The streets of Chipping Campden are not paved with gold, but the
buildings are. Cotswold limestone varies greatly in colour from
one region to another, from weathered greys to those pretentiously
titled off-whites listed in paint manufacturers' catalogues. In
Chipping Campden the stone used in buildings is every kind of
golden yellow and honey brown, and in sunlight the town glows
like Eldorado. It makes more sense to visit the Louvre wearing
dark sunglasses than it does to visit Chipping Campden in the
rain. When the sun shines the streets seem to be suffused with
the essence of a summer's day, and one can almost smell honey
and beeswax.
It is difficult to point to any one thing about Chipping Campden, to any particular building that is so exceptional that it stands out from the others. The architecture is absolutely characteristic of the Cotswolds, and similar buildings, even finer individual buildings, can be found elsewhere. The place is a gestalt, a totality that is greater than any one of its parts. When the sun shines, it really is a very exceptional and unexpectedly beautiful place.
This view is not universal. In 1836 a Cotswold parson wrote "Campden is a dull, clean, disused market town". Perhaps it was raining as he passed through. Perhaps he had a headache. Like many of the Cotswold wool towns Chipping Campden has had periods of great prosperity and periods of deep decline, and the early 19th.C when he wrote was a difficult time all over the Cotswolds, so it is likely that his description was accurate.
On the other hand, when the town was rich, it was exceedingly rich. One building which does stand out is the house of William Grevel, built about 1380, possibly later. Grevel was a wool merchant at a time when wool was the major English export to Europe and English wool, and in particular Cotswold wool, was considered among the very finest. Grevel is credited with much of the rebuilding to the church of St. James, although detailed study shows that the work was done either when he was a young man, or years after his death! There is no doubt about his importance to the town however, as there is a large brass of Grevel and his wife Marion set into the floor of the Chancel of St. James. The inscription on the brass says "Here lies William Grevel of Campden, formerly a citizen of London and flower of the wool merchants of all England, who died on the first day of October Anno Domini 1401".
Grevel House is notable for the tall bay window with its delicately moulded and carved stonework, topped with a pair gargoyles. It isn't a grand manor house, built to impress, but it is beautifully proportioned and human in scale, sitting in a long terrace of later houses built with identical materials and quietly, and without effort, trumping the lot.
Another nearby building from this period is the Woolstapler's Hall, built by the wool merchant Robert Calf in about 1340. Aside from its great age, the building is of interest because of its association with C.R. Ashbee, one of the leading figures in the highly influential Arts and Crafts Movement, which in turn owed much of its impetus to the rhetoric and vision of William Morris. Ashbee formed the Guild of Handicrafts in London's East End, specialising in fine metalwork, jewellery, carving and furniture. Much of their work is now in museums and private collections. In 1902 Ashbee lead an exodus of craft workers and their families to Chipping Campden, well over 100 people in all. As you can imagine, this influx of city folk was not entirely welcome. Ashbee and his wife moved to Woolstapler's Hall and renovated it. His handicrafts enterprise failed, as the manufactures of the Guild were of exceptional quality and very expensive, but many of the craft workers stayed on and some of their descendants still live in Chipping Campden and are internationally famous for their work (see below under Business). Examples of Arts and Crafts artifacts can be found in Cheltenham City Museum.
Until 1996 the Woolstapler's Hall was a privately-owned museum and contained some interesting, (but not altogether consistent) collections. It bore more than a passing resemblance to the extraordinary collection of Charles Wade at nearby Snowshill Manor, and it is said that the husband of the woman who formed the collection accompanied Wade in his pony trap as he went looking for exotica. The museum has closed, the collection has gone to auction, and I do not know whether the Woolstapler's Hall will continue to be accessible to the public.
An extremely curious item from the old museum was a hand-made silk parachute which belonged to a Miss Marie Merton. There was no harness, only a wooden ring, and a period poster dated 1891 showed Miss Merton descending from a balloon in her bloomers and holding on to this ring. A note observed that at this time there were girls jumping from as high as 10,000 feet in this manner for public entertainment. The mind boggles ... I mean, how did they practice? For the first time? Did they leap off church towers holding on to a ring suspended from the weathervane?
The church of St. James' is some way from the High Street and is easily missed. If you miss it you will also miss the 17th. century almshouses built by Baptist Hicks and the lodge and remains of Campden House.
The church is a beautiful church. Some churches are gloomy and filled with so many memorials to the dead that they have the ambience of a graveyard on a wet January day. St. James' has been spared the worst of this well-meaning desecration and it is a building which inspires religious feeling rather than the reverse (the conversion of so many beautiful ancient churches into monuments to the dead is a particular source of annoyance to this writer). In form and in spirit it has much in common with the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul in Northleach. Both churches are extremely large and built in the characteristic Perpendicular style, with massive, richly decorated towers. The interiors of both are well lit by large windows, and on a quiet day they feel more like private cathedrals than churches.
St. James' is unique in all England in possessing altar hangings dating from 1500, and a vicar's ceremonial cope dating from 1400. Although threadbare in places, the quality and richness of the original work is evident - they clothed their vicars in cloth with as much expense as they did their churches in stone. Another exceptional piece is a huge brass lectern in the shape of a falcon with outstretched wings. It is possibly of Flemish origin and dates from the 15th. century.
Part of the church was granted by the town's people to house the grave of Sir Baptist Hicks and his wife. The huge marble mausoleum shows the pair in late Elizabethan/Jacobean clothing, and is similar in effect, but not in spirit, to the contemporary Tanfield mausoleum in Burford - the Tanfields were detested in Burford, whereas Hicks spent lavishly on public works. Hicks built the twelve almshouses on the road leading to the church, spent large sums on the church itself, and built the splendid market hall in the High Street. Hicks became Viscount Campden, and his heirs became the Earls of Gainsborough. His house stood adjacent to the church, but much of it was burned down during a desperate siege in the Civil War. The lodgehouse, and a pavilion with extraordinary limestone spiral chimneys, remain.
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The High Street with Sir Baptist Hicks' open market hall to the
right of the picture. The interior of the hall shows how a traditional
Cotswold stone roof is constructed.
The house of William Grevel, dating from the late 14th.C. The
thumbnail shows one of the gargoyles above the tall bay window.
The church of St. James' gleaming in the sun as if newly built - limestone is rarely more beautiful than this.
The lodgehouse to Campden Manor is next to St. James' and forms a low counterpoint to its lofty elegance.
The pavilion to Campden Manor. Most of the Manor was destroyed during a desperate seige during the Civil War. This pavilion has extraordinary spiral chimneys.
Old Gold - part of Chipping Campden's exceedingly long, terraced High Stret.
This house on the outskirts of Chipping Campden is unusual in
having a thatch. It is also unusual for having an amorphously
blobular hedge which looks a lot stranger in real life than it
does in the photograph.
A timeless, large Cotswold stone house which most of us would
die for. This one is in Chipping Campden.
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In most cases further details can be found under Things to See. Also refer to Broadway and Moreton-in-Marsh.
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Copyright © Digital Brilliance 1995