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Film to highlight changing face of the Cotswolds

Maisie Lillywhite,Gloucestershireand
Jo Durrant,BBC Radio Gloucestershire
News imageBBC A woman with long brown hair over one shoulder, a black fleece with a white and green logo on it and blue glasses, stands beside a woman with short brown hair wearing a mostly green and cream coloured gilet with a blue and orange checked shirt beneath. They are both smiling and stood on a mezzanine level inside a converted barn.BBC
Alana Hopkins (left) and Tea Sharp (right) have been working on plans for the 60th anniversary of the Cotswolds becoming an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty

A feature-length film highlighting the changing face of the Cotswolds at "a really pivotal time" will be released in 2026, a film maker says.

Cotswolds: Field & Folk will be shown in Gloucestershire schools to mark the 60th anniversary of the Cotswolds becoming an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).

Tea Smart, who is making the film, grew up in the Cotswolds and said farmers from all walks of life - from the young to the retired, and the traditional to the diversified - feature in the production.

Alana Hopkins from Cotswolds National Landscape (CNL) said themed walks, including several suitable for mobility scooter users, will also form part of the celebrations.

The Cotswolds is the largest of 46 AONBs in the UK, and received its designated back in 1966.

The Cotswolds National Landscape stretches from Warwickshire and Worcestershire in the north, to Wiltshire and Bath in the south.

Land with AONB status is protected by the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000, and helps to conserve and enhance its natural beauty.

Six decades on, Ms Smart is hoping to capture the changing face of the Cotswolds in her documentary, during what described as "a really pivotal time".

"I think the main mission was to dispel the myth of what the Cotswolds is," she said.

"It's not just a tourist place with honeycomb houses; this place is a thriving landscape with so much happening in it."

News imageTim Graham/Getty Images A beautiful Cotswolds valley landscape in the sunshine with a blue sky with some clouds above it. A house surrounded by trees can be seen on one slope, as a pair of walkers make their way through farmland on the other.Tim Graham/Getty Images
The Cotswolds received its AONB status in 1966.

Ms Smart said the film also touches on the wool trade that made the Cotswolds, and those revitalising the area's wildflower population after most of it was lost.

"We have literally gone from north to south, right down from Box, right up to towards Evesham, making sure that we try and capture the voices of people who don't normally have that voice to be heard," Ms Smart said.

Ms Hopkins, communications lead at CNL, said Q&A sessions with farmers, film makers and CNL staff will take place after school viewings to show young people "what the future for them work-wise might hold in the Cotswolds".

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