Chapter 01
The High Escarpment.
Randwick is steep. Not 'Cotswold rolling' steep - properly steep, the kind where the lane out of the village makes second-gear non-negotiable and where every garden terraces down to the next roof. The parish clings to the western lip of the escarpment with Standish Wood folding into its back and the Severn Vale spilling out in front; on a clear day the view runs from Rodborough Fort in the east to the river and the Forest of Dean beyond. The Cotswold Way passes within a short walk of the village green. Stroud town centre is twenty minutes on foot down The Throat - and a serious calf workout coming back up. This is a village that earns its views.
Chapter 02
A Fierce Independence.
Where many Cotswold villages have quietly thinned into weekend-retreat status, Randwick has refused. Population around 1,400, the parish was renamed Randwick and Westrip in 2015 to formally include the hamlet on its southern flank, and the Parish Council adopted a Conservation Area Character Appraisal in June 2025 to protect what makes the place what it is. The annual rhythm is the proof: the Wap in May, the panto in winter, the Randwick Fire in October — a deliberately quiet, community-run bonfire that stands as the antithesis of the big commercialised displays elsewhere — alongside a steady drumbeat of village-hall events, church coffee mornings, club nights, and a primary school that anchors the social life of every young family in the parish. You do not retire to Randwick to be left alone. You move here to be in it.