WHILE the Stroud Valleys and Commons can seem such a timeless landscape, I still wonder how the secretive valleys and open hills would have looked to the people first settling here more than 5,000 years ago.

 Skilled Neolithic farmers starting to make the most of the fertile land would have seen a very different view to mine, I think. Outlines of tall lime and elm trees may have dominated the skyline, and pastures may well have been relatively small open areas within the wider woodland.

Clearing the natural wildwood covering the Cotswolds for farming took centuries and had a profound effect, ultimately changing the whole landscape.

With no true wildwood left, prehistoric locals later added long barrows – huge burial mounds.

There are more than 100 of these structures in the area, including Nympsfield long barrow at Coaley Peak.

 Roman and Iron Age settlements were also common around Stroud – one find from what is now Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust’s Barrow Wake site is the Birdlip mirror, with beautiful, intricate decorations reminiscent of the rare orchids still found on the site.

 If you want to find out more about how the Cotswolds were first farmed – and the story right through to modern farming – you can’t do better than head to Greystones, a short walk from Bourton-on-the-Water village centre.

This former derelict farm and historic site has been renovated by GWT and opens this week into a pioneering visitor centre.

 Greystones tells the tale of 6,000 years of human settlement in the Cotswolds.

You can imagine yourself living in the Iron Age in the recreated roundhouse, walk along the peaceful River Eye looking for rare water voles and beautiful dragonflies.

For more see gloucestershirewildlifetrust.co.uk/wildlife/reserves