InfoBritain - Travel Through History In The UK :
Burford
Burford, Oxfordshire
Burford in the Cotswolds is a small market town, with appears much as it did in the Elizabethan era of the sixteenth century. Burford's preservation resulted from the town's decline in the nineteenth century when both the main road from Oxford to Cheltenham, and the railway passed it by. The town simply stopped in time, and a happy result of this for tourists is the chance to visit a market town from the time of Francis Drake, the Armada, and Shakespeare. Naturally there have been changes. Sixteenth century Burford would not have had street lights, or glazed windows. But Burford is probably as close as you're going to get to the sixteenth century on the scale of a town. If you visit Burford bear in mind as you walk around that in Elizabethan times this was a major town, the third richest town in Oxfordshire, behind only Oxford itself, and Henley.
Directions: From London follow the M40 towards Oxford. At Oxford take the A40 signposted to Cheltenham. Click here for an interactive road and satellite map centred on Burford.
Contact: Tourist Information Centre, 33A High Street, Burford OX18 4QA
telephone: 01993 823558
fax: 01993 823590
e-mail: burford.vic@westoxon.gov.uk