OX Loves

After a chance meeting at the Didcot Street Fair I find myself on the way to meet Simon Collison, a man who knows more about the UK’s food and drink industry than anyone you’re likely to meet. I was there to discover the ethos of a man whose enterprise, Foodylicious, had caught our attention. He’s an extremely affable chap, with a generous smile and genuinely enthusiastic tone. I first ask him of the route of his career thus far and discover a raft of leading brands that he was responsible for bringing to the UK consumer.

Graven Hill, one of the country’s most innovative self-build and custom build villages, is holding its first ‘Hard Hat’ event of 2019 on 26 January. The event will give visitors the chance to view the custom build new homes that are currently under construction and look around the site to get a feel for how their ideas could be translated into bricks and mortar. Sensible shoes will be a must! 

The Cotswolds sit atop this pre-historic legacy, as though a lush green velvet shawl has been draped across the hunched shoulders of a rocky frame. Cleaved from the ground and its antediluvian origin, it is this material that gives the area its ineffable quality. The sheer abundance of stone is the reason for its ubiquity and the mesmeric uniformity of the structures it now forms. So quietly proud and seemingly preordained are the villages of the Cotswolds, that it’s hard to imagine that it all began with the discreet amalgamation of infinitesimal morsels.