Welcome to Coleshill

HOME to a wartime spy network as well as one of the country's most famous record producers - there's a lot more to Coleshill than meets the eye. This tiny village on the Wiltshire-Oxfordshire border may consist of just 60 properties - but what it lacks in quantity, it makes up for in quality.

Just about every building in the village - which is run by the National Trust and is part of the Great Western Community Forest - is either Grade I or Grade II listed.

It also the base for an internationally renowned garden design business called Land Art and for artistic printmaking business Watermark. But the village's most famous resident is the record producer behind the Beatles, Sir George Martin. He has lived in the village since 1964 when he made history by shaping the Fab Four's post-Sergeant Pepper sound.

Sir George is understood to enjoy the secluded life offered by the village and locals are protective of his privacy. However, he did tell us that: "We've very much enjoyed the peace and quiet of it. It's a jolly nice village."

Part of the reason for Coleshill's remarkably Bohemian mix of people is the unusual fact that it is nearly entirely owned by the National Trust. The trust's property manager Juliet Phipps explained how one goes about moving there. She said: "We have an application form and we will keep it on file if there is no property available.

"People with local and estate ties would stand in good stead as well as people who work locally and who can contribute to village life."

Most of the houses in the village were originally tied to Coleshill House - the impressive stately home around which the village was built. It passed to the National Trust in 1956 and now the conservation charity only rents out properties to people who will contribute to village life in some way.

Every year most of the village population have a Christmas meal together and there are also two summer fetes and a detailed programme of talks and trips throughout the year.

Bizarrely, Coleshill had a crucial role to play in World War Two as the headquarters of a top-secret resistance movement. Coleshill House was renamed the 'Auxiliary Gateway' for intelligence purposes. It was used as a base for some 3,000 civilian resistance operatives who were trained in everything from blowing up bridges to slitting throats before being transported into occupied Europe.

Coleshill is located about a mile east of Highworth on the B4019 Faringdon Road.

Fact File

• The picturesque village of Coleshill overlooks the River Cole, a tributary of the River Thames. It is part of a large estate of some 3,600 acres of farmland and woods owned by the National Trust.



• Coleshill House, an impressive Georgian stately home, was built in 1667 by a student of English architect Inigo Jones who is famous for introducing the renaissance neo-classical style to England and for designing Covent Garden. He built it for Sir George Pratt - the son of a wealthy local cloth merchant. Thereafter it came into the possession of the Pleydell family, the Earl of Radnor, later the Pleydell-Bouverie family.

For a short and mysterious period during the war, the house was used as a headquarters for training the British Resistance. In 1947 it was sold to Sir Ernest Cook with the promise that he bequeath it to the National Trust. It is he that locals have to thank for the preservation of the village. He was a grandson and joint heir to the famous travel agent Thomas Cook.

When the family business was sold in 1928 he devoted the rest of his life to preserving English country houses and he gave Coleshill House and its estate to the National Trust before he died. Unfortunately, at around the same time - in 1952 - the great house burnt to the ground after a fire, thought to have been caused by a careless workman with a blowlamp.

Although owned by the National Trust there are no formal attractions as such in Coleshill. Instead it is a question of just turning up and wandering around.

Periodical open days are held when the public can visit the site of Coleshill House and walk around the grounds. For further events ring the estate office on (01793) 762209.


• All Saints Church has a 12th century nave and a 15th century tower liberally festooned with gargoyles.

Inside the Lady Chapel is particularly noteworthy for its monuments and effigies dedicated to deceased local worthies.


• The River Cole at Coleshill flows through National Trust owned farmland, North East of Swindon on the Oxfordshire/Wiltshire border. Here the Cole has been realigned, straightened and enlarged for over 900 years. Originally straightened for milling, the downstream section has more recently been enlarged to safeguard agricultural production from flooding.