”To make a landscape a place, you have to feel it.”
—Fiona Stafford
WRITING RETREAT
Escape to the English Countryside!
Discover the Magic of the Cotswolds with Us
Wild Words and Sacred Spaces: A Writing Retreat in the Cotswolds
June 7-13, 2025 | Bath & Frampton-on-Severn
Step away from the everyday and immerse yourself in the landscapes that have inspired writers for centuries. For seven days and six nights, you’ll write, reflect, and explore the stunning English countryside.
We’ll take care of all the details—lodging, meals, transportation, and curated experiences—so you can focus on creativity and connection.
Retreat Highlights:
- Daily Writing Circles – Led by Jennifer Wolfe in inspiring locations
- Walking Tour of Bath – Explore the world of Jane Austen & feminist writers
- The Gainesborough Bath Spa Hotel – 5-star service and access to thermal waters
- Frampton Court Estate: – Five days at this stunning manor home
- Highgrove Gardens & Private Tea – A rare and exclusive experience
- Healing Garden Workshop – Discover “Letting the Land Heal You”
- Farm-to-Table Dinners & Countryside Picnics – Savor the best of England
- Optional Excursions – Add Stonehenge, Oxford, or Stratford-upon-Avon
- Spaces are limited—secure your spot today!
📍 Learn more and register here.
Offered in partnership with Casa Erica Travel, this retreat promises to delight and restore your spirit. Only two spots remain, so don’t miss your chance! You can also register for an exploratory circle HERE.
p.s. Lodging photos and a letter from Jennifer Wolfe below…
Stay in an English Manor Home
We’re so pleased we were able to secure the stunning location of the Frampton Court Estate, only available for private retreats and film crews shooting movies. We intend to wander the grounds like Wordsworth, throwing scraps of poetry over our shoulder for the fairies to pick up!
Frampton Court is a lovely estate, and the icing on the cake is The Orangery. From the brochure: “At the head of a seventeenth century ornamental Dutch canal is the exquisite Orangery. Described by Country Life magazine as “The prettiest garden building in England, The Orangery is one of the most unusual examples of Strawberry Hill gothic architecture in the country.” Who can resist this charm and beauty? More here.
LETTER FROM JENNIFER
A Retreat Steeped in Beauty and Words
I got a message from my mother, the sheep farmer…
I don’t know about you, but my childhood was filled with British books and landscapes—the orderly vegetable rows of Mr. McGregor’s garden, the wild roses blooming in The Secret Garden, the sweeping moors of Wuthering Heights, where the wind kept you company while calling your dead lover’s name. Cozied up in my reading chair, I was besotted with storybook cottages, majestic manor homes, and the picturesque views of the English countryside.
Years later, after reconnecting with my writer self, I, too, wandered the moors, stepping into the pages of my storybook past. I needed time in open fields, under arching beams of church ruins, along fence lines where rabbits paused, skylarks hung high in the sky, and fluffy sheep eyed me with curiosity. Could they tell I had once lived on a sheep farm, and my mother was an English-lit teacher-turned-sheep-farmer?
When I bought my current home, I was drawn to its English cottage features. It’s literally a storybook cottage, with deeply sloped rooflines, a massive chimney, wide open hearths, and cozy rooms in which to tuck messy stacks of books and an eclectic community of women writers.
What surprised me was the history of my house, once I learned it. It turns out it’s a Cotswold Cottage, built in 1922, at the height of a U.S. love affair with the Cotswold region. And guess what else I discovered? The Cotswold is a type of sheep! No wonder I’ve been drawn to this region for so long—my sheep-farming past was the final connection. It was a message from my mother: Go home to yourself, Jennifer. Find the “wold cots” of the Cotswolds, and learn whatever you need to know.
So there you are: the places and spaces of our past always inform the spaces and places of our present. And since our writing and art theme for the year has been “places and spaces,” this location was the perfect fit.
We have planned a well-appointed, carefully curated, magical tour of the Cotswolds, with its charming streets, thatched roofs, and ancient histories. We will start in Bath and move through picturesque villages to a majestic manor home, wandering through the landscapes of our past and present. We will write together each day, charting our adventures and taking the time we need to explore the spaces and places of our hearts—our writer’s hearts.
Come. We want to walk the hills and dales—and tell our tales—with you.
Cheers,
Jennifer
P.S. Enjoy a photo of my very own Cotswold Cottage and my mother the sheep farmer, below.
Explore Our Spring Circles and Events
Join the Snail Trail: Bookstore Crawl!
We invite you to a four-part, free community writing circle series every Saturday in April at local bookstores! Collect stamps on your Library Checkout Card at each event. Attend all four and be entered into a raffle for a future class sampler. Join the snail trail, slow down, connect, and celebrate stories with us!
- April 5 – Join us for our first two free Bookstore Crawl circles:
Location: San Marco Books and More; Happy Medium Cafe
Times: Saturday at 11 and at 3. Details and registration here.
- April 12, 19, 26 – Find out where ALL the Bookstore Crawl locations will be in April HERE. And join us for a Book Club Fair at Femme Fire Books on April 26.
- April 14 – Free Poetry Workshop for Jax Poetry Fest!
Location: Online, hosted by Hope at Hand
Time: Monday at 12:00 NOON EST. Register.
- May 4 – Public ReadAround
Location: Women Writing for (a) Change Jacksonville
Time: Sunday at 2 PM. Register.
Register HERE for all or use the link below. We can’t wait to circle up with you!
The Last Word
“I am writing in the garden. To write as one should of a garden one must write not outside it or merely somewhere near it, but in the garden.”
―Frances Hodgson Burnett