08 oxfordshire great milton

This year marks the 625th anniversary of The Canterbury Tales author – and “father of English literature” – Geoffrey Chaucer’s death. He penned this classic, about a merry band of medieval pilgrims te

In the gentle hills of the West Country there’s a history of people coming to worship and witness, from the spiritual home of neo-druids and pagans in Stonehenge to the church of hedonism that is the

Described as a ‘living work of art’, Stourhead should be on everyone’s ‘to visit’ list. The iconic garden, created in the 1740s, features a lake, follies, and a Palladian mansion filled with treasures

■Distance: 4½ miles/7.1km ■ Time: 2½ hours ■ Grade: Easy

“ I met Charles Dickens today, except he had clearly been so busy working on The Mystery of Edwin Drood that he had fallen asleep, so I didn’t get to speak to him!” I laughingly proclaimed to Ro when

■Distance: 7½ miles/12km ■ Time: 3½ hours ■ Grade: Moderate