Welcome back for a third day of historic architecture in the Cotswolds. Today we're off to place described in the Pevsner guide as "one of the most beautiful of the smaller English country towns". About the high street in Chipping Campden it says, "the best piece of townscape in Gloucestershire, arguably the best in England. Its individual buildings are of such quality as to repay close examination" (Gloucestershire 1: The Cotswolds, Verry & Brooks, Yale, 2020). On the strength of these words I felt that the town might be worth a look. With buildings you really have to be there and see them from all angles, nevertheless I hope that the photos might inspire you to make your own trip and also to provide a record for myself and for others.
You can get the 606 bus from Winchcombe, old police station to Chipping Campden which leaves at 9:30, returning at 5:00pm. The route meanders through many weird places to stops where no-one gets on or off. There weren't many people on the bus. It takes about an hour each way and drops you bang in the middle of the high street outside the Noel hotel, right in front of the Market hall, the most iconic building in the village.
Jacobean style typical of the area. A style characterised by a playful use of Renaissance, Tudor and sometimes Gothic motifs. In this case round arches, topped by triangular gables with blank windows and pinnacles carrying a lively rhythm around all sides. It was built in 1627 by Sir Bapsitse Hickes, to shelter the trading of diary and poultry. Hickes was a friend of the Stuart court and benefactor to the town. He can certainly be seen to have put his mark on the place, as we shall see.
Above is the entrance and gatehouses to Hicks' Campden house, which was began around 1613. Unfortunately for Hicks, the house was burned down by his enemies, the royalists. Although only a charred fragment of the house survives, the Jacobean pavilions, gatehouses, outbuildings and remaining earthworks layout of the formal garden, give an idea of the former splendour of the place. "The square, two storey stone-built lodges have ogee-shaped domed ashlar roofs with finials. They are linked by a curtain wall with a shaped moulded parapet concealing chimneys in the finials, and with a central triangular pediment with Sir Baptiste's arms in the tympanum, over an arched carriageway", formerly blocked to protect the estate but opened and restored by F. L. Griggs, local architect and restorer, in 1930.
These pavilions at either side of the house were used as summer houses on the ground floors, with two floors beneath. "They are gabled, of ashlar, with strap work parapets and twisted chimneys with finals at the corners. Arched vaguely Perp style windows, but with Renaissance-style blocked round arches towards the terrace."
The picture below shows the barn on the right, now a museum, and the almonry (or laundry), with mullioned windows and four-centred doorways. I particularly like the combination of angles produced by this group buildings, and have attempted a sketch. The sheep lounging around add a bit of charm to the scene.
St James, immediately north of the former Camden house site is one of the great Perpendicular wool churches. It was rebuilt in the c14 and has a uniformity of style throughout as well as one or two interesting features. The eye catching tower is of three diminishing stages, with bands running over diagonal buttresses, various blank tre-foil and ogee arched panels on each different levels, topped with open strapwork battlements and corner pinnacles.
"Above the S doorway a carved image niche with an ogee arch and floral cusps, beneath, two heads, one with long hair and beard typical of the time of Edward III."
The fluting of the piers in the nave is not entirely dissimilar to that of the Doric columns on the Parthenon, in Athens. It has a flat-headed E clerestory window of nine-lights above the chancel arch. Both of these features can also be found at the church built around the same time at Norhleach, further South in the Cotswolds.
Walking back to the village now we pass the almshouses which Hicks had built in 1612 for twelve of his luckiest workers. They are twelve cottages built on an "I" shaped plan, on a raised pavement, where they would draw their water from a conduit head. Over the road is a dip in the road for wagons to get washed.
Looking back towards the church, almshouses and gateway to Campden house.
F. L. Griggs is a key figure in Chipping Campden's buildings heritage. Like Stott at Stanton, Griggs pottered around the village restoring old buildings, making wrought iron signs. He also designed buildings which were considered masterpieces in their own right, like his own Art and Crafts style mansion Dovers court, on Back lane, which I couldn't get a close look at. Below is Miles house, which he reconstructed from c17 cottages, in 1917-18.
Grevel house, shown below, was built for a rich wool merchant, initially on a simple plan, later remodelled and expanded. The oldest part of the house, seen on the left, is said to be 1380; while the two-story, six-light bay window with gargoyles is probably c16. It was remodelled again in the c17 and c19.
"Seymour house hotel, early c18, has two storeys, and 3+4 sashed windows, under a slightly curving coved eaves cornice, with a porch with fluted Tuscan columns."
"The Three Gables has indeed three c17 gabled dormers, with mullioned windows."
"The c19 front of The Gables, with no gables at all, but concealing an earlier c17 timber-framed structure."
"The early c18 front of Trinder House and Clifton House, with a date stone 'HWL 1717', masks two earlier buildings (See the central Tudor-arched passageway). The first-floor Ionic pilasters die into the masonry below; above an entablature and modillion eaves cornice." Many of these doorways lead to long narrow paved yards stretching all the way to the back lanes far behind the high street.
"The Martins, situated where the street-line breaks to accommodate the central island of the Market Place, has a picturesque early c18 facade, of freestone, with hipped stone roof, fluted upper floor Ionic pilasters, with pulvinated friezes and modillion eaves cornice... A stone at the rear reveals the house to have been originally of 1660"
"Crosby House, with sundial dated 1691, has, high up, two unusual panels with raised crosses."
Six hours turned out to be enough time to give the place a good once over. An old lady who we'd seen on the bus from Winchcombe said she found the gap between the buses too long. There's a few pubs in the village and a great deli, not much else for people to do, although there were a surprising amount of cars whizzing around and getting in the way of things. Its always good to have a proper look around a place, because you never know when you might get the chance to see it again.
No comments:
Post a Comment