Leasebourne

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Leasebourne is the area of Campden bounded by Cider Mill Lane in the north and Church Street in the south, including the wide area of road where Church Street meets the High Street.  There are many different spellings of the name – Leasebourne, Leysbourne, Lazbourne, and so on.  These variants are reflected in the text below and are not consistent – take your pick!

From notes made by Dorrie Ellis:

“At the turn of the century, the area of Campden known as Leasebourne was served independently by its own selection of shops.

Frank Hartley, the baker, kept shop for bread and his own special lardy cakes on the top side opposite to the chemist with his cycle repair shop next door.   When he retired in the 1930s he and his wife and son, Percy went to live in a cottage on the lower side of Leasebourne, now called Hartley Cottage.

Tom Barnes, the blacksmith learnt his trade from his uncle, Charles Guthrie, whose forge was up the yard behind the Barley Mow, a former ale house.

On the opposite corner, near to Church Street, was Wixey’s grocer’s shop – later taken over by The India & China Tea Co., and then by Burton’s – now Wixey House.

On the same side but further up Church Street, Leasebourne even had its own pub – The Eight Bells.

In her cottage on the other side of Church Street, Mrs. Frank Howell kept a small newsagents with a daily delivery and a small library of books  (from which the local girls could only borrow books of which she approved!!!).

Between her shop and the chemist, Dud Haydon sold milk in the rear yard of his house from cows fed in the fields around Haydon’s Mill (also called the Town Mill).

In the main street Mrs. Crump sold haberdashery in her little “front room” and next door to that was “Madame Vera’  – the Hairdresser.

Further along at The Kettle,  Mrs. Bob Coldicott, with her three daughters, sold groceries, as well as being an “off license”.

At Weighbridge House, the last one in Leasebourne, was Parsons, the plumber, who kept the drains and the taps running, and later taken over by one of his workmen, Fred Wilmott.

Past Church Street corner and close enough to be included – and certainly important to Campden folk, is the chemist’s shop, with records going back to the 1850s, retailing many products and having several owners.  It even served as a safe deposit for local tradesmen before the arrival of banks, as well as a haven for the sick.

Apart from the Chemist and the Eight Bells, all the other shops have fallen to “progress” and become residential properties.”

The distinctive row of cottages were built by the Rev. Leland Noel, a member of the Gainsborough family, and vicar of the parish at the time, to house his domestic staff at The Vicarage.  They would enter the vicarage through the garden gate in the adjacent wall and up through the garden.  All the Vicarage Cottages are now privately owned and that part of the vicarage gardens became a memorial to Ernest Wilson, the internationally known botanist, who had local connections.”

Leland Noel also installed the iron pump in Leasebourne.