HOUSE AND GARDEN 
November, 1910 
The south terrace and its 12th century doorway. At the left the wing, excepting the new 
bay, dates from the 14th or 15th century 
Another view of the south terrace. The long 
line of windows opens from the library 
an old mason of over seventy years of age, who worked lustily 
in the reconstruction of the building, that the traceried windows 
of the chancel had been transported to some great house and 
there rebuilt. Was this perhaps in the first days of the Gothic 
revival? 
This old mason typified the vitality of the traditions of good 
craftsmanship in the Cotswold towns. His fathers for genera¬ 
tions before him, his sons at the present time, worked the local 
stone and used instinctively the Gothic moldings of chimney-caps 
and string-courses. The influence of the modern “jerry-builder" 
has passed them by. But this very 
vitality of tradition created a diffi¬ 
culty for the archeologist. Where 
the buldings are so simple in de¬ 
sign, and the craftsmen so conser¬ 
vative, one cannot be quite certain 
of dating work correctly from the 
evidence of the stones alone. Yet 
the main outlines of the history of 
the Norman chapel are clear. 
In the reign of Richard II, long 
before the Reformation destroyed 
some of the finest ecclesiastical 
work in England, the church was 
desecrated. At that time the “Black 
Death” swept away half the popu¬ 
lation of the country; yet at that 
time, too, the neigboring town of 
Chipping Campden was at the 
height of its prosperity. William 
Grevel, the richest of the wool- 
staplers, built his beautiful town 
house in 1396, built probably the 
“hall of the merchants of the sta¬ 
ple,” which still stands in the High 
Street, and added the most beauti¬ 
ful portions of the parish church. 
The reason for the desecration 
of the Norman chapel is lost—we 
can only tell the changes that were made in the building. Late 
in the 14th century a floor was inserted across the nave, cutting 
through the upper portion of the chancel arch, and through a 
thirteenth century window, traces of which remain. Windows 
and a fireplace were inserted in the upper room thus formed, and 
it was ceiled with a splendid oak ceiling. How the chancel was 
treated we cannot tell; but at the western end a new wing was 
added, containing a stone staircase and two chambers, which have 
become the present dining-room and the bedroom above it. Each 
of these rooms contains a stone fireplace, the upper one being a 
very simple but very beautiful 
piece of work. The door con¬ 
necting the lower room with the 
staircase must have been moved 
from another portion of the 
building; the moldings, the lancet- 
head and the stone-work, re¬ 
vealed when the present recon¬ 
struction was made, point to a 
date some hundred years earlier 
than the fourteenth century work 
around it. 
In the western wall of this 
portion of the building we found 
another curious fragment of 
stonework — a little two-light win¬ 
dow with traceried head, un¬ 
glazed, apparently from a tower 
or belfry. This had been built 
into the outer face of the wall 
and was completely covered with 
ivy, and, as the wall was too ruin¬ 
ous to be left standing, the win¬ 
dow was transferred to the pres¬ 
ent dressing-room, to the south. 
Five years ago, when the re¬ 
construction of the building was 
taken in hand by Mr. C. R. Ash- 
bee, it was almost entirely roof- 
ra mh ciNTY work. 
14th. and 1 5th. CENT WCRK. 
EA3 FRE5LM ADDITIONS. 
«- £c Ohm Court am Rest: Girdw 
“1 
PLAN OF THE UPPER FLOOR 
The key shows what portions of the work are old and what 
additions Mr. Ashbee has made 
