Hardwick Park

City, country, coarse and trout fishing, mountain biking, museums, wildlife, stately homes, gardens and shopping until dropping: the area around Hardwick Park would pass a tourism test with flying colours. Many guests make Oxford and Oxford University their first stop for towntime: the uni to see the Bodleian Library (11 million volumes on 120 miles of shelving, book boffins), and the university’s lauded museums, including the Pitt Rivers archaeological and anthropological collections with over half a million exhibits and the Ashmolean Museum, the oldest university museum in the world and with works by Picasso, Turner, Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci. After all that academia, totter into town the next day to take in less scholarly Oxford attractions like a nature reserve or park stroll, guided walking tour or a constitutional around the Botanic Garden. Outside Oxford, Burford is the gateway town to the Cotswolds; from here, it’s a short drive to Moreton-in-Marsh and the village of Batsford a mile and a half north-west, to the poplar Batsford Arboretum and its 3000 or so trees, and the Cotswold Falconry Centre, where visitors can eagle-eyedly watch the free birds of prey demos. Flit to Bourton-on-the-Water for more birds at Birdland Park and Gardens, penguin feeding and a woodland nature reserve, then motor on to a timeless trip at the Cotswold Motoring Museum and Toy Collection too, crammed with classic cars, caravans, vintage cars and motoring memorabilia. (For a more modern motoring time, rally round to Silverstone about an hour’s drive away.) Bicester Village, Swindon’s Great Western Retail Park, Oxford’s covered market and the antique shops of Bourton-on-the-Water and Stow-on-the-Wold are all nearby to till ring at, alongside the pretty villages and towns of the Cotswolds to pick up arts and crafts, jewellery and local produce. The mansion of the Marlboroughs at Woodstock’s Blenheim Palace is another Oxfordshire must, home to the Dukes of Marlborough, birthplace of Winston Churchill and venue of many a varied event like the CLA Game Fair, international horse trials, jousting and the Audi International three-day polo comp. You can also get married there if you’re of a mind… The area is stuffed with loads more attractions and activities, such as two leisure centres and banger racing near the park, top golf courses, air shows, more museums and gardens, and racing around at Cheltenham, Ascot and Newbury.