Cheltenham Minster, St Mary's

The tower of St Mary's catches you as soon as you're within a few streets of Cheltenham town centre - that soaring perpendicular Gothic thing rising above the Georgian terraces and shop fronts. Step inside and the space opens up properly. This is the Minster now, though most locals still call it what it's always been, and it's a proper medieval church done up with all the Victorian improvements you'd expect.

The fan-vaulted ceiling and the stained glass are the standouts. There's real craftsmanship on display here, though if you've done the Cotswold church circuit already - say Tewkesbury Abbey or the cathedral at Gloucester - you'll recognise the architectural language. It's free to wander in and works best on a weekday morning when it's quiet. Families with younger kids might lose them after twenty minutes, but anyone with an eye for stonework or interested in how a market town's religious life has evolved will find it worth an hour.

The beauty of staying at one of the nearby parks - Cheltenham Racecourse is barely over a mile away, or Briarfields if you want something slightly removed - is that the Minster sits right in town. You can knock this off before breakfast or slot it between the shops and the coffee houses. It's the kind of place that doesn't demand advance planning. Just turn up, slip through the doors, and let the quiet do its work.