Windows and the fireplace were inserted in the upper part of the Chapel in the 14th century, and from this time also dates a part of the splendid 
oak ceiling. The restoration is by Mr. C. R. Ashbee, architect 
A Country House Built from a Norman Chapel 
THE RECLAMATION OF A STONE STRUCTURE DATING FROM EARLY IN THE TWELFTH 
CENTURY-FIVE YEARS AGO ITS ONLY INHABITANTS WERE A SOW AND HER LITTER 
by George 
T HERE are few districts in England so beautiful as the 
Cotswolds, or so full of interest for the lover of the 
beautiful in architecture; and yet, to the majority of English¬ 
men, they are unknown. A modern poet has called the Evenlode 
“A lovely river, all alone, 
She lingers in the hills, and holds 
A hundred little towns of stone 
Forgotten in the western wolds.’’ 
And we who love the Cotswold towns for their charm of un¬ 
touched beauty, whose good fortune it has been to leave the rush 
of a great city and live “forgotten in the western wolds,” treasure 
the memory of an ideal retreat. 
Where the last spur of the hills looks down over the fertile 
valley of the Avon, from Stratford on the one side to the Welsh 
Hills on the other, lies the once prosperous town of Chipping 
H. Chettle 
Campden. In the Middle Ages this was the center of the Eng¬ 
lish wool trade; now the inhabitants are indeed of those for 
whom “time stands still withal,” and the splendid tower of the 
parish church looks down on a sleeping village. 
A mile and a half away is a little hamlet grouped around 
what was, five years ago, a ruin, locally known as “the Norman 
Chapel." It was built early in the twelfth century, yet of writ¬ 
ten history of the building there is none. Old documents refer 
to five chantries founded at different times in the manor of 
Chipping Campden, yet with none of these can we definitely 
connect the church of Broad Campden. The earliest portion of 
the group of buildings, shown in black on the plans, was the 
Norman church. It consisted of a nave, 40 ft. long, and a chancel, 
but all trace of the latter has vanished. The semi-circular chan¬ 
cel arch and a fragment of corbelling remain to show that once 
it did exist, and there is a tradition in the village, told to me by 
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