The Cotswolds lie about 12 miles south of Stratford-Upon-Avon - the house in which Shakespeare was born is in Henley Street, in the centre of the town. The house has been owned by Shakespeares from the time of Shakespeare's father, John Shakespeare.

The Cotswolds includes some of England's most beautiful and well-preserved towns and villages. Two of these villages Lower and Upper Slaughter are two of the most picturesque villages in England.

The odd name has no connection with "slaughter". It's a variant of an old word for a marshy area.

Upper Slaughter lies at the head of a little valley. The village Church, Saint Peter’s, is built on top of a little hill and has some wonderful views of the river from the far end of the Churchyard. In the early 1800's the rector of the Church was F.E.Witts who wrote The Diary of a Cotswold Parson, which can be purchased from the church and offers an interesting insight into the life of a Cotswold parson. He was also Lord of the Manor at the time and lived in a fine 17th century Manor House that is now the Lords of the Manor Hotel. The village consists of typical Cotswold stone houses with dormers mullions and dripstones, there have been few new buildings in the past century. The cottages that comprise The Square were reconstructed by the well known architect Sir Edward Lutyens in 1906, there is also The lords of the Manor Hotel formerly The Manor House and a tiny Methodist chapel down by the brook dating from 1865 and now in use as a pottery.

The river runs in a very natural scenic valley bordered by oaks, large willows and beds of reeds and runs down through to Lower Slaughter under many stone bridges and turns the waterwheel of an old corn mill that has been converted into a museum.