In Search of the Twyford Code

Twyford on the map, adjacent to Adderbury  Just south of Banbury, on the edge of the Cotswolds, is where we found ourselves next, on a showery Saturday afternoon. A bit of early research suggested that this Twyford was much like our Shropshire visit - being an outlying part of an adjacent town, in this case Adderbury. A bit of research on the excellent Adderbury local history site  suggested that I was right, and also confirmed my suspicions about where the fords might be found. Twyford in this case apparently grew up around one large rural house, Greenhill. Today it is really nothing more than one big, amenity-free, and fairly charmless housing estate. But we parked there nevertheless, dutifully took a couple of photos, and headed towards St Mary's church in Adderbury, the church pinpointed by the book. The original Victorian Greenhill House, now converted to an apartment complex Twyford itself - an unphotogenic lump of post-war housing NB: this was to be the first of three S...

Twyford on the map  Our next Twyford is nestled right in the middle of a triangle of sleepy countryside between Leicester, Oakham and Melton Mowbray. We visited it hot on the heels of our splendid Derbyshire excursion, and this was a very different environment. St Andrew's Church (yes, another one) is a proper village hub, smack in the middle of a higgledy-piggledy collection of houses, from modern 20th century back to Georgian farm buildings and the manor house, which would once have been the focal point of the village, but is still reasonably modest given its prestige. Unlike the nightmare of West Felton, however, everything has been planned and built with respect and attention to keeping the village beautiful, and it's surprising how effectively all the different ages and sizes of homes sit together. St Andrew's Church The church, like so many in this part of the country, makes a feature of the local limestone. The tower dates back to the 12th century and has a 'prop...