Bourton-on-the-Water is a village and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England, that lies on a wide flat vale within the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

[2] Bourton-on-the-Water's high street is flanked by long wide greens and the River Windrush that runs through them.

An electoral ward of the same name exists and includes Cold Aston in addition to Bourton.

[9] The earliest evidence of human activity within the Bourton-on-the-Water area was found in the Slaughter Bridge gravel-spread, where Neolithic pottery (dated c. 4000 B.C.)

By the 11th century a Christian church, Norman, was established and the village had developed along the River Windrush much as it is today.

[12] Following the formation of the Territorial Force in 1908, the town, for recruiting, was granted to the Royal Gloucestershire Hussars.

[15] During construction of the school's maths block, it was discovered to be situated upon a Roman cemetery which also contained Iron Age roundhouses, burials, and pottery.

[16][17] The houses and shops in the village are constructed of the ashlar yellow limestone characteristic of the Cotswolds and they have the embellishments that make Cotswold architecture so picturesque: projecting gables, string-courses, windows with stone mullions, dripmoulds and stone hoodmoulds over the doors.

[9] Parts of the James Bond movie Die Another Day (2002) were filmed in the car park at Bourton-on-the-Water and on the nearby ex-RAF aircraft runway at RAF Little Rissington.

[19] Salmonsbury Camp, a nearby Iron Age habitation, is designated a UK National scheduled monument (SAM 32392).

)[21] Bourton has a number of tourist attractions:[22] Long-distance footpaths and local walks start, finish or pass through Bourton-on-the-Water.