Day: 20 September 2019

The Broadway Tower sits alone on a high hill south east of Broadway. It is a 3 storey crenellated folly, built in 1798 for the Earl of Coventry. For much of its later life it was actually used as a residence. That is remarkable considering it has only three rooms, each 12 feet across, located one above the other connected by narrow spiral staircases, and had no electricity or heat (no fireplaces) and no neighbours. One of the inhabitants for a number of years was the designer William Morris and his family.

We trudged up to the tower right off. There is nothing like a 700 foot steep climb first thing in the morning to get your heart going. After that the day’s walk was the normal fields and pastures. We follow traditional footpaths. These are enshrined in history and law – walkers have the right to use them, even if they cut diagonally across a field of crops, as they often do.

Again it was a short walk today, some 10 km, so we arrived in Chipping Camden in early afternoon, with time to take in the sights of the village after lunch.
The high street runs along the side of a hill, so one side is higher than the other – elegantly terraced, they say. In the center is the old Market Hall from 1627.

We gravitated to St. James church at the far end of town. It is one of the ‘wool churches’, i.e., financed by the wealthy merchants. Although the structure was started about 1260, it did not reach its present form until the large rectangular tower was added in 1500.

The items of interest in the church are well documented. There are medieval fabrics of note on display behind curtains and glass to protect them. The south east chapel is devoted to a remarkable monument to Sir Baptist Hicks and his family. The monument has marble columns supporting a canopy over marble effigies of himself and his wife.

He seems to have funded many things in the town, including a dozen alms houses and the aforementioned Market Hall. His manor house next door to the church was burned at the time of the civil war and little remains.

Then it was time for a walk to the other end of town to the Catholic Church. This is the first Catholic church of significant size that we have seen. I suppose it must be remembered that when these large old churches were being built they were ALL Catholic, and only ceased being so at the Reformation with Henry’s actions. It was only after 1827 when Catholicism became fully legal in England again that Catholic churches could be considered. This particular one, St. Catherine’s, was finished in 1891. It is comparatively dark inside, with relatively small windows in the aisles, and the clerestory windows not providing much more light. It has a particularly fine square tower with stone tracery around the bells, and a gable roof.

Our hotel is The Lygons Arms, part of the row of old buildings on the High Street. Probably has been an inn since the middle ages. Our room has raw stone walls and open timbered beams. Otherwise quite modern.