Once heralded by JB Priestley as the quintessential English village and known as the ‘Venice of the Cotswolds’, Bourton-on-the-Water is at breaking point.
Residents warn that the historic Cotswold destination is being destroyed by an influx of daytrippers and Instagrammers.
The area has always been popular with visitors, but that popularity has increased further in recent years thanks to picture-perfect shots on social media and celebrity links including to Clarkson’s Farm, with Jeremy Clarkson once rumoured to be buying a pub in Bourton.
“We are a beautiful quintessential English village, with so much heritage and people want to see it,” said Charlotte Joynes, chair of Bourton Residents Voice, which was formed to tackle the growing list of concerns among villagers.
”We want to share it but at the moment, the hordes of people that are coming means we are just being destroyed.
“It’s no longer the beautiful village that people think it is – it’s more ‘Blackpool-on-the-Water.”
Search for Bourton-on-the-Water on Instagram and you’ll quickly find a list of reasons why not to visit in the summer. The village gets so busy, it’s hard to even see the village green beneath the sea of deckchairs and picnic blankets.
According to residents, the nature of tourism has fundamentally changed since the Covid pandemic. While the village previously hosted international travellers from the US and Australia, who came for the architecture and supported the local economy with overnight stays and eating out, the current trend means increasing numbers of daytrippers from nearby towns and cities.
“They are coming with their own picnics and all they’re buying is an ice cream,” said Ms Joynes. “They are using apps to find free parking and clogging up our streets. The coach park is closed and it’s become a free-for-all with coaches in residential streets.”
Residents in the village have reported tourists using hedges as toilets, leaving litter piled up beside bins and even taking chunks out of the iconic Cotswold stone wall to take home as souvenirs.
Ms Joynes, who has lived in the village for 34 years, estimates that between 5,000 and 10,000 visitors a day descend on Bourton – which only has a population of 4,000 people. The village green is often rammed with picnickers and she even reported seeing one family set up a table and chairs in the river and eat a full fish and chips.
”I work in one of the pubs,” she added. “We do want visitors. It’s the picnic and paddlers, as I call them, that aren’t bringing anything to the economy.
”We now have tourists moaning about tourists in Bourton,” she said. “It’s not our own village any more.”
Read The Independent’s guide to the most beautiful places to visit in the Cotswolds
”Don’t get us wrong, Bourton-on-the-Water is one of our top locations within the Cotswolds, but for those looking for an idyllic day in the sunshine that rapidly turned into a day crammed onto a river bank with the rest of the country that had the same idea, we always wish we had a back up plan,” writes Boltholeretreats.
“Bourton-on-the-Water today: one giant communal picnic where nobody knew whose mat they were sitting on anymore,” wrote doctor_with_a_suitcase.
A recent survey of 202 residents found more than 90 per cent believed the current tourism levels in the village were not sustainable and negatively impacted their quality of life. A total of 94.6 per cent of residents said they felt visitor numbers were excessive.
Gloucestershire County Council has recently launched a consultation on transport and parking in Bourton-on-the-Water. It says: “We know people are concerned about pedestrian safety along the High Street and how vehicles, including coaches and buses, is affecting how people move around the village. We want to hear your experiences to shape the right solutions to ensure everyone can continue to enjoy this historically significant village.”
Bourton Residents Voice is calling for immediate intervention and describes the current consultation process as ‘an absolute farce’ noting that consultees were not able to access a recent meeting with the county council on the issue as the link was broken.
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“We would like enforcement,” said Ms Joynes. “The coaches coming in are doing it illegally because of traffic regulations. But we don’t have police to stop them. We want people to visit but respect where they’re coming to.
”We are a little village of 4,000 residents and we can’t cope. We need to leave something for our future generations.”
