A warm welcome to all our visitors from around the world.

Barbara and Gordon Meekings welcome you to their home, Leasow House where they like guests to think of themselves as guests in a traditional Country House.

Situated just two miles south of Broadway village, this beautiful Cotswold stone farmhouse dating from the early 1600's has panoramic views of the surrounding countryside.

The house has undergone extensive restoration to offer guests the best of 20th century facilities whilst still retaining its 16th century character.

During your stay, you are given a front door key and are encouraged to come and go as you please. There is a complimentary tray of sherry and you are welcome to use the comfortable library as a sitting room where you can meet other guests whilst perusing the guide books, walks and the menus from the local pubs and restaurants before deciding on your plan.

At the rear of the house there is ample off road car parking, and you are welcome to wander around the gardens.

Rooms:

There is a total of seven individually decorated bedrooms, all with en-suite facilities. There are five rooms in the main house and two additional rooms in a converted annex.

The Sapphire Room:

A superior double room with bath and shower room en-suite.

This room has an American king-size double bed that can split to form twin beds.

The Amethyst Room:

A superior room with bath and shower room en-suite, and a queen-sized double bed and a single bed.

The Amber Room:

Our Family room - situated on the top floor, this room has a queen-size double bed and two single beds with a shower room en-suite.

The Opal Room:

On the top floor of the main house, opposite the family room, making it ideal for extended families.

This room has a queen-size double bed with shower room en-suite.

The Onyx Room:

This is a cozy room situated on the top floor of the main house, with a standard double bed and shower room en-suite.

The Annex:

In the converted annex we have two more rooms.

The Hayloft:

A superior double room on the first floor with an American king-size double bed that can be split to make twin beds; with a bath and shower room en-suite.

The Bullpen:

A ground floor room with the disabled traveller in mind.

This room has a bathroom en-suite, and an American king-size double bed that can be split to make twin beds.

Places of Interest:

There is so much to see and do in the Cotswolds, with a wide variety of attractions and places to visit. The beautiful villages of mellow honey colored stone, fine houses, castles, and stately homes.

Every bedroom has a detailed book full of useful information on the area such as a brief description of all the restaurants and pubs in the area complete with directions. Most of the major tourist attractions have at least one page giving pictures and relevant information.

There is a guided drive for those with limited time to enable you to get a real taste of the Cotswolds and of course we are always available for that little bit of extra advise.

Directions:

From Broadway:

• Take the B4632 to Winchcombe, follow the road for approximately 2 miles.
• Turn to the right signposted Dumbleton and Wormington.
• Leasow House is the first house on the right.

From The Other Direction:

• Approaching from the other direction at the Toddington Roundabout where the B4077 and B4632 cross, take the B4632 to Broadway.
• Follow road for approximately 4 miles, looking for a turn to the right signed Laverton.
• Approximately 75 yards after that turn is an unmarked road to the left, take that road.
• Leasow House is the first house on the right.

Cotswold History:

In prehistoric times, southern Britain was thickly forested, and nomadic hunter-gatherers crossing the land bridge from Europe soon discovered that it was easier to travel by way of the hilltops and ridges, more lightly wooded than the valleys.

These first people were followed by men who brought with them a new way of living: they were the first farmers. From about 3500 BC these new immigrants brought livestock, seed corn and began a more settled existence in forest clearings.

Gradually their way of life and technology of firing clay to make cooking and storage vessels, spread together with the most spectacular skill of building monuments to their dead. Evidence of these are Belas Knap at Winchcombe and Hetty Pegler’s Tump near Stroud. Both are now low, grass covered stone mounds with narrow stone-roofed chambers entered by low passages. The most impressive of these is Stonehenge. The Cotswolds have The Rollright Stones just north of Chipping Norton.

Moving on through the Bronze Age (1800 BC) to the Iron Age (800 BC) where the Cotswold edge shows the remains of fortresses, Nottingham-Hill north east of Cheltenham at over 1200 acres is one of the biggest in the country, and the single banked forts at Leckhampton and Crickleyand the magnificent tiers of ramparts which surround the Hill at Painswick Beacon.

Iron man began to have an increasing effect on his environment: it was very much easier to clear forests with an iron axe than with a stone one. More ambitious mining could now be attempted, and it was the rich mineral deposits of gold, tin and lead that attracted the Romans.

The Romans (0 - 500 AD) were marvelous administrators and had a profound effect on the history and landscape with their roads, the best of which are the Fosse Way, Ermin Way and Akeman Street. Corinium (now called Cirencester) grew on the intersection of these three major roads and only London was larger than Roman Corinium.

A visit to Chedworth Roman Villa and The Corinium Museum in Cirencester are worth consideration if interested. The withdrawal of the Romans in the fifth century left Britain open to attack. Ordered life was at an end in the Cotswolds for the time being, conquerors became settlers, the populations intermarried, and country people had more pressing problems with their crops than with politics and skirmishing of their rulers (so what’s changed!!!!)

During the next thousand years the harvest was often interrupted by Norse and Breton raiders coming up the Severn. Almost all the villages in the Cotswolds were established by end of the Norman invasion (1000 - 1500).

The conquerors set about their building with vigor and Gloucestershire is rich in surviving Norman church architecture but it was the medieval builders who left the Cotswolds their great heritage. They built manor, farm, barn and cottage on a basic design: an essential principal of solid foundations, sturdy walls and roofs steeply pitched to carry the weight of the tile stones. The Cotswolds said to have its origins in the term "the hills of the sheepcots", found its wealth in wool providing the finance needed to build churches, manors and farms like Leasow House.

There are many tours, museums and attractions in the Cotswolds, prehistoric ruins, Roman ruins, Castles and a number of villages unlike anywhere else in the world making this a perfect base for a holiday of ‘time travel’.