Independent shopping in the Cotswolds: An outsider’s guide

I didn’t grow up here. I still live in Manchester most of the time, so I suppose I see the Cotswolds a little differently not through habit, but through the kind of attention that comes when you’re still getting to know a place. It’s not been long, but it’s been enough to find a handful of favourites that have started to feel like my own. 

When I first came down to work on Hyll, I thought of the Cotswolds as somewhere impossibly perfect – postcard villages, honeyed stone, a slower pace of life. It is all those things, but what I’ve come to love most are the places that sit quietly beneath the picture-perfect surface. The ones with a bit of soul, a bit of story, and a welcome that feels genuine. 

One of those is Honeybourne Pottery, a family-run studio just outside Broadway. I came across it while looking for local makers to help supply pieces for Hyll – mugs, vases, small things that carry a sense of place. Their work is beautifully simple and tactile, the kind of pottery that feels right in your hands rather than just looking right on a shelf. There’s an honesty to what they do: natural materials, soft glazes, a quiet respect for the craft. 

Then there’s Borzoi Bookshop in Stow-on-the-Wold, which I discovered by accident on a wet afternoon. It’s one of those independent bookshops that feels unchanged by time – warm and full of quiet corners. You lose sense of the hours there. I love the mix of new releases and old favourites, and the feeling that the whole place runs on conversation. There’s a comfort in being surrounded by people who still believe in stories printed on paper. 

Cotswold Grey in Moreton-in-Marsh is another spot that’s found its way into my regular circuit. It’s part interiors store, part gallery, and every room feels like a masterclass in texture. I always leave thinking about light, about how spaces can feel lived in and elegant at the same time. The mix of handmade objects and timeless design has definitely influenced the way we think about interiors at Hyll soft edges, natural materials, things that get better the more you use them. 

And finally, The Ebrington Arms. If you want to understand the best of this area, go there. It’s a proper village pub – wooden beams, a real fire, a menu that changes with the seasons. Everything about it feels unforced. The food is quietly brilliant, and the welcome is warm in that understated Cotswold way: kind, but never overdone. 

I think that’s what I’ve come to love most about the Cotswolds. It’s not the grandeur or the postcard views (though those are wonderful); it’s the way the everyday moments here feel richer somehow. A long drive through rolling fields, a coffee in a market square, a walk that takes twice as long as planned because the light keeps changing. There’s a generosity to the landscape, and to the people who live in it. 

I still feel new here and maybe that’s a good thing. It keeps me looking, noticing, and appreciating the details. The Cotswolds has a way of slowing you down without you realising. You come for a weekend and end up breathing differently. That’s part of what we wanted Hyll to capture not to recreate the Cotswolds, but to reflect its quiet ease. 

So, these are the places I go when I’m here not a checklist, just small anchors in a place I’m still learning. Each one reminds me that you don’t need to fill your time to feel it. Sometimes, all you need to do is look up, linger a little longer, and let the Cotswolds work its quiet kind of magic. 

Words by Sarah Ramsbottom.

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