What everyone is talking about this week: Where are the new Cotswolds?

Have you been to Chipping Norton lately? Once little more than an agrarian backwater, the land of Jilly Cooper’s novels is now a billionaire playground: a smorgasbord of ex-politicos and A-listers drawn to luxury shopping (Bicester), luxury groceries (Daylesford) and private members’ clubs (Estelle Manor). Ever since the invention of Rupert Campbell-Black (below), the land of Burford and Cirencester has dazzled the collective imagination as a place of glamour, power and sex. Yet with Britain becoming a hotter travel destination in every sense of the word, that reputation has reached fever pitch — and the Cotswolds, where the American Vice President J. D. Vance rented a house this summer, is beginning to feel saturated.

A rivalry has emerged between several counties eager to capitalise on the region’s declining fortunes (read: clout). Suffolk, Somerset, West Sussex and the Notswolds, which covers much of the West Midlands, are all vying for the same crown. Their advocates would have you believe that each of them is ‘the new Cotswolds’. Not all pretendants are created equal, however.

Suffolk, which is largely flat, offers little in the way of Gloucestershire’s rolling hills; parts of West Sussex are essentially suburban; and Somerset, unlike Oxfordshire, is mostly tucked away from train lines. In each county, however, are pockets that offer the pastoral idyll that has been missing from the Cotswolds these past few years, ever since helicopters became some residents’ preferred mode of transportation.

More than that, they offer an edge. West Sussex has some of the finest coastlines in England, together with thriving wineries, such as Highweald and Nyetimber. Somerset has Bath — no doubt England’s most beautiful city — as well as The Newt, Babington House and Wells Cathedral. Over in Bruton, which this column has previously called the new Notting Hill, Merlin Labron-Johnson’s restaurant Osip offers a multi-course tasting menu experience for £125 — though factor in wine and it’s closer to £200 a head.

The Notswolds, meanwhile, boasts outstanding landscapes and a social scene to rival Charlbury’s. Suffolk, for its part, takes the biscuit when it comes to boutique hotels, among them The Suffolk, Aldeburgh (which was recently singled out by the New York Times as one of five European beach hotels to have on your radar) and The Peacock Inn, Chelsworth, which is currently serving some of the best food in Britain courtesy of chef Sam Clover. Think devilled duck-liver sausage in koji broth and bergamot oil. The wine selection there is also astounding (French, Italian, Georgian, South African), a world away from the cheap beers and undiluted spirits that were once lobbed around the inn in the 1980s, back when it was a popular jazz venue. Instead, you’ll now find an annexe of en-suite cabins with bicycles, Wellington boots and a Burberry trenchcoat on hand for anyone who packed a little too light for the English weather. Chic.

Suffolk is also a popular spot for smaller music festivals: private events held in sprawling estates and modelled after the Cotswolds’ very own Wilderness, which takes place every summer in Cornbury Park, home to Lord Rotherwick. Archie Dixon-Smith, whose family recently hosted the inaugural ‘Castlings Fest’ on the grounds of their Suffolk home, extols the appeal of more intimate live music events that have the feel of ‘a big family party’. ‘We sold 330 tickets this year,’ he explains. With Glastonbury taking a fallow year in 2026, is the time ripe to scale Castlings? A little, perhaps, but not much. ‘This isn’t a media event,’ Archie says. ‘We’ll aim for around 450 people. 500, tops.’

Other regions are instead being forced to change tack. Cornwall and Norfolk, which offer in St Mawes and Burnham Market two variants of Chelsea-On-Sea, have no interest in becoming the new Cotswolds, given how much tourism they already endure. They know this is a life cycle that begins with enterprising Londoners and ends in only one thing: Americanisation.

Don't forget your five a day

And the award for crop of the year goes to: the courgette. Allotment keepers across the country have been enjoying bounties of the vegetables thanks to this year’s freakish weather. They’d do well to make the most of the harvest before Angela Rayner clamps down on pastures of all kinds.

The courgette may be our most versatile fruit (yes, fruit): steamed, roasted or fried, it pairs beautifully with meat, fish and other verdures. Yet with such copious amounts going around, the best option may be to grind them into a soup, which can be frozen ahead of the autumn. Slow cook them with peas and basil and top the result with a drizzle of yoghurt and lemon zest, à l’Ottolenghi.