Campden House Estate
Old Campden House was a prodigy house of its generation, built by Sir Baptist Hicks. Hicks was a mercer, who rose to prodigious wealth as much by his money-lending to the court of James I as by his merchant activities. A new man, Hicks acquired a prime plot in the pretty Cotswold town of Chipping Campden. Here, in around 1612, he built a great house to rival Hatfield House in its day, flanked by two charming banqueting houses (today cared for by the Landmark Trust).
The mansion surveyed a formal parterre [a garden constructed on a level surface, consisting of planting beds] and water gardens, no doubt stocked with all the new plant species the Tradescants [famous 17th-century plants hunters and gardeners to King Charles I] had amassed in far-flung lands.
England Culture & Tourism Route © Monika Simon Newbound 2020
Own or work here?