Celebrities in the Cotswolds: Who Lives Here, Who Visits, and Why Everyone’s Obsessed

The Cotswolds used to be the slightly sleepy, honey-stone corner of England known mainly for sheep and pretty villages. These days? It’s also a full-blown A-list hideaway – a place where you’re as likely to see a supermodel walking her dog as you are a farmer on a quad bike.

If you’re curious about which celebrities live in the Cotswolds, who drops by for weekends, and where they like to hang out, here’s a fun, insider-style guide.

A feature blog from The Cotswolds Day Tours Company

Why celebrities love the Cotswolds

A few reasons the area has become a magnet for stars, royals and Very Important Spaniels:

• Privacy + space – Rolling hills, long driveways, converted barns and big estates make it easy to disappear from the cameras for a while.

• Close to London – It’s countryside, but with fast trains and a 90–120 minute drive from the capital, so celebrities can still get to studios, shoots and meetings.

• Proper “country luxe” – Think organic farm shops, design-led pubs, members’ clubs, smart hotels and spa retreats – all wrapped in very low-key, muddy-boots packaging.

The Beckhams enjoying a family outing in the Cotswolds

The Beckhams & the Great Tew crowd

If there’s one family that has put the Cotswolds in the global spotlight, it’s David and Victoria Beckham.

• In 2016, they bought a multi-million-pound converted barn complex on the Great Tew estate near Chipping Norton and turned it into a 26-acre country retreat, often seen in the Beckham Netflix documentary and their Instagram posts.

• David Beckham has talked about how living in the Cotswolds has brought him real peace and how involved he is in the garden and grounds.

• The area around Great Tew & Chipping Norton is now famous for its “celebrity cluster”, with other high-profile names from fashion, media and politics owning homes nearby.

Just down the road is Soho Farmhouse, the members-only country club and hotel spread across 100 acres of Oxfordshire countryside – a known favourite for actors, musicians and London creatives wanting a low-key escape with high-end comforts.

Jeremy Clarkson and 'Foetus' from the Clarkson Farm, Amazon series

Clarkson’s Farm: the new Cotswolds TV star

The other big modern driver of Cotswolds fame is Jeremy Clarkson and the hit Amazon series Clarkson’s Farm.

• Clarkson’s Diddly Squat Farm is just outside Chadlington, near Chipping Norton.

• The show has turned the farm – and its famously chaotic Diddly Squat Farm Shop – into a pilgrimage site for fans. Expect queues, mud, and a lot of Hawkstone beer merch.

• Clarkson has also taken over The Farmer’s Dog, a pub just outside Burford, and launched Hawkstone Brewery nearby, both now part of the wider “Clarkson’s Farm universe”.

The show has also made local faces like Kaleb Cooper minor celebrities in their own right, with tours, books and live shows built around their Cotswolds farming life. The Sun+1

Taylor Swift recently stayed in a Cotswolds cottage

Supermodels, rock stars & artists

The Cotswolds is full of familiar names who’ve quietly swapped city life for villages and farmhouses:

• Kate Moss – owns a cottage in west Oxfordshire and is frequently mentioned as one of the area’s most high-profile residents.

• Elizabeth Hurley, Hugh Grant, Lily Allen, Calvin Harris and Damien Hirst are all reported to have homes scattered around the region, from Cranham and Cheltenham to various tucked-away hamlets.

• Long-time Cotswolds names like Jilly Cooper, Dom Joly, Tony Adams and Alex James (Blur) helped make the area a “country-cool” hotspot well before the latest wave of A-listers arrived.

Add in visiting megastars – Beyoncé and Jay-Z have reportedly eyed up properties, while Ellen DeGeneres has been linked with a big farmhouse purchase – and the Cotswolds suddenly look a lot like rural Hollywood.

Royals in residence

It’s not just actors and musicians; the royal family is deeply rooted in the Cotswolds too.

• Highgrove House, near Tetbury in Gloucestershire, is the private country home of King Charles III and Queen Camilla. The Highgrove Gardens are open to the public on selected dates each year, with tours supporting the King’s charitable foundation.

• Gatcombe Park, between Minchinhampton and Avening, is the home of Princess Anne and also where Zara and Mike Tindall live on the wider estate. The grounds famously host the Festival of British Eventing, drawing equestrian fans from around the world.

So yes – that horse box you pass on a Cotswold lane may well belong to an Olympic champion.

King Charles near his Cotswolds estate in Tetbury

Where celebrities like to stay & hang out

Even if you’re not moving into a manor house, you can still dip into some very celebrity-adjacent places:

• Soho Farmhouse (near Great Tew) – the most talked-about rural members’ club in the UK, with cabins, a spa, lake, cinema and about a thousand places to eat and drink.

• Daylesford Organic – the hugely influential organic farmshop and lifestyle hub near Kingham, set up by Carole Bamford (often dubbed the “Queen of the Cotswolds”) and a favourite with well-heeled Londoners and visiting royals. My Christmas Trails

• The Lygon Arms, Broadway – a historic coaching inn turned luxury spa hotel, with a guestbook that has included everyone from Richard Burton & Elizabeth Taylor to Sophia Loren, Cary Grant, Kylie Minogue and members of the royal family.

• Country pubs & farmshops – places like The Bull in Charlbury, award-winning gastropubs, and small farm cafés are exactly the sort of low-key spots where you might quietly share a bar with someone very familiar.

How to enjoy the “celebrity Cotswolds” respectfully

A quick word of etiquette: the Cotswolds is, first and foremost, a place where people live – famous or not.

• Treat villages and estates as you would at home: don’t trespass or block driveways for a photo.

• If you do happen to see someone recognisable in a pub or farmshop, a polite smile beats a full-on paparazzi moment every time.

• Focus on the landscape, food, history and villages – the famous neighbours are just a fun extra.

Explore the celebrity side of the Cotswolds with us!

From the lanes around Great Tew and Chipping Norton to Clarkson’s Farm country, from royal gardens at Highgrove to classic film-set villages, it’s easy to build a day (or weekend) that weaves together:

• Big-name hotspots (that you recognise from TV and Instagram)

• Hidden villages and quiet viewpoints

• Cosy pubs and farmshops with a strong chance of very expensive dogs

The Cotswolds Day Tours Company

If you’d like a private driver-guided day that covers some of these celebrity-linked locations without feeling tacky or intrusive, we can design a route that keeps everything relaxed, respectful and properly Cotswold.