Chipping Campden

We spent two very pleasant hours wandering around this Cotswold village. It was a bank holiday and the Cotswolds get inundated with visitors but for some reason, not Chipping Campden: it's always very quiet and calm - except for the cars, there's always so many cars parked around.

Chipping Campden is a market town, notable for its terraced High Street, dating from the 14th to the 17th centuries. The High Street is lined with buildings built from locally quarried oolitic limestone known as Cotswold stone, and boasts a wealth of vernacular architecture. Much of the town centre is a conservation area which has helped to preserve the original buildings. It was a wool trading centre in the Middle Ages.

First stop, Fillet and Bone, 

that sells everything:

fruit and vegetables

drinks,

deli items

as well as fresh fish. Ken had a pork pie and I had a slice of vegan carrot cake which we ate as we wandered around.

The plants and flowers in this shop looked wonderful.

We turned into Sheep Street

which, like the rest of the village is classic Cotswold architecture.  This limestone is rich in fossils, particularly of fossilised sea urchins. When weathered, the colour of buildings made or faced with this stone is often described as honey or golden.

J.B. Priestley made this comment about Cotswold buildings made of the local stone: 'the truth is that it has no colour that can be described. Even when the sun is obscured and the light is cold, these walls are still faintly warm and luminous, as if they knew the trick of keeping the lost sunlight of centuries glimmering about them'.

a thatched cottage

 

with an interesting side entrance to the garden

The area has been designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and the houses are extremely well-kept

two sets of steps here, one leading to the garden and the other to the front entrance of the house

because the door at the front of the house is tiny

 

They do like their hedges here

and everything is kept immaculate

We had reached the edge of the village by now, and were walking on one of the main roads that leads to the village 

all the houses were grand and well-kept

and a lot had thatched roofs

all chocolate box cottages

and a lot had these immaculate, designed hedges

 

could not see much through these gates except the immaculate garden

this house is so long, I could not get all of it in the picture

look at this hedge - amazing

everything just so

and another one

 

I looked at the front door, and thought, that this could very easily be the entrance in a fairy tale

Two dwellings here

detail

We left the main road

and found ourselves in a road with modern housing

but this old barn as well

down the hill

past the old mill

and we were back full circle on the village main street

 

the village has a lot of these alleyways between the houses

One of the local pubs

This one's an independent one, not part of a brewery, pretty rare these days

Saint Catherine, a Catholic Church

The vicarage

Some narrow streets - such fun

detail

lots of people sitting out eating here

not many houses with beams in this village, but there are a few

a wedding

we decided to have a look at this hotel garden

we like to come here for lunch in the summer, but the garden is obviously not open yet

it's a beautiful garden, and we always come and visit even if we're not coming for a meal

We continued on our way and arrived at the market hall, one of the oldest buildings in the town, a Grade I listed building - it was built in 1627.

which is held by the National Trust these days

We had now reached the busiest part of the village, and yet, as you can see, not many people about

another alleyway

one of the larger houses in the centre

We were heading for the church but realised that our parking meter was about to run out, so we turned around, walked on the other side of the street, in the sunken pavement, got to our car and drove back home.