Visit the Almshouses in Chipping Campden
Gabled, mullioned, mullioned and hoodmould, these almshouses display the Cotswold vernacular at its best. They were built at a total cost of £1300 in 1612 by Sir Baptist Hicks.
Hicks was a wealthy benefactor to Chipping Campden and ancestor of the Earls of Gainsborough. The Hicks coat of arms can be seen on the front of the row, which forms the Roman numeral I, probably representing James I.
It is amazing that at this time the alms people benefited from the estate’s piped water supply from Westington Hill. Most of the population had to manage with water drawn from the Scuttlebrook which ran down the centre of the area known as Leysbourne.
