Photos from our week in and around the 800 year old hamlet of Chipping Campden:
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If London is like Toronto, then the Cotswolds are rural and agricultural like the Niagara Peninsula. Once the home of wealthy wool merchants, Chipping Campden is still sheep country. And it’s ancient enough that the houses are named instead of being numbered (e.g., the former rope maker’s house is called “Twine Cottage.”) Locals worry for when the postmaster retires as only he knows all the names.
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Each region of the Cotswolds has its own hue of stone houses based on the local oolitic limestone they quarry. Those where we stayed in Chipping Campden are a dark honey colour; in Bath they are light grey. The local quarry is still in operation and new houses take on the same hue.
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But with all the focus on historic conservation, I wonder about young people growing up here. In a region obsessed with preserving the past, what if you want to do something new? Either you decide to become a stone mason and dedicate yourself to preserving a place that has looked the same for hundreds of years, or you’ll probably want to leave.
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Still, young people do have their fun: Chipping Campden holds own Olimpick Games. Some are of the local sports are familiar (e.g., tug-o-war), but others are more bizarre. Shin-kicking is apparently a serious sport among local farm boys. They literally tie straw around their shins and proceed to wallop each other. A local beer served in Chipping Campden is called Shin Kicker.
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The fun of walking in rural England is the ancient right of free passage, which essentially means you can walk across other people’s property and fields. Hundreds of miles of these public footpaths are Cotswolds and it was a delight to walk a few of them. Eve kept saying “we can’t go there, it’s someone’s yard!”
“Once a year the Ramblers, Britain’s largest walking club, organizes a ‘Mass Trespass,’ when each of the country’s 50,000 miles of public footpaths is walked. By assuring that each path is used at least once a year, they stop landlords from putting up fences. Any paths found blocked are unceremoniously unblocked.” – Rick Steves -
I developed a newfound love for hedge mazes (especially the clever Dragonfly Maze) and fresh scones with clotted cream.
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During our week in the Cotswalds we did several day trips to nearby Oxford and Stratford-upon-Avon. The highlight of our week was seeing our friends Darren and Dallas Campbell, and their lovely children Simon, Bethany and baby Joshua at Warwick castle.
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