The distinctive main street in Burford is long and steep. There is a jumbled
juxtaposition of houses and shops. Grey gabled buildings with lichen encrusted
roofs, hotels, shops, tea rooms and inns. Crooked roof lines, leaning walls, no
two buildings the same.
A line of lime trees and a grass verge separate the houses from the road for
half its length. At the memorial cross, the Tolsey, a market house from Tudor
times, is now a museum.
Explore too the back lanes and alleys off the main street. The ancient Priory to
the west, is now a claosed nunnery. It holds memories of Nell Gwyn and King
Charles II - their resulting son was created Earl of Burford.
The church is to the east, and has a splendid spire. It was used as a prison
during the Civil War, and has graffiti scratched by the Royalist prisoners still
to be seen inside it.
As the main street runs down to the river, there is a row of fine Almshouses
and the
school founded in 1577. The town then ends at the narrow stone bridge, that can
only carry one way traffic
