Willow Vale

A little more information on Broadway

Snowshill village sits on the top of the escarpment above the villages of Broadway, Buckland, and Laverton. It is a secluded village where ancient pretty cottages and a 19th century church cluster around a small green. As its name implies - if there is any snow about then you will find it here first. Snowshill is renowned for its manor house, now administered by the National Trust. The Manor was owned by Winchcombe Abbey as early as 821, until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539. It was at one point part of Katherine Parr's marriage dowry, although she probably never visited. The house passed through many different hands and the way it has been added on to at different points in its history reflects this. The northern end of the house is the oldest surviving part, dating from around 1500, still medieval in its design. It was extended and reshaped in around 1600 but it was the additions by the Sambach family in the early part of the eighteenth century that from one viewpoint radically altered the aspect of the manor from an Elizabethan to a Georgian house. The village is also home to a wonderfully unspoiled fifteenth century inn - The Snowshill Arms. If you're feeling energetic, and are in the village over the summer months, then wander 3/4 mile up through the village and visit the famous lavender fields. The fame of the village has increased in recent years with many tv and films using it as a beautiful location - the most notable of which is probably the filming of Bridget Jones' Diary.