Cotswolds Restaurant, Pub and Inn
Our Philosophy
At The Feathered Nest Country Inn, our staff aim to ensure that your experience at our Cotswolds pub, restaurant and inn is both memorable and enjoyable.
Westcote History
The parish of Westcote lies on the eastern edge of the Gloucestershire county, 4 miles south-east of Stow-on-the-Wold and 6 miles north of Burford (Oxfordshire), its eastern boundary coinciding with the county boundary with Oxfordshire.
In the earliest records the area forming Westcote parish was called Icomb and later Combe or, more commonly from the 13th century, Combe Baskerville. By 1212 the name Westcote seems to have been used perhaps for the village rather than the parish, and the name Combe Westcote also was used from the late 13th century. By the early 12th century the manor was held by the Baskerville family of Eardisley (Herefordshire) from which time it was usually called Combe Baskerville until the family sold it in the 16th century. It was not until the 16th century that the whole parish was simply called Westcote.
In 1960 Nether Westcote included about 15 houses, most of them small. The village stocks, last used about 1840, were on the green at the Nether Westcote end. A well on the green was at one time reputed to be beneficial to the eyes, and people used to come from the neighbouring parishes to use the water.
Many of the buildings in Westcote are of stone in the traditional Cotswold style with Cotswold stone roofs, mullioned windows with dripmoulds, and dormers or gables. Several of the larger houses are partly of the 16th and 17th centuries.
In 2002, a Panorama Stone was erected on the Tattle (the green between Church and Nether Westcote) to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II's accession to the throne and the Westcote Millennium Project. The Stone marks the distance in miles and directions to all the local villages that surround Westcote – Idbury, Stow-on-the-Wold, Fifield, Kingham etc, with panoramic views over the Evenlode Valley and the towards the Wychwood Forest.
Westcote Churches
There are two churches within Westcote – Parish of St. Mary the Virgin, Church Westcote and the Methodist Church in Nether Westcote. St. Mary the Virgin was almost entirely rebuilt from 1876 onwards.
The Malthouse (current location of The Feathered Nest Country Inn)
One of the older buildings in Nether Westcote is ‘Little House’, which comprised tenement buildings, Upper Barn, Sheep Barn and the Rickyard. The earliest notations on ‘Little House’ confirm the indenture between John Collett and his Son in 1685 for £40.00 and a yearly rental of One Peppercorn. In 1692, ‘Little House’ was then rented to John Loder of Lechlade and it is in these documents that the first mention of the Malthouse is found.
In 1771, Richard Collet was the Malster in residence, followed by Samuel Higgins (1771) and John Rose of Bould (1805) and was then sold in 1832 to George Bennett.
The “New Inn” is named in a lease dated 1889. “That message or tenement situate and being at Westcote … and being used for the purpose of retailing Spirits Wine Beer and other exciseable Liquors and commonly called and known by the name of the ‘New Inn’”. In an indenture of 1908: “That old established Public House called the ‘New Inn’ comprising a Messuage or Tenement Yard a piece of ground in front, Coal Shed Stables and Loft over Pigstyes and Coach House”.
The “New Inn” has changed hands many times since 1889, and is now trading as “The Feathered Nest Country Inn” – a beautifully refurbished Cotswold pub, restaurant and inn.
SOURCES: www.british-history.ac.uk and Westcote Historical Society
Documents, photographs and further information about the history of Nether Westcote and Church Westcote are available in the Westcote Local History Archives.
