In 1613 the newly-enriched Sir Baptist Hicks began work on a house in Chipping Campden. It was a noble edifice in the latest fashion with intricate gardens. 30 years later it was destroyed by Royalists, when in 1645 they withdrew from the town. ‘The house (which was so faire) burnt,’ noted one sadly.

Only a shell was left, now shrunk to a single fragment. But other lesser buildings escaped the fire and are still there, together with the raised walks of the garden.

The ogee domes of the lodges are well known, but in the field beyond are two Banqueting Houses with ebullient strapwork parapets which have been given to us by a descendant of Sir Baptist, together with the lodges, the small building known as the Almonry and the historic site with the mysterious humps and bumps of its lost gardens.