2 Best Sights in Bath and the Cotswolds, England

Fans of the television drama Downton Abbey probably already know that the interior shots of the series are filmed at Highclere Castle near Winchester, but they might be interested to learn that most of the exterior shots are concentrated on the Oxfordshire village of Bampton, on the eastern edge of the Cotswolds. Visitors can walk the sleepy streets of mellow stone, see the library in Church View which doubled as the Downton Cottage Hospital, and visit the church of St. Mary, the setting of both Mary and Edith's weddings. Lady Sybil and Branson planned their elopement in the Swan Inn at the nearby village of Swinbook, 2 miles east of Burford. Bampton is 6 miles southeast of Burford and 18 miles southwest of Oxford, from where there is a regular bus. Drivers should take the road signed Brize Norton off the A40.

Hidden away at the end of a lane at the bottom of High Street is the splendid parish church of St. John the Baptist, its interior a warren of arches, chapels, and shrines. The church was remodeled in the 15th century from Norman beginnings. Among the monuments is one dedicated to Henry VIII's barber, Edmund Harman, that depicts four Amazonian Indians; it's said to be the first depiction of native people from the Americas in Britain. Also look for the elaborate Tanfield monument and the grave of Christopher Kempster, master mason to Christopher Wren during the rebuilding of St. Paul's Cathedral in London.