Locals attacked as visitors overrun Cotswold village

YOU’D think living in “Britain’s prettiest village” would be idyllic.

- Richard Ashmore

But residents say Bibury’s chocolate box looks belie the unseemly reality of acts of violence, threats and gridlocked streets.

The quintessentially Cotswolds hamlet draws 10,000 international tourists a day who wish to admire its charming stone buildings and pretty waterways.

The village of just under 600 people is also home to the National Trust-owned Arlington Row of weavers’ cottages. They have become a musthave photo backdrop for social media fans visiting from the US, China, Japan and South Korea.

But soaring numbers arriving since the pandemic, combined with tiny ancient village roads not suitable for coaches and huge volumes of traffic, mean the genteel setting has become clogged, sparking frayed tempers.

Chairman of the local parking action group, Mark Honeyball, who has lived in Bibury for 10 years, said last month he was assaulted after asking a coach driver to move on from some double yellow lines.