All that is left of Old Campden House which was destroyed by fire in 1645
Chipping Campden In the Cotswolds, England
This is yet another extraordinary Landmark Trust property in a glorious country setting on the edge of a pretty village.
It really is a one-off location and I will let the pictures unfold the story.
This is a photograph of a picture of the house known as Old Campden House in all its glory.
Linger for a moment on the picture above to spot The East and West Banqueting Houses which stand at either end of the broad terrace that ran along the garden in front of Old Campden House. They serve as a reminder of the richness and quality of the main house before it was raised to the ground.
Today it is one of the most important Jacobean sites in the country and a Scheduled Ancient Monument.
As guests we entered through the locked "oxen gates" from the village and came into another world - ours for 4 nights.
We couldn't arrive until 4.00 pm to allow the housekeeper to clean and clear the property after the previous guests. This was our first view of our cottage at dusk and the kind lady had left us a wheelbarrow to transport our luggage across the fields and the cottage lights shining brightly for us, welcoming us in
As we pushed our wheelbarrow filled with food and clothing in the semi darkness on our arrival, we were grateful we had brought our torches and there were no grazing animals in the field.
What worried me particularly was that i realised the property was built into a haha so that from this side it looked like a bungalow but from the rear it appeared to be a three floored house. There was a drop of some 10 feet from one field to the other.
We were in the East Banqueting Suite and opened our big doors to look out on the West Banqueting Suite
The cottage was warm and clean and the lounge was on the top floor
We have so many happy memories of this property and the reality is that we could have written this webpage in 3 or 4 ways - describing the village and the walks, or showing the architectural features of the property.
In the end we felt the most alluring feature was its splendid isolation as a property with each elevation looking unlike any of its other three sides.
