Excellent Choice!

Of the more than dozen places we have rented for weeklong stays—in both Europe and the US, The Old Chapel at Slad wins the highest praise. My husband, college-age daughter and I stayed there the first part of September for the last week of our 3-week England holiday. Our plan was to use Old Chapel as our home base to sightsee to Blenheim Palace, Oxford, Bath, Bristol, Gloucester, north and south Cotswolds and Stonehenge. Happily, less was more. We roamed no further than Stroud (the not-to-be-missed Saturday Shambles Market and other grocery shopping), Painswick (its churchyard of 99 pruned yews and the fantastical Rococo Garden), Witcombe Roman Villa Ruins & Prinknash Abbey and Bird Park, Cirencester (exceptional Corinium Museum) and great walks in and around Slad Valley, right from our door.
Even with our shorter jaunts, we, like homing pigeons, just wanted to get back to the comforts of The Old Chapel and to relish the fabulous views. We had an idyllic stay. Except for an afternoon pint at the Woolpack Pub, it never occurred to us to eat out. The luxuriously equipped kitchen at The Old Chapel facilitated one of our favorite activities: cooking as a family with locally grown provisions. The Old Chapel has all the ease of home plus: including comfortable beds, flawlessly functional bathrooms and laundry facilities, wireless internet, inspiring artwork and refreshingly uncluttered décor, homey common spaces with grand dining table in the kitchen, couches in front of the fireplace and wide screen DVD viewer, and patio with picnic table. This place is a gem! I will hold dear forever seeing the full moon through the bedroom’s rosette window while hearing owls bark and hoot from the meadow. So too, our having teatime on the patio on a sunny early autumn day with butterflies fluttering about and crystalline views across the valley.