Cotswold Way marker stone (Chipping Campden)

On 8th November 2014 the Cotswold Way marker stone was unveiled near the Market Hall, at Chipping Campden.  This beautiful disc of limestone, with a brass acorn central motif (the symbol for all National Trails) with a smaller symbol beside Chipping Campden, surrounded by a quotation from T.S. Eliot and place names from along the Cotswold Way, which invites readers to walk, provides a welcome for tired feet and food for thought for visitors to Campden.

The text circles around the artwork, inviting viewers to walk around the carving to read the words. For those about to embark the words will hold the promise of the adventure to come, and to those arriving they will be a reflective focus for the journey they have made. The flow and human liveliness of well-designed hand carved lettering along with the visual impact of a contrasting circle within the paving make a striking and visually enticing focal point in front of the Market Hall

It is mirrored by a similar marker at Bath Abbey and together they act as bookends for the Cotswold Way, marking the beginning and the end of the walking route. The quotation is from the second poem of T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets: “Now the light falls across the open field, leaving the deep lane shuttered with branches, dark in the afternoon”. T.S. Eliot visited in Campden several times in the 1930s and was inspired to write the first poem Burnt Norton, through his walking experience here.

The artist for both the Campden and Bath markers, Iain Cotton, is a sculptor, stone carver and lettering artist with 20+ years of professional experience. His work includes public and private lettering and sculpture commissions, memorials, carving for historic contexts and stone conservation: www.iaincotton.co.uk