Saturday, March 26th, 2011 at
10:53 am
There is a small town nestled in the sunlit stretched out hills Cotswold hills in Gloucestershire County that has been deemed with the name of Chipping Campden. One of the towns most marked landmarks are the unusually attractive and elegant terraced, honey mustard colored, high street buildings that have a sort of classic grace about them. They are broad and long and surrounded on both sides by an almost unbroken terrace of many different styles.
The high street buildings are made from a locally quarried type of oolitic limestone that has been fittingly named Cotswold stone. Chipping Camden is also home to a church considered to be one of the most beautiful in the Cotswolds; it is the church of Saint James. The church houses many elaborate tombs and was featured in Simon Jenkins book Englands thousand best churches. Chipping Campden is also home to the ancient Market hall which was built in 1627 by Sir Baptist Hicks with the purpose of giving shelter to the local market.
It is thought that the word Campden is Saxon in origination and translates to valley with the fields. Some written records suggest that King Harold may have owned the manor campden prior to the Norman Conquest. Later during the civil war the royalist troops set the campden Manor on fire to keep it from falling into the ownership of the parliament.
This market area in the Cotswolds was beginning to merit itself a name in the early thirteenth century; it was earning the name Cepyne Caumpedene which translates to market campden. Chipping is a word that comes from the old English word ceping which means a market or a market place. The name picked up in popularity and the town continued to grow into its new title. People began raising sheep all around the cotswolds and then in Chipping campden the wool was sheered and sent to London, soon chipping campden was a town full of wealthy wool merchants in the middle ages.
There was a large migration of craftsmen in the early twentieth century, who decided to bring their crafts to the town. They were led by a man named C R Ashbee. The craftsmen moved into an old dilapidated silk mill and soon began the guild of Handicrafts.
Another thing taking place in the beginning of the twentieth century was the dream of a man named Lawrence Johnston. He moved into the Hidcote Manor and began creating a garden that people would adore for years to come. The self taught gardener began creating his garden in 1907 and spent forty years finishing it. It is now considered one of the great gardens of England.
This small market town till this day evokes old time emotions and appreciation. It is certain that Chipping Campden will continue to take its place among the most beautiful historical English towns and will always be popular amongst her citizens.
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View full screen for the best experience! Original photographs from a walking tour of the Costwolds and Bath set to a lively soundtrack. Includes images from Chipping Campden, Snowshill, Broadway, Hidcote Manor Gardens, Sudeley Castle, Castle Combe, and Belas Knap.
Video of our Cotswold holiday in May 2008. You’ll see Weston Subedge, Chipping Norton, Walk the Guiting Wood, and Stanton.
Hop in for a brief glimpse of a village in England.
The Cotswolds is a range of hills in west-central England, sometimes called the “Heart of England”, an area across and long. The area has been designated as the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
