Chipping Campden and its Market Hall

What it is and why it matters

Chipping Campden is a small market town in the north of the Cotswolds, of about 2,300 residents, which in the Middle Ages was one of the great centres of the wool trade. What sets it apart is its main street, the High Street: a long curve of honey-coloured stone houses from the 14th to the 17th centuries, almost without a break, protected as a conservation area since 1970. Here the Cotswold Way begins, or ends, the 164 km path that runs to Bath.

What to see, from end to end

• The Market Hall. The covered market of 1627, in the middle of the High Street. It was built by Sir Baptist Hicks, the town's great lord, so that traders and farmers could sell under cover. The locals bought it and gave it to the National Trust.
• Grevel's House. The house that William Grevel, a wool merchant remembered as "the flower of the wool merchants of all England", built around 1380. It is private: you see it from outside.
• The almshouses of 1612. The houses that Hicks built for twelve pensioners and which still serve that purpose.
• St James's church. A "wool church", a church paid for with wool money, with 17th-century monuments, among them Hicks's.
• What remains of Campden House. Hicks's mansion was burned by the Royalists in 1645 and what survives is the gateway and two Jacobean banqueting lodges.

In the early 20th century the town was a focus of the Arts and Crafts movement: in 1902 C. R. Ashbee's Guild of Handicraft arrived, and it operated until 1907. A cooperative of craftspeople still works in the Old Silk Mill.

How long

An hour to walk the High Street, step into the Market Hall and reach the church. If you are going to walk the first stage of the Cotswold Way, allow the whole day: we explain it in Cotswold Way from Chipping Campden to Broadway.

When to go

All year round, best on weekdays and early. On the first weekend of June the Cotswold Olimpicks are held at Dover's Hill, on the outskirts, a rural games festival that began in 1612, was suspended in 1852 and revived in 1963. If you go that weekend, expect more people.

Getting there and parking

By car. The town is at the northern end of the Cotswolds, near Broadway, which is the end of the first stage of the Cotswold Way. If you are going to walk, arrive early and park for the whole day.

Without a car. The station no longer operates: it closed in 1966. The nearest is Moreton-in-Marsh, about 13 km away, with direct trains from London Paddington; from there, a taxi.

With children

It is a short walk, with no attractions for children. For a day with children, combine it with the climb up Dover's Hill, an open hillside with views over the Vale of Evesham.

Where to eat and sleep nearby

In Broadway, a few kilometres away, are Russell's Fish & Chips and the hotel The Lygon Arms. In Moreton-in-Marsh, The Manor House Hotel and the Redesdale Arms.