I visited 'world's most beautiful village' - 1 thing put me off instantly

It is more than a century since the poet and artist William Morris declared it "the most beautiful village in England". Morris, who was also the founder of the Arts and Crafts movement in Britain during the 19th century, clearly knew what he was talking about because well over 100 years later, it has now been named the most beautiful village on Earth.

The world-renowned publisher Forbes compiled a list of the world's 50 most beautiful villages, featuring places from Norway to Mali to Morocco. But it's this tiny village that came out on top. However, not everyone is pleased and you might want to think twice before going there.

Located in the Gloucestershire Cotswolds, Bibury was called a "watercolour dream" by Forbes, lined with honey-coloured cottages of Cotswold stone and surrounded by willow trees. One of its streets, Arlington Row, is among England's most photographed, a cross between the quintessential British village and Hogwarts.

Bibury is small yet exquisitely beautiful, nestled in the Cotswolds a little north-east of Cirencester. Before my arrival, I had seen plenty of photographs in which it looked so gorgeous I suspected the photos had been manipulated - could it really be that pretty?

It truly is. It ticks every cliche imaginable: it's charming, cute, fairytale, looks like it could have come straight from a postcard and so on. It stands out even in an area as beautiful as the Cotswolds.

The river Coln runs slowly through the heart of the village, crossed by a couple of low stone bridges. Cows graze on grassland beside the road near the Swan Hotel, which dominates the village centre (and also has what might be the most beautiful beer garden in Britain) and the Bibury Trout Farm breeds fish that are sold and eaten in restaurants all over the Cotswolds (including Jeremy Clarkson's pub, The Farmer's Dog - you can read about my visit here).

Bibury's crown jewel is Arlington Row, a row of cottages originally built of local stone in 1380 next to the River Coln as a monastic wool store before being converted to weavers' cottages in the 17th century. It's now owned by the National Trust.

It is probably the most photographed row of houses in the Cotswolds, possibly even the UK. Life's stresses melt away as you walk the narrow road (also called Awkward Hill) beside the cottages, first crossing a narrow stone bridge over the river, and trying to tread the equally fine line of respecting the fact that these are people's homes while marvelling at how gorgeous they are.

Hopefully, the people lucky enough to live here don't mind too much that, like Buckingham Palace, thousands of people take pictures of their homes every day.

And that brings me to the one thing about Bibury that is a bit off-putting: the number of tourists here is way out of proportion to the size of the village and its ability to cope with them. The 600 or so people who live here are sharing these narrow lanes and pretty fields with coaches, tour groups and day-trippers every day - thousands of them.

When it was named the world's most beautiful village this month, Craig Chapman, chair of Bibury Parish Council, told the BBC that the accolade is a "double-edged sword". He said the scale of tourism is "problematic" and comes "at a cost for locals".

Mr Chapman said: "The issue is very much about the mechanisms whereby people come to the village and when they come here, how they behave, where they park. The reality is we sit on a B-road. The road is narrow, there's one bridge across the River Coln, which is only wide enough for one vehicle. We've suffered greatly from congestion, particularly from the larger coaches."

I knew in advance that Bibury was a tourist attraction - and I had to accept that I too was here as a tourist when I visited in early June. But I didn't appreciate just how many people there would be on a random weekday afternoon.

It was obvious even before I got to the village centre, with groups of tourists strolling in the middle of the road en route, long lines of parked cars beside the river, several different languages from all over the world to be heard and people of all nationalities standing on Bibury's pretty stone bridges to grab a selfie.

Some of them were not especially inclined to bother moving when it was clear others wanted to get across, instead taking their time to get that perfect shot for Instagram (some claim the rocketing number of visitors to Bibury is down to the boom in travel and tourism influencers on social media).

There's even a large car park on the outskirts of the village, where visitors are charged £5 to park before walking into the heart of the village. There is enough space for 300 cars but villagers say even this is not enough on some days. The narrow lane between the car park and the village is a tight squeeze when trying to cope with two-way traffic as well as all the tourists on foot.

Last month, tourists were asked to use smaller vehicles when visiting Bibury to help ease pressure. And while some might assume that this amount of tourism can only be good for the village's economy, that's not what locals believe, saying: "[The villagers] would say [the tourists] don't put any money into the village."

Victoria Summerley, a journalist and author who has lived there since 2012, says: "[The villagers] would say [the tourists] don't put any money into the village."

Another resident, Lynn Edward, who has lived in Bibury for six years, told The Guardian earlier this year: "We have such a beautiful place that we want to share, but the level of tourism and the hordes of people that come has just made it entirely unpleasant, and the infrastructure doesn't really cope with it. All they want to do is come and take a photograph. They don't stay in the village. They don't linger enough to really ingest the beauty and historic value of the place. It's literally, I think, to take a selfie."

It is clearly a difficult balance. While tourism can bring benefits and people are often proud to share the beauty of where they live with visitors, it is understandable that villagers who call Bibury home are frustrated by the extent to which it has now become a tourist attraction. It is undoubtedly a staggeringly beautiful place, and lives up to its billing as "the most beautiful village in the world", even considering the amount of competition in the Cotswolds alone. So if you do visit, please try and be as respectful as possible of the people who live here.

Arlington Row: A row of cottages originally built of local stone in 1380, next to the River Coln, is probably the most photographed street in the Cotswolds, possibly even the country. A short circular route runs from the Swan Hotel to the cottages and back along a track to the hotel.

Bibury Trout Farm: Bibury Trout Farm is one of Britain's oldest trout farms. Founded in 1902, you will find its trout on the menu in restaurants around the Cotswolds. It is open to the public while being a working trout farm producing hundreds of thousands of trout (brown, blue and rainbow) a year. It also has an on-site smokery. You can buy the trout on site and in the village shop. Entry to the farm costs £9 for adults.

Swan Hotel: The beautiful Swan Hotel is perhaps the most prominent building in Bibury, its walls covered in greenery. You can stay here or simply book a table for lunch or dinner. It also has arguably the most beautiful beer garden in Britain, with deckchairs set almost on an island surrounded by the tranquil River Coln.

Eleven Bibury: With interiors designed by Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, Eleven Bibury is a mixture of cafe, restaurant, art space and shared working space just across the main road from the river. Grab a brunch, a slice of cake or coffee and escape the crowds of tourists outside.