Campden ruins
The ruins are the remains of a grand house built in c.1615 by Baptist Hicks. He was a mercer at Cheapside in London, selling fine cloths to the ladies of Elizabethan and Jacobean courts. He was very wealthy, making more money by lending money to the same people. This Italianate style house in Cotswold limestone with a domed cupola and banqueting houses cost £29,000 to build and £15,000 to furnish and was set in fine grounds.
It was destroyed in the Civil War in 1645, when the Royalist garrison under Sir Henry Bard set fire to it, so that it would not fall into the hands of the Parliamentarians. The red stones you see are all that remain of the main house: Cotswold stone turns red when burned due to the iron content.