Chipping Campden facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Chipping Campden |
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 St James' church |
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 Chipping Campden
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| Population | 2,288 (2011 Census) |
| OS grid reference | SP155395 |
| Civil parish |
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| District |
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| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | CHIPPING CAMPDEN |
| Postcode district | GL55 |
| Police | Gloucestershire |
| Fire | Gloucestershire |
| Ambulance | Great Western |
| EU Parliament | South West England |
| UK Parliament |
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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 century to the 17th century. ("Chipping" is from Old English cēping, 'market', 'market-place'; the same element is found in other towns such as Chipping Norton, Chipping Sodbury and Chipping (now High) Wycombe.)
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 Olympic Games since 1612.
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Cotswold Games
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 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 (hay stuffed down the trousers can 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 Men. 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 until mid-night and, like a ghost, is gone by the morning.
Music
Since 2002 Chipping Campden has hosted what is now widely recognised as one of the UK's leading music festivals.
Arts and Crafts movement
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 with the members of his Guild and School of Handicraft from the East End of London in 1902. The Guild of Handicraft specialised in metalworking, producing jewellery and enamels, as well as hand-wrought copper and wrought ironwork, and furniture-making. 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, and set up the Campden Trust with Norman Jewson and others, initially to protect Dover's Hill from development. H. J. Massingham, the rural writer who celebrated the traditions of the English countryside, also settled near the town. Ananda Coomaraswamy, the Sri Lankan philosopher and art critic and the hand loom weaver Ethel Coomaraswamy, settled at Broad Campden where Ashbee adapted the Norman chapel for him.
Public transport
The Cotswold Line passes near Chipping Campden, but the town's railway station closed in 1966. Since 2014, there have been proposals to reopen it. Regular trains currently stop at Moreton-in-Marsh, eight miles away, from where Oxford is a 26-49 minute ride and London Paddington can often be reached in less than 90 minutes.
Buses are available to Stratford-upon-Avon, Moreton-in-Marsh and Cheltenham.
Notable people
- Graham Greene, English novelist, playwright, short story writer and critic, lived, between 1931 and 1933, with his wife Vivien Greene at "Little Orchard" in the town.
- 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 at Kingcombe until he died.
Images for kids
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Chipping Campden Market Hall
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East Banqueting House and St James, Chipping Campden
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St James church, Hicks Memorial
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Chipping Campden Town Hall
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Cotswold Games, 1636 woodcut
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Charles Robert Ashbee, founder of the Guild and School of Handicraft. Portrait by William Strang, 1903
See also
In Spanish: Chipping Campden para niños
