A walk into Chipping Campden - May 10, 2012

Thursday May 10, 2012

I walked down the long, long driveway from Charingworth Manor and turned right onto the road to Chipping Campden, which is the hedge-lined road right under the lettering in the photo above.

I wondered why I decided to walk the 4 miles to Chipping Campden. It was probably partially because I was fed up with driving. Also, I just like to walk, and the scenery here was so pretty.

My memory of the walk to town was that it was quite miserable. It doesn't look that wet in the photos, so it must have been a combination of the wind with the rain and cold, and having to jump off the road into wet grass when cars blasted by. Closer to town, often there was nowhere to jump off to. Eventually, a woman pulled up in a Landrover or the like and offered this pathetic-looking, bedraggled foreigner a ride the rest of the way, which I gratefully accepted. She told me that she sometimes used the swimming pool at Charingworth Manor.

This must have been my 2nd umbrella, replacing the darker purple one left at Blenheim Palace. A piece of junk, I trashed it here and bought a green and blue plaid one which I liked better.

Chipping Campden is a delight. Instead of roaming shoppers, here were tourists in small groups, and many seniors with small backpacks, probably getting ready to start their walking adventures southward. School kids were out. It's nice to see them dressed properly. And there was something rare, at least for me on this trip - North American accents. It would have been refreshing to talk to some fellow travellers. Had expected to see more of them but it seems that most places aren't very busy except on weekends.

I fully intended to stop in at the information office to find a B&B for a few nights but in walking in the rain and wind, and having just bought my third umbrella on this trip, I changed my mind. Although I'd love to spend more time in Chipping Campden, my purpose in coming here had been affected by the weather. The walking paths are wet and muddy and the roads around here aren't made for walkers.

I had planned on extending the car rental another week. Instead, I decided to stay here the two nights, then drive the car down to Oxford and return it, and hop on a train to Plymouth. I really wanted to settle in one place for a week or so (little did I know it would be five). I had hoped to get back to Addington, to brush off the gravestone inscriptions and to lay some flowers, but the timing was off. In Plymouth, my family's main home, I could get back to ancestry research and I was hoping to meet that newly-found living relative in Devon.

Upon making this decision just outside the information office, a small plane slowly flew over. So, it felt right. 

I saw a lot more backpacks than suitcases here. I longed to be in that group of people sitting there. It would have been nice for the company.

I believe this war memorial is the official start and finish of the 100 mile Cotswold Way walk between here and Bath.

The lovely honey coloured limestone. Someone may have told me what the crosses on the wall are for - some of them are X's - but I don't remember.

From the net: Chipping Campden's High Street has changed little architecturally since 1840. (The town’s street plan survives from the 12th century.) Notice the harmony of the long rows of buildings. While the street comprises different styles through the centuries, everything you see was made of the same Cotswold stone ­ the only stone allowed today.

Market Hall 

The inset picture shows the location of the Market Hall, on sort of an island surrounded by road.

From the net:
In past centuries, livestock and packhorses laden with piles of freshly shorn fleece would fill the streets. Campden was a sales and distribution center for the wool industry, and merchants from as far as Italy would come here for the prized raw wool.

The ancient Market Hall, built in 1627, was for the purpose of giving shelter to the local market selling cheese, butter and poultry - not wool as is sometimes thought.

The timbers inside are true to the original. The classic Cotswold stone roof is still held together with wooden pegs nailed in from underneath. (Tiles were cut and sold with peg holes, and stacked like waterproof scales.) Buildings all over the region still use these stone shingles. Today, the hall hosts local fairs.