The Cotswold Guide
A view of Chipping Norton
East Cotswolds · Oxfordshire

Chipping Norton

Highest market town in Oxfordshire

The 1842 Town Hall on Chipping Norton's Market Place — a Greek-revival classical portico of fluted columns and pediment
Looking down Chipping Norton's wide tree-lined high street on a sunny day
Diners sitting outside cafés on Chipping Norton's high street, honey-stone shopfronts behind

About Chipping Norton

Chipping Norton — known locally as Chippy — sits on a hill at 700 feet, the highest market town in Oxfordshire. It is unusual among the Cotswold towns in being a working town first and a tourist destination second, with a Wednesday market that has run continuously since the 12th century.

The town's most distinctive landmark is Bliss Tweed Mill, an 1872 textile factory shaped like a country house, with a 165-foot chimney that dominates the skyline. It closed in 1980 and is now apartments.

The Cotswold Guide Top Tips

  • Diddly Squat Farm Shop is 5 miles south at Chadlington — go midweek; weekend queues stretch hours.
  • The Rollright Stones, 2.5 miles north of town, are best in the late afternoon when shadows define the carved circles.

Attractions in Chipping Norton

  1. 1

    Historic

    Bliss Tweed Mill

    Designed by George Woodhouse in 1872 as a country house — chimney and all — to camouflage the textile factory inside. Now flats; visible from anywhere in town.

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  2. 2

    Arts

    Chipping Norton Theatre

    A 220-seat former Salvation Army Citadel converted in 1975. Strong local programme of plays and music.

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  3. 3

    Church

    St Mary the Virgin Church

    A 14th-century wool church with a fine Perpendicular tower added in the 15th century.

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  4. 4

    Food & Drink

    Diddly Squat Farm Shop

    Jeremy Clarkson's farm shop on his 1,000-acre farm at Chadlington — a Cotswold attraction in its own right since the Clarkson's Farm television series began in 2021.

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  5. 5

    Family

    Fairytale Farm

    A small story-themed farm attraction near Chipping Norton — the UK's first farm visitor attraction designed around full disability access — with goats, alpacas, pigs, ponies and an enchanted walk for under-10s.

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Where to eat & drink

  • The Chequers

    Independent town pub on Goddards Lane; the local choice for Wednesday lunch.

  • Wild Thyme

    Long-running independent restaurant on New Street, run by Nick & Sally Pullen.

  • Diddly Squat Farm Shop

    Jeremy Clarkson's farm shop is 5 miles south at Chadlington — long queues at weekends.

Getting there

  • By car

    1h30 from London via the M40 J11.

  • By bus

    hourly to Oxford and Stratford. The nearest train station is Kingham, 4 miles south.

Best time to visit

Wednesday is market day; the town feels emptier on Sundays. The annual Mop Fair takes over the Market Place for a long weekend in mid-October.

Find accommodation near Chipping Norton

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

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Attractions near Chipping Norton

Within 10 miles, ordered by distance.

  1. 1

    Other · 2.7 mi · Between Long Compton and Chipping Norton, on the A3400 ridge

    The Rollright Stones

    A prehistoric trio — a stone circle, a single standing stone, and a burial chamber — straddling the Oxfordshire–Warwickshire border above Long Compton.

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  2. 2

    Country house · 4.1 mi · Between Moreton-in-Marsh and Chipping Norton

    Chastleton House

    A Jacobean manor preserved almost unchanged since 1612 — and the house where the rules of modern croquet were codified in 1865.

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  3. 3

    Food & Drink · 4.3 mi · Kingham

    Daylesford Organic

    Lady Bamford's flagship organic farm — a Victorian estate yard converted into farm shop, restaurant, cookery school and spa, on the edge of Kingham.

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  4. 4

    Church · 4.8 mi · Kingham

    St Andrew's Church

    A 13th-century parish church with a Norman font and Victorian restoration; the bells are rung weekly.

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  5. 5

    Gardens · 7.5 mi · Moreton-in-Marsh

    Batsford Arboretum

    Fifty-six acres of trees laid out by the 1st Lord Redesdale in the 1880s — and one of the finest collections of Japanese maples in Europe.

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Gallery

  • The 1842 Town Hall on Chipping Norton's Market Place — a Greek-revival classical portico of fluted columns and pediment
  • Looking down Chipping Norton's wide tree-lined high street on a sunny day
  • Diners sitting outside cafés on Chipping Norton's high street, honey-stone shopfronts behind
  • The Blue Boar inn on Goddard's Lane, Chipping Norton — Cotswold-stone facade, hanging baskets and tables out front
  • A grand ashlar-stone Victorian commercial building on the corner of Chipping Norton's Market Place
  • The green-and-cream sign of the Chipping Norton Museum on the high street

Continue reading

Kingham

England's 'favourite village'

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Illustrative image