They just want a selfie England's 'prettiest village' suffering tourist invasion

Standing on a stone bridge that crosses the River Coln in the heart of Bibury, it is not hard to see why the 19th-century designer William Morris described it as "the most beautiful village in England". Chances are, however, the picturesque Cotswold view will not be enjoyed alone.

- Jamie Grierson

For Bibury is suffering from overtourism, according to some of the village's 600 residents who share its narrow lanes with vast coaches, international walking tours and day-tripping motorists.

Lynn Edward, who has lived in Bibury for six years and volunteers at St Mary's, a church dating back to the Anglo-Saxon era, says: "We have such a beautiful place that we want to share, but the level of tourism and the hordes of people that come have just made it entirely unpleasant and the infrastructure doesn't really cope with it.

"All they want to do is come and take a photograph. They don't stay in the village. They don't linger enough to really ingest the beauty and historic value of the place. It's literally, I think, to take a selfie."

Visitor numbers have rocketed because of the rise of travel and tourism influencers on TikTok and other social media. Councillors plan to respond by curtailing the number of coaches piling into the village. On a midweek afternoon in March, the car park next to the Instagrammable bridge is full, with a 15-metre coach, two minibuses and half a dozen cars squeezed in door to door. Tourists get off the coach, phones aloft. One woman sets up a selfie tripod in the middle of the road. Twenty minutes later they and the coach are gone.