Chipping Campden Walk - August 24th

Today we decided to visit the Cotswold villages of Chipping Campden, Broad Campden and Blockley by bussing it to Chipping Campden (@ 10 miles from Stow) and then walking to the other two villages. This is a very rural area of England and bus service here is limited, to say the least. Our bus trip had to be carefully planned out or we could have ended up stranded in one of the towns. We first took a bus to the train station at Moreton-in-Marsh (via one bus company), waited @ 30 minutes and then caught a bus to Chipping Campden (via a very circuitous route with another bus company). This 10 mile trip took 1.5 hours!

Chipping Campden is one of the larger villages in the Cotswolds, but not any less charming or picturesque than others we have visited. We spent a good hour and a half walking through the town, seeing the historic sites: the market hall and nearby WWI monument, an old silk mill, a 14th century wool merchant’s mansion, the estate of an influential silk merchant whose manor house was burned by royalists in 1645 during England’s civil war, and the imposing village church of St. James.

Chipping Campden's 17th century Market Hall








Interior view of the Market Hall -
supporting beams for the Cotswold stone roof

The 14th century Grevel House mansion


St. James Church

One of the few remaining thatch-roofed houses
in the Cotswolds


By this time, it was a little before noon, so we decided to have a quick lunch in the village before starting our walk. The route to Broad Campden was relatively flat, mainly through mown fields of hay or along dirt paths. Leaving Broad Campden, we walked another 3.5 miles up and over a ridge before arriving in Blockley. From Blockley (which is @ 5 miles from Stow) we caught a bus back to Moreton-in-Marsh and then another bus to Stow. Our return bus trip took us a little over an hour to complete and we were back in Stow by 3:30.

Our walk today wasn't as scenic as yesterday -
lots of mown hay fields











The homes along the way are always very 
picturesque - most made of Cotswold limestone

Tomorrow we head to Stratford-upon-Avon, @ 20 miles from Stow, but this time we’ll travel via taxi.

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