The Cotswold Guide
A view of Chipping Campden
North Cotswolds · Gloucestershire

Chipping Campden

Jewel of the northern wool road

A sunny summer afternoon on the High Street with the Market Hall, war memorial cross and a Union Jack flying over the village
Wider view of the Market Hall with the war memorial cross in the foreground and the gabled high-street cottages behind
A thatched Cotswold cottage in Chipping Campden with yellow phlomis and old roses in the front garden

About Chipping Campden

Chipping Campden's high street is a single graceful curve of unbroken honey-stone — perhaps the finest in England. The town's wealth came from medieval wool, its survival from the Arts and Crafts movement, which moved here from London in 1902 and saved its buildings from Victorian 'improvement'.

It is also the official northern terminus of the 102-mile Cotswold Way, which climbs out of the high street and runs all the way to Bath.

The Cotswold Guide view

Chipping Campden is a nice village. There are a few independent shops and cafes but not a lot. It's more a place for looking at the beautiful high street. A visit to the church and arts museum can give you a bit more to do.

The Cotswold Guide Top Tips

  • Parking is free, apart from a small paid car park in the town square. The school car park in Cider Mill Lane — a ten-minute walk from the high street — is available during weekends and school holidays.
  • Walk the first half-mile of the Cotswold Way uphill to Dover's Hill — one of the best escarpment views in the region.

Where to eat & drink

  • Eight Bells Inn

    14th-century stone-built pub off Church Street; proper food, real fires.

  • Lygon Arms

    Old coaching inn turned brasserie — tables out on the high street in summer.

  • Huxleys Bar & Kitchen

    Modern menu, friendly service, the best espresso in town.

  • Bantam Tea Rooms

    Beamed cottage tearoom opposite the Market Hall, faultless cream teas.

Getting there

  • By car

    2 hours from London via M40 / A44. Free parking on the high street (limited).

  • By train

    Moreton-in-Marsh (8 miles), then taxi or the infrequent Stagecoach buses 1 or 2.

Best time to visit

Late May offers the famous Cotswold Olimpicks on Dover's Hill (running since 1612), and the Open Gardens weekend. September is quieter than the peak summer months, with soft light and harvest colours.

Find accommodation near Chipping Campden

Hotels, B&Bs and self-catering cottages within easy reach of Chipping Campden — browse availability for your dates on Booking.com.

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Attractions near Chipping Campden

Within 10 miles, ordered by distance.

  1. 1

    Gardens · 2.3 mi · Hidcote Bartrim, 4 miles north-east of Chipping Campden

    Hidcote Manor Garden

    Lawrence Johnston's early-20th-century 'garden of rooms' in the hills above Chipping Campden — one of the most influential English gardens of the modern era.

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  2. 2

    Gardens · 2.3 mi · Mickleton, opposite Hidcote Manor Garden — about 4 miles north of Chipping Campden

    Kiftsgate Court Garden

    The garden across the lane from Hidcote — three generations of women gardeners, and the home of the rampant Kiftsgate rose.

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  3. 3

    Viewpoint · 4.1 mi · Broadway

    Broadway Tower

    A 65-foot folly on the second-highest point of the Cotswolds, built in 1798 and once a bolthole for William Morris and the Pre-Raphaelites.

    Read more →
  4. 4

    Museum · 4.1 mi · Broadway

    Ashmolean Museum Broadway

    The only branch of the Ashmolean outside Oxford — small, free and filled with works by Sargent and the Broadway colonists.

    Read more →
  5. 5

    Museum · 4.1 mi · Broadway

    Gordon Russell Design Museum

    Honours the Broadway-based furniture designer who shaped 20th-century British interiors.

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Gallery

  • A sunny summer afternoon on the High Street with the Market Hall, war memorial cross and a Union Jack flying over the village
  • Wider view of the Market Hall with the war memorial cross in the foreground and the gabled high-street cottages behind
  • A thatched Cotswold cottage in Chipping Campden with yellow phlomis and old roses in the front garden
  • A thatched cottage set behind a row of clipped topiary balls and a small iron gate
  • A honey-stone Chipping Campden cottage draped in wisteria, with a bow-fronted shop window below
  • Honey-stone gabled buildings along the High Street with visitors strolling on a summer afternoon
  • The 17th-century almshouses below the church — a long terrace of gabled stone cottages set above a pavement of wildflowers
  • Chipping Campden's heraldic town sign with its painted shields, raised over the High Street
  • A Georgian townhouse with sash windows, ornate wrought-iron balconies and arched front door
  • A timber-framed building on the High Street with leaded shopfront windows and a wrought-iron sign bracket
  • A handsome Cotswold-stone building thickly clad in ivy, with stone-mullion windows and clipped front hedges
  • The Academy gallery shopfront on the High Street, with a hanging sign and a row of potted box on the windowsill
  • Yellow roses and lavender outside a Cotswold-stone cottage in Chipping Campden
  • A blue-painted Georgian front door with arched fanlight, set between sash windows with iron balconies
  • Looking up the tall Cotswold-stone facade of a High Street townhouse, sash windows ranged across multiple storeys

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Broadway

The show village of England

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A view of Broadway