Early History

Chipping Campden lies at the very north-eastern tip of the Cotswold Hills in the county of Gloucestershire.  Travel just a mile or two out of Campden and you can find yourself in Worcestershire in the Vale of Evesham, or on the road to Stratford upon Avon in the county of Warwickshire, having left the limestone uplands behind you.

Whilst plentiful Neolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age and Roman remains have been recorded in the area around Campden, and Campden's position on the Whiteway, an ancient trackway running from Cirencester through Campden on its way to Stratford on Avon, may be indicative of pre-Roman origins, no substantial evidence has yet been found of any settlement at Chipping Campden that pre-dates Saxon times.

However, the name of the town, in particular the shortened form 'Campden' used extensively by locals, is very definitely of Saxon origin, being a development of the word Campadene, meaning a valley with fields or enclosures of cultivated land.  Not only that, but almost every other place-name in the immediate neighbourhood is of Saxon origin.  By the time the Domesday Book was compiled in 1086, the manor of Campden was one of the most populous in the Midlands, with about 350 people living within its boundaries.   About one hundred years later the town's market charter was obtained from Henry II by Hugh de Gondeville who was largely responsible for the town layout that persists to this day, in what was an early example of medieval town planning.

The High Street, set on a curve said to follow the natural route of the River Cam, was made wide enough at its centre point to hold a market, which by 1247 was held weekly, and it was by the end of the 13th Century that the prefix 'Chipping' (from the Old English ceping, meaning market or market place) had been added to Campden's name.