinner at the hotel.

D6 Wednesday, 20 May

National Herb Centre & Broughton Grange

spend the whole day in Oxford, a busy, historic city most associated with its university.

The University of Oxford can trace its teaching to 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the world's second-oldest university in continuous operation. It also has the world’s largest university press and the largest academic library system nationwide.

Important though the university and its 39 colleges are, Oxford is much more than that. From Alice in Wonderland and Inspector Morse to Harry Potter, and from boutique shopping to exceptional heritage, there is a great deal to occupy a day in Oxford and to help you get the most out of your day, we start our visit with a guided walking tour with superb, specialist guides from Footprint Tours.

There is plenty of time to explore and visit colleges and museums, before we meet for tea and scones at the Old Parsonage Hotel, after which we will return to Lower Slaughter for dinner.

Today's driving is about 60 miles/100 km

D7 Thursday, 21 May

Upton Wold, Batsford & Sezincote

Our final day starts at Daylesford Farm, an organic farm shop like no other, where we pick up supplies for our picnic lunch, before setting off to Rousham House, an historically important, 18th-century landscape garden designed by William Kent, and one of the few gardens of this period to have escaped alteration. To one side of the house are two large walled gardens, complete with herbaceous borders, parterres and an original pigeon house.

The Sheraton Heathrow Hotel is just over an hour away, where the tour ends and where we plan to be in good time for evening flights home. If you are staying in the UK and don't need, or wish, to return to London or Heathrow, then please let us know your onward travel plans, so that we may assist you in getting to your next destination.

Today's driving is about 90 miles/145 km