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Chipping Campden

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Overview

Chipping Campden is a small town in the far north of Gloucestershire. A classic Cotswold town, the relaxed and friendly town is made picturesque by its historic architecture made with honey colored Cotswold stone, a char

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WBP almanac

External sources

Wikivoyage Wikipedia

Media

From Wikipedia1,896 words

WBP editorial3

Crafting a Cotswold itinerary

Most visitors confine themselves to the town's main thoroughfare, yet the surrounding countryside offers a subtle rhythm of farm lanes and ancient hedgerows that complement the market town’s shopfronts. Start early with a half‑day ride on a hired bicycle, tracing the ancient drovers’ routes that once led wool to the loom. Stop at the small hamlets of Snowshill and Blockley, where independent studios showcase stone‑carving and hand‑spun textiles. A short detour to Hidcote Manor’s gardens adds a horticultural interlude, and the return to Chipping Campden in the late afternoon feels like a gentle re‑entry into the historic core.

Seasonal sensibilities

While the Cotswolds attract tourists year‑round, the town’s character shifts noticeably with the calendar. In spring, the nearby River Severn’s floodplain awakens with a chorus of nightingales, and local cafés begin to serve fresh asparagus from nearby farms. Summer brings a swell of craft fairs, where stencil‑printed silk scarves compete with traditional lace. Autumn is particularly rewarding for walkers: the limestone pavements turn amber, and the town’s historic inns host pop‑up tasting menus that incorporate foraged mushrooms and local game. Winter, though quieter, offers a chance to see the High Street's stone façades illuminated by low‑watt lanterns, lending a contemplative atmosphere that feels distinct from the bustling high‑season.

What guidebooks miss: the local guilds

Beyond the well‑documented wool legacy, Chipping Campden sustains a living network of artisan guilds that trace their roots to the 17th‑century Cotswold Games. Today, the town’s clockmakers, silversmiths, and stained‑glass workshops convene each autumn for a modest exhibition open only to residents and their invited guests. Securing a brief audience—often arranged through a polite enquiry at the town hall—lets visitors witness the continuity of hands‑on craftsmanship that has quietly underpinned the local economy for centuries. These informal gatherings provide insight into how contemporary makers balance heritage techniques with modern design, a narrative absent from most tourist guides.

Introduction

"Campden" redirects here. For the electoral ward in London, see Campden (ward).Town in Gloucestershire, England Human settlement in EnglandChipping CampdenSt James' churchChipping CampdenLocation within GloucestershirePopulation2,288 (2011 Census)OS grid referenceSP155395Civil parishChipping Campden Town CouncilDistrictCotswoldShire countyGloucestershireRegionSouth WestCountryEnglandSovereign stateUnited KingdomPost townCHIPPING CAMPDENPostcode districtGL55PoliceGloucestershireFireGloucestershireAmbulanceSouth Western UK ParliamentNorth Cotswolds List of places UK England Gloucestershire 52°03′07″N 1°46′44″W / 52.052°N 1.779°W / 52.052; -1.779 Chipping Campden is a market town in the Cotswold district of Gloucestershire, England. It is notable for its terraced High Street, dating from the 14th to the 17th centuries. A wool trading centre in the Middle Ages, Chipping Campden enjoyed the patronage of wealthy wool merchants, most notably William Greville (d.1401). 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. The town is an end point of the Cotswold Way, a 102-mile long-distance footpath. Chipping Campden has hosted its own Cotswold Games since 1612.

History

[edit] Chipping Campden Market Hall East Banqueting House and St James, Chipping Campden St James' church, Hicks Memorial The name Chipping derives from Old English cēping, meaning 'market' or 'market-place'; the same element is found in other towns such as Chipping Norton, Chipping Sodbury and Chipping (now High) Wycombe. One of the oldest buildings in the town is the Grade I listed Market Hall, built by Sir Baptist Hicks in 1627 and is still in use. The building was intended as a shelter for merchants and farmers selling their wares, with the arched side walls open to allow light and customers to enter. 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 grand early perpendicular Cotswold wool church, Church of St James, with its medieval altar frontals (c. 1500), cope (c. 1400) and 17th century monuments, includes a monument to silk merchant Sir Baptist Hicks and his family. The Grade I listed church also includes a plaque to William Grevel, described as "the flower of the wool merchants of all England". His home, the Grade I listed Grevel's House, was built c. 1380; it is not open to visitors. The Grade I listed almshouses on Church Street were built in 1612, provided by Sir Baptist Hicks as homes for 12 pensioners and still remains in use for that purpose. The Grade II listed Old Silk Mill in Sheep Street is a three-storey building, originally used as a mill for spinning of silk thread; it closed in 1860 and became a silk throwing mill. In 1902, the building was converted into the headquarters for the Guild of Handicraft. The Court Barn near the church is now a museum celebrating the Arts and Crafts tradition of the area. Hicks was also the owner of Campden House, on land he purchased some time after 1608; he added the manor and gained the title 1st Viscount Campden. The manor was destroyed by Royalists in 1645 during the English Civil War, possibly to prevent it falling into the hands of the Parliamentarians. There is little reliable 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 Sir Baptist Hicks' once imposing estate are a gatehouse and two Jacobean banqueting houses; the latter were restored by the Landmark Trust. Lady Juliana Noel, Sir Baptist's daughter, and her family lived at the converted stables near the site in Calf Lane, now called The Court House. Her descendant still lives in that Grade II listed building. In 1970, the High Street and much of the town centre was designated a conservation area to preserve the architecture. There are two historic gardens nearby: the Arts and Crafts Hidcote Manor Garden, owned and managed by the National Trust, and another at nearby Mickleton, Kiftsgate; this site is privately owned, but open to the public. Two miles to the west, in the grounds of Weston Park near Saintbury, are the earthwork remains of a motte-and-bailey castle.

Transport

[edit] Former site of the Chipping Campden station Chipping Campden railway station was a stop on the Cotswold Line, but was closed in 1966. Since 2014, there have been proposals to reopen it. The nearest National Rail station is at Moreton-in-Marsh, eight miles away. Great Western Railway operates generally hourly services between London Paddington and Worcestershire Parkway, via Reading, Oxford and Evesham. Local bus routes are operated by Stagecoach Midlands, Pulham Coaches and Hedgehog Community Buses; these connect the town with Cheltenham, Evesham, Mickleton, Moreton-in-Marsh and Stratford-upon-Avon.

Cotswold Games

[edit] Main article: Cotswold Olimpick Games Cotswold Games, 1636 woodcut Since the early seventeenth century, the town has been home to a championship of rural games, which later turned into Robert Dover's Cotswold Olimpick Games. The games were discontinued in 1852, but were revived in 1963 and still continue. The Olimpicks are held every summer on the Friday evening following the late Spring bank holiday (usually late May or early June), on Dover's Hill, near Chipping Campden. Peculiar to the games is the sport of shin-kicking, where hay can be stuffed down the trousers to ease one's brave passage to later rounds. To mark the end of the games, there is a huge bonfire and firework display. This is followed by a torch-lit procession back into the town and dancing to a local band in the square. The Scuttlebrook Wake takes place the following day. The locals don fancy dress costumes and follow the Scuttlebrook Queen, with her four attendants and Page Boy, in a procession to the centre of town pulled on a decorated dray by the town's own Morris dancers. This is then followed by the presentation of prizes and displays of Maypole and Country dancing by the two primary schools and Morris dancing. Another procession from there past the fairground in Leysbourne and the Alms Houses brings that stage of the celebration to a close whilst the fair continues into the night and, like a ghost, is gone by the morning. The 2019 Games agenda included events such as a children's half-mile Junior Circuit, a Championship of the Hill race for adults and a Tug O’War competition. The organisers also planned fireworks, a torchlit procession, marching bands and cannons firing.

Arts and Crafts movement

[edit] Charles Robert Ashbee, founder of the Guild and School of Handicraft. Portrait by William Strang, 1903 In the early 20th century, the town became known as a centre for the Cotswold Arts and Crafts Movement, following the move of Charles Robert Ashbee and the members of his Guild and School of Handicraft from the East End of London in 1902. According to the local historical society, the movement "focused on handmade objects, reacting against the rapidly growing dominance of machinery which resulted in the loss of craft skills". The Guild of Handicraft specialised in metalworking, producing jewellery and enamels, as well as hand-wrought copper and wrought ironwork, and furniture-making. According to Historic England, "the Guild of Handicraft, founded by Ashbee in 1888, became one of the foremost Arts and Crafts workshops of its period...formed the focus of the communal life which, as a pioneering social experiment, formed the most bold and important expression of Arts and Crafts principles." The Guild ceased operation in 1907 but the centre for crafts offers a permanent exhibition of their work. A number of artists and writers settled in the area, including F. L. Griggs, the etcher, who built Dover's Court (now known as New Dover's House), one of the last significant Arts and Crafts houses. He set up the Campden Trust in 1929 with Norman Jewson and others, initially to protect Dover's Hill from development. According to a 2018 report, Griggs "sympathetically restored houses on the High Street, battled against a tide of ugliness that engulfed other towns and villages and used money he could ill afford to safeguard its surroundings." In 1934, he raised funds to buy the Coneygree field (where rabbits had been raised generations earlier) for the National Trust to ensure its protection. Many of Griggs' etchings are preserved at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. H. J. Massingham, the rural writer who celebrated the traditions of the English countryside, also settled near the town, as did Arthur Gaskin. Ananda Coomaraswamy, the Sri Lankan philosopher and art critic and his wife the handloom weaver Ethel Mairet, settled at Broad Campden where Ashbee adapted the Norman chapel for him. In 2005, a group of traditional craftspeople moved into The Old Silk Mill building. As of 2019, there were 28 members of this co-operative.

Notable people

[edit] Graham Greene, English novelist, playwright, short story writer and critic, lived with his wife Vivien Greene at Little Orchard in the town between 1931 and 1933. Ernest Wilson, plantsman, was born in the town. A memorial garden is dedicated to him. Sir Percy Hobart, armoured vehicle strategist and commander of the 79th Armoured Division in the Second World War, came from Chipping Campden and led the Home Guard there during the war. Frederick Landseer Maur Griggs has a commemorative plaque in the town. Sir Gordon Russell (1892–1980), celebrated furniture designer and maker, went to school in Chipping Campden and built his home, Kingcombe, here in 1925. He lived there until he died.