A day out in Chipping Campden

The easing of lockdown has meant that we can travel outside our area, and during these last few weeks we have been having days out in the Cotswolds. Last week it was the turn of Chipping Campden.

Most Cotswold villages have a street named Sheep Street. And how about that window?

Out first stop was the Robert Welsh shop as we needed a large serving spoon and some sharp knives. 

Candle holders

jug and two coffee pots

a bowl

a tea pot

We took our purchases to the car and then started exploring.

Chiipping Campden is a small market town, notable for its elegant terraced High Street, dating back from the 14th to the 17th century. A rich wool trading centre in the Middle Ages, the town enjoyed the patronage of rich wool merchants.

Narrow alleyways provide access to the back

It's a beautiful town, with lots of things to do and see, and yet, very few visitors - we visited on a Saturday on a gorgeous, sunny day, and yet, as always, hardly anyone about. Suits us, but I don't understand it.

Another alleyway,

All the houses are beautifully maintained

The High Street is lined with honey-coloured limestone buildings, built from the mellow locally quarried limestone known as Cotswold stone.

A few of the buildings are timber-framed

a narrow street, parallel to the High Street

We were hoping to have lunch at the Bistro on the Square

which is part of Cotswold House, hotel and spa

The grounds, accessed on the side of the building, are beautiful

beautifully maintained,

with outbuildings which I presume are the treatment rooms

alas, it was closed. This is where they serve drinks and meals, but no sign of tables or chairs

We wandered around the gardens

an unusual bench

tulips in the flower beds

the garden goes on and on

back on the High Street and a small green area by the War Memorial

a few tables on the green, and people having lunch

The Market Hall, right in the centre of town, a Grade I listed building. Built in 1627 by Baprist Hicks, it has splendid arches, and is still in use.  There was a plan to sell the hall in the 1940s, but locals raised funds to purchase the property and donated it to the National Trust.

The building was intended as a shelter for merchants and farmers selling their wares with the side walls open to allow light, and customers, to enter.

We continued on our way

The High Street in its full glory

a deli

The sign outside the shop made us smile

another alleyway

We left the High Street and reached the Almshouses on Church Street. They were built in 1612, provided by Baptist Hicks as homes for 12 pensioners and still remain in use for that purpose.  Today they are Grade I listed.

Such narrow doors. How does it work inside? Are there two entrance halls inside these doors?

Across the road, the Court Barn, now a museum celebrating the rich Arts and Crafts tradition of the area

Next to the barn, the entrance gates to Camden House, owned by Hicks, on land purchased some time after 1608, where he added the manor. The manor was destroyed by Royalists in 1645 during the English Civil War, possibly to present it falling into the hands of the Parliamentarians. There is little evidence as to the appearance of the manor and gardens. Any drawings of the house were made long after it had been destroyed. All that now remains of the once imposing estate are the gatehouse and two Jacobean banqueting houses, the latter now owned by the Landmark Trust. 

Situated next to the gates to the manor house, is the early perpendicular Cotswold wool Church of St James.

the path leading to

the church

through the narrow yew tree path

leading to the rest of the graves with extensive views of the Cotswold countryside plus a view of one of the remaining banqueting halls

we stayed here one night with friends courtesy of the Landmark Trust

back through the avenue of yews

Next, we decided to have a look in the shop of the Barn where we saw examples of Steventon Green pottery

ceramics by Carey Moon

and by Vineyard Pottery.

As we left the Barn, we got a much better view of the Almshouses from across the road

and then we noticed this ditch

this plaque told us that it used to be a cart wash

back on the High Street

where, on this side of the road, the pavement is sunk, lower than the road

 and eventually we ended up where we had begun, and back to the car.