48 hours in TETBURY & MALMESBURY

Tetbury, a long-established hotspot for antiques shopping, is now joined by its up-and-coming neighbour, Malmesbury – together making the southern Cotswolds a standout destination for arts and antiques lovers. Rosanna Morris explores

- Rosanna Morris

Think of a weekend of antiquing in the Cotswolds, and Tetbury is one of the first places that will come to mind. This hilly town in Gloucestershire has been attracting antiques lovers for decades and, today, almost every other shop here is an antiques store.

Tetbury thrived in the Middle Ages on its wool industry, as the town was centrally located in a landscape of sheep farms on a main road between Oxford and Bristol. By the 16th century, it had one of the best-known wool and yarn markets in the country, and the grand townhouses we see today were built by clothiers and wool-staplers from the profits of this boom. Like many towns that enjoyed prosperous textile trades, Tetbury was hit hard by industrialisation in the 19th century and went into decline in the early 1800s. The town became isolated and fell into obscurity (which is also why it retains its historic charm and ancient buildings) - until the railway arrived in 1889. And that's when this remote part of the country was discovered by artists and craftspeople looking for bucolic countryside escapes from the polluted, industrious cities - people who would go on to become key names in the Arts & Crafts movement. Craft communities developed around Ernest Gimson and the brothers Sidney and Ernest Barnsley, who moved to the south Cotswolds in 1893.