In Wiltshire, within the Cotswolds Area, lies Castle Combe. Despite its name, the village has no castle, and visitors must park some distance away and walk down a hill to reach the cottages and bridge, following rules meant to manage a heavy flow of people. Roughly 150,000 people visit the village every year, and in the peak summer months, the tension between residents and tourists has sparked headlines about locals fuming over intrusive visitors.
Tourists and the shutters
In the village square, tourists sit around the fountain, taking photos of themselves and nursing pints and wine as the evening chatter grows louder. The church is open, but the houses are not; doors and windows are shuttered, and curtains are drawn against the street. There have been stories of residents coming home to find tourists having tea in their gardens, which explains why everything is now shut up.
Castle Combe represents what happens when a place is loved past the point it can absorb it, and the fine balance between visitors and residents comes apart. Bourton-on-the-Water and Bibury wear the same strain, with hordes crowding cafes and peering through the windows of 14th-century cottages at Arlington Row. The National Trust has posted a plea on its website: “Remember that the cottages on Arlington Row are homes. Please don’t knock on the doors or peer through the windows, disturbing people in their own home.”
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Those are villages that have already been discovered. Venturing further north into Wiltshire, the writer headed to Malmesbury, a market town dating back to medieval times, to meet David Andrews, CEO of Visit Wiltshire, and Whit Hanks, a Texan from Austin who bought the Old Bell Hotel in town five years ago. Whit runs Whim Hospitality, which operates the Old Bell and Camp Lucy, a “Hill Country haven and luxury resort and event venue” in Texas Wine Country. He plans to build a destination resort and spa centre in Malmesbury, similar to Camp Lucy, where the spa was the key factor in its success.
So far, he has bought 15 properties in the town, including a butcher shop, six townhouses being converted into private apartments, and Abbey House Manor. The manor dates to the 12th century and was once part of the grounds of a Benedictine monastery where monks grew medicinal herbs. It was also known for its “Naked Gardens,” where owners Ian and Barbara Pollard famously gardened in the nude and opened the grounds to fellow naturalists. The five-acre gardens remain lovely to walk through, though they have not been tended as carefully since the Pollards passed.
The gap between Castle Combe and Malmesbury highlights a practical reality for these communities. A market town of a few thousand people is about to acquire a spa and a destination-resort marketing budget, and if Camp Lucy’s Texas playbook holds, it will likely attract its own crowds.
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While Visit Wiltshire promotes the Great West Way—an initiative to spread tourists thin across 500 miles of navigable ancient pathways so no single village drowns in them—developers in Malmesbury are focused on concentrating a hotel group and 15 newly acquired properties into one town. The regulatory issues Whit faces are unusual: he wants to build a car park within the grounds of the manor but is dealing with the discovery of dead and buried bodies on the site.
The regulatory challenge
David Andrews from Visit Wiltshire explains the broader strategy. The region promotes the Great West Way to distribute tourism. This initiative spans 500 miles of ancient pathways. The goal is to move visitors away from overwhelmed spots like Castle Combe. People are encouraged to use bikes, boats, or trains for slow travel.
Slow travel and future plans
Slow travel on the Great West Way is the next destination. The Cotswolds is a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and its delicate balance is increasingly tested by these competing forces.