The Cotswold Setting of A Match to Remember by Helen Hawkins

Submitted: 4th June 2025

Walk in the Cotswolds with Helen Hawkins

Helen Lewis

Map of locations in A Match to Remember

Both of my novels, A Concert for Christmas and A Match to Remember, are set in the fictional market town of Cranswell in the heart of the Cotswold countryside. While the novels are set in an imagined place, in reality, I’ve drawn much of my inspiration from the Cotswold locations close to where I live – most of them becoming a hybrid of several local places.

A Match to Remember Helen Hawkins

Map of locations in A Match to Remember

Church Green and Marriott’s Walk, Witney

Marriott’s Walk (c) Helen Hawkins

Map of locations in A Match to Remember

Witney is a picturesque market town a few miles from Oxford. When I wrote A Match to Remember, I had lived in a flat above the shops in a part of Witney called Marriott’s Walk for several years. It had a pastel pink outside wall and you could look out over the shops – and I absolutely loved it! While I didn’t set out for this to be where Lizzie and Tom share their flat, I couldn’t help but see it in my mind’s eye when I was writing their story.

Church Green (c) Helen Hawkins

Map of locations in A Match to Remember

Church Green is at the other end of the town and is a picturesque part of Witney lined with historic buildings – I moved this so that it was closer to Lizzie’s flat to give the place more of a villagey feel.

Albany Road, Cardiff

Albany Road, Cardiff (c) Helen Hawkins

Map of locations in A Match to Remember

Oddly, when Lizzie and Tom are forced to move into a new flat, the place I had in mind was a flat I lived in off Albany Road in Cardiff, which had a lovely open-plan living space, just like the one described in A Match to Remember. It has absolutely nothing to do with the Cotswolds(!), but it was a place I loved living in. Moreover, the interior was what I imagined when Lizzie and Tom move to their new place. Think sky lights and the idea of a converted Victorian flat!

The area is also similar to how I imagined the slightly busier end of Cranswell, with a few shops and businesses.

Map of locations in A Match to Remember

Primary School, Deer Park, Witney

I work in a secondary school, but my characters and their stories revolve around a primary school, also based on a school I know in Witney. I’ve never worked there myself, but I have visited as part of my day job, and I go there for my Moving With Musicals exercise class each week with Step by Step Dance Witney and took my inspiration from the small part of it I see as I wander through reception and into their main hall – which of course plays quite a big part in the novel given the number of PE lessons Lizzie gets involved in.

Map of locations in A Match to Remember

Football Field, Burford Road, Witney

Football Field, Burford Road, (c) Helen Hawkins Witney

Along one of the main roads into Witney, there is a huge field, home to Park Run on a Saturday and a number of football matches on a Sunday. In fact, Witney enjoys its football, with a healthy number of youth teams that the youngsters in school get involved with. I changed this slightly so that Lizzie could play for an adult team, but the space is exactly the space I imagine Lizzie playing in when she plays in the women’s cup tournament in the novel.

Map of locations in A Match to Remember

The Rose Revived Pub, Newbridge

The Rose Revived Pub, Newbridge (c) Helen Hawkins

I drive past the Rose Revived pub in Newbridge most weeks on my way to rehearsal in Abingdon, and while the pub itself is a gorgeous old building, the garden is the really exciting bit! Tables are nestled under weeping willows, and you can sit and enjoy your food and drinks alongside the river. In A Match to Remember, this is where Lizzie, her sister and Tom enjoy a Sunday roast and where the cocktail festival takes place. It’s also along the walk that begins in the pub garden that Lizzie and Noah finally address how they really feel about each other.