Do you know how gorgeous a place has to be for one of the most successful and important artists of the 20th century, who spent their entire life thinking about beauty, to call it the ‘most beautiful village in England’? The answer is very.
Those are the words William Morris used to describe Bibury in the Cotswolds, a town of just 700 people known for being very pretty, full of centuries-old cottages and windy country paths. It’s become, understandably, somewhat of a tourist hotspot.
According to the Independent, nearly 50 coaches arrive in Bibury every day, full of eager tourists escaping to the English countryside idyll. That’s all fine and well, except for the fact that those visitors apparently aren’t always entirely respectful of the serenity that makes Bibury so special.
Some have been reported to scale private walls for optimal selfie shots, and the Chair of the Bibury Parking Working Group was actually physically assaulted during an incident with the coaches. Clearly, things are getting a bit out of hand.
Residents have voiced concerns about overcrowding and the damage it could be doing to their tiny village, and have been trying to come up with solutions that will work for everyone. The main idea? No more coaches.
Well, sort of. Locals don’t want to ban coaches entirely, but a proposal from Bibury Parish Council would see the coach parking moved slightly out of the centre of town. Cars and buses would instead park in a nearby lay-by on the B4425 and then walk into the village on foot. The council is encouraging people to use local public transport or minibuses instead of massive coaches, and is also looking into weight limits for vehicles entering the town.
The chair of the local council said that whilst residents ‘acknowledge that we live in a lovely village’, the huge number of visitors is becoming ‘intolerable and unacceptable’. He added that due to ‘the lack of infrastructure, road narrowness and the disruptive and unsafe location of the two existing coach bays, it is a fact that Bibury is not a suitable destination for larger coaches.
‘Whilst this is the start of action it is very positive and I am confident it will be appreciated by the community.’
So if you are planning on visiting Bibury anytime soon, try to use a local minibus service, or at least park a little bit outside of the tiny, historic town centre.
Planning your 2025 staycations
If you’re currently on the hunt for a perfect 2025 getaway and don’t want to add to the fuss at Bibury, here’s our favourite places in the UK to visit. But you deserve to have fun too – here’s some tree houses you can rent out for something a little different. We’ve also got guides to the country’s cosiest cabins, and Britain's most underrated travel destinations.
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