Chipping Campden

There's a reason historian GM Trevelyan called Chipping Campden's High Street "the most beautiful village street now left in the island." Standing at one end of it on a quiet morning, the curve of honey limestone buildings sweeping away from you, the medieval Market Hall sitting in the middle of the road like it owns the place which, in a sense, it does. You understand why people who come here for a weekend end up staying for twenty years.

The town has been here in some form since the 7th century. Its name comes from the Saxon word for market, and the wool trade made it wealthy enough in the Middle Ages to build St James' Church, one of the finest Cotswold wool churches in England, visible from the surrounding fields long before you reach the town. With over 270 listed buildings packed into a small North Cotswolds market town, Chipping Campden is less a place you visit and more a place you gradually get to know.

The thing that makes it different from other Cotswolds towns is the Arts and Crafts connection. In 1902, designer CR Ashbee moved his entire Guild of Handicraft craftsmen, designers, their families from the East End of London to Chipping Campden. The guild didn't survive long, but the creative spirit it brought did. The Court Barn Museum on Church Street tells that story properly, and the Old Silk Mill on Sheep Street still houses working craftspeople and studios today. This is a town that genuinely makes things.

Campden Coffee Company in the Old Silk Mill is where locals actually start their mornings, proper coffee, relaxed atmosphere, dogs welcome. For food, Michael's Mediterranean on the High Street has been a local institution since 1986 book ahead, go hungry. The Bantam Tea Rooms in a 17th-century building on the High Street does afternoon tea the way it should be done. For a proper pub, the Eight Bells on Church Street is 14th century, low beams, real ales, and a menu built around seasonal local ingredients.

Outside the town, two things are genuinely unmissable. Hidcote Manor Garden, a few miles north, is one of the most influential gardens in England, created by American horticulturist Lawrence Johnston in the early 20th century as a series of outdoor rooms, each one completely different from the last. It gets busy but it's worth it. Dover's Hill, a short walk from the High Street, is a National Trust viewpoint on the Cotswold escarpment with views across the Vale of Evesham that stop you mid-sentence. It's also the site of the Cotswold Olimpicks every spring an annual event involving, among other things, competitive shin-kicking that has been running since 1612 and is exactly as brilliant as it sounds.

Chipping Campden is also where the Cotswold Way begins or ends, depending on which direction you're walking. The 102-mile trail runs all the way to Bath, but you don't need to do all of it. The walk to Broadway, about five miles along the escarpment, is one of the best afternoon walks in the Cotswolds and ends with a pub.

Park on the High Street or at the school on weekends. Come on a weekday in May when the bluebell woods around nearby Ebrington are at their best. Walk up to Dover's Hill at dusk. This is the North Cotswolds at its absolute finest.