The Cotswold Way National Trail is a walk from the market town of Chipping Campden along the Cotswolds escarpment to the regency city of Bath - a world heritage site.

Management Information

Edge Common © Natural England Photographer Jo Ward

Management Information

The Cotswold Way came about originally as a result of the Rambler's Association lobbying to have a promoted long distance walk on the Cotswold escarpment.  The route was opened in 1970 as a result of a partnership between Gloucestershire County Council (who funded the signage), and the Ramblers Association and Cotswolds Voluntary Warden Service who carried out the practical work to open the route.

After further lobbying to have the route developed as a National Trail, and much consultation work, the Secretary of State for the Environment gave his approval for work to begin.

Between 1999 and 2007 the development work to upgrade the route to a National Trail was carried out.  The work has been funded by Natural England.  The Cotswold Way was officially launched as a National Trail on 24th May 2007.

A Three-Year Vision

Following recommendations from the Cotswolds Conservation Board who host the Cotswold Way, and Natural England who approve, manage and largely fund National Trails, consultation on a three-year development framework for the Cotswold Way began in April 2010. The final version was completed in March 2011 and adopted in August, and will be used to guide the management and development of the Cotswold Way National Trail until 2014. Click here to find out more.

The Cotswold Way is managed by a full time team who have carried out the upgrade work, and at the time of writing continue to work on a number of further improvements.  The Trail is patrolled monthly by a group of 26 voluntary wardens who each have a designated stretch of the Trail.  These volunteers monitor the Trail closely and report any problems that they find to the Team so that they can be dealt with promptly, as well as dealing with minor maintenance issues themselves.  Maintenance of the Trail is carried out by the four highway authorities along the route, and they fund this in partnership with Natural England.

The Annual Reports and Business Plans from 2002 onwards are available to view or download from this site if you are interested to see what “upgrading” the Trail has involved.

In 2008 the Cotswold Way office moved to the Cotswold Conservation Board. The aims and goals of the two organisations are very similar, so to get the most out of the partnership their annual reports and business plans were combined. The Conservation Board's annual reviews, including the work of the Cotswold Way can be downloaded below. For details on the plans for the future, please see the Cotswold Way Three-Year Framework which feeds directly into the management and business plans for the Conservation Board (visit the relevant page here).

To download a report click on the appropriate link below. Please note these reports require Acrobat reader to be installed. Click here to download Acrobat reader.