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ON-LINE GUIDE TO GLOUCESTERSHIRE
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This brief guide provides
summary information on towns, villages and places to visit
in Gloucestershire as well as some interesting
facts and anecdotes on the local area. To find a specific
place either scroll down the page or use the find
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For many, Gloucestershire is the Cotswolds,
the delightful limestone hills that sweep across
the county from Tetbury in the south to Chipping Campden in the north. As well as
providing some of the most glorious scenery and
the prettiest villages in the country, the county is
also home to the historic towns of Cirencester and Cheltenham. However, Gloucestershire is
not only about the Cotswolds. To the west, on the River Severn, is the ancient city of
Gloucester, while further downriver is the Vale of
Berkeley, and historic Berkeley Castle. On the
opposite bank of the river lies the old royal
hunting ground of the Forest of Dean, once an important mining and industrial area.
Bounded by the Rivers Severn and Wye, the area has
been effectively isolated from the rest of England
and Wales and so has developed a character that is
all its own.
Cirencester
As Corinium Dobonnorum, this was the second largest Roman
town in Britain and, although few signs remain of their occupation
today, the award winning Corinium Museum features one of the
finest collection of antiquities from Roman Britain as well as
several room reconstructions.
Now dubbed the `Capital of the Cotswolds', the Cirencester
of today is a lively market town which has built upon the medieval
wealth that was generated by its wool trade. One of the many legacies
of this era is the magnificent Church of St
John, perhaps the greatest of all the Cotswold `wool
churches', whose 120 feet tower dominates the town.
Around Cirencester
Fairford
9 miles E of Cirencester on the A417
Wealthy wool merchants financed the building of the
splendid Church of St Mary, whose greatest glory is a set of
28 medieval stained-glass windows depicting the Christian faith
in picture-book style.
Bibury
7 miles NE of Cirencester on the B4425
Described by William Morris, founder of the Arts and
Crafts Movement, as "the most beautiful village in England",
Bibury remains a delightful place. The
most photographed building here is Arlington
Row, a superb terrace of medieval stone
cottages built as a wool store in the 14th century and converted, 300
years later, into weavers' cottages and workshops. The fabric
produced here was sent to nearby Arlington
Mill for fulling and, today, the mill houses a
Museum that includes pieces made in the William Morris workshops.
Tetbury
9½ miles SW of Cirencester on the A433
In the heart of this charming old wool town is the superb
17th century Market House which is connected to the old trading
centre by the ancient Chipping Stones. Among other places of interest
is Tetbury Police Museum in the cells of the old police station.
Just to the northwest of the town stands Chavenage
House, a beautiful Elizabethan mansion constructed in the characteristic
E-shape of the period. Still occupied by descendants of the
original owners, the house contains many relics from the Cromwellian
period and Cromwell himself is known to have stayed here. To
the southwest of Tetbury lies Westonbirt
Arboretum, one of the finest collections of trees
and shrubs in Europe that was founded by Robert
Stayner Holford and added to by his son. Now managed by the
Forestry Commission, it offers numerous delightful walks along some
17 miles of footpaths.
Chipping Sodbury
23 miles SW of Cirencester on the A432
A pleasant market town that still retains its ancient street
pattern, Chipping Sodbury once enjoyed prosperity as a weaving centre,
and it was during this period that the large parish church was built.
A mile or so to the east lies Old Sodbury, whose church
contains the tomb of David Harley, the Georgian diplomat who
negotiated the treaty that ended the American War of Independence. Just
beyond Old Sodbury is the Badminton Park estate, founded by
Edward Somerset, the son of the Marquis of Worcester. The house is
known for its important collection of Italian, English and Dutch
paintings and the estate as the venue for Badminton Horse Trials. The
game of badminton is said to have started here during a weekend
party in the 1860s, when the Duke of Beaufort and his guests wanted
to play tennis in the entrance hall but, worried about damaging
the paintings, they used a cork studded with feathers instead of a ball.
To the south of Chipping Sodbury and standing on the
slope of the Cotswold ridge is Dyrham Park, a striking baroque
mansion with a fine collection of Delft porcelain and several
Dutch paintings among its treasures.
Nailsworth
11 miles W of Cirencester on the A46
Another town that thrived on the local wool trade, Nailsworth
still has several of its old mills and associated buildings.
Just to the east of the town, in Hampton Fields, is
the extraordinary Avening Long Stone, a prehistoric standing
stone pierced with holes that is said to move on Midsummer's
Eve. Another ancient monument, Nan Tow's
Tump, a huge round barrow tomb that is said to contain
the remains of a local witch, can be found to the south
near Ozleworth.
Berkeley
21½ miles W of Cirencester on the B4066
This small town lends its name to the fertile strip of land known
as the Vale of Berkeley. Its largely Georgian centre is dominated
by the Norman Berkeley Castle, said to be the oldest inhabited castle
in Britain. Built between 1117 and 1153 on the site of a Saxon
fort, the castle has a rich and colourful history and as well as seeing
the many treasures that the Berkeley family have collected over
the centuries, visitors can explore the dungeons,
the grounds and the medieval bowling alley.
Berkeley was also the home of Edward Jenner,
the pioneering doctor and immunologist whose
beautiful Georgian house, The Chantry, is now the
Jenner Museum. At Slimbridge is the
Wildlife and Wetlands Centre founded in 1946 by the
great naturalist, artist, sailor and broadcaster Peter (later Sir
Peter) Scott. Slimbridge has the world's largest collection of ducks,
geese and swans, as well as flamingos and many other exotic wildfowl.
Sir Peter died in 1989 and his ashes were scattered at Slimbridge,
where he had lived for many years.
Stroud
11 miles W of Cirencester on the A419
With the surrounding hill farms providing a constant supply
of wool and the several Cotswold streams which join the River
Frome here supplying water power, it is not surprising that Stroud
became the capital of the Cotswold woollen industry. By the 1820s there
were over 150 textile mills in and around the town though only six
survive today - one of these specialises in green baize for snooker tables.
To the east of Stroud lies the delightful village of
Bisley, which stands some 780 feet above
sea level and is known as `Bisley-God-Help-Us' because of the
bitter winter winds that sweep across the hillside. Below the
village's impressive church are the Seven Wells of
Bisley that are blessed and decorated with flowers
each year on Ascension Day.
Just to the north of Stroud is the beautiful little wool town
of Painswick which is known as the `Queen of the Cotswolds'.
Hidden
away, to the north, amidst the magnificent Cotswold
countryside is Painswick Rococo Garden, a unique 18th century garden
that features plants from around the world along with a maze, planted
in 1999, which commemorates the gardens 250th anniversary.
Further north again is Prinknash Abbey
Park (pronounced Prinnage) to where the Benedictine monks of
Caldey Island moved in 1928. Part of the abbey gardens are given over to
the Prinknash Bird and Deer Park.
Frampton-on-Severn
17½ miles W of Cirencester off the B4071
Frampton's large village green, which incorporates a
cricket ground and three ponds, was formed when the marshy
land outside the gates of Frampton Court was drained in the
18th century. The Court is an outstanding example of a
Georgian country house and has been the seat of the Clifford family
ever since it was completed in the 1730s. On the opposite side of the
green is Frampton Manor, also owned by the Cliffords, a
much-restored medieval manor whose lovely walled garden contains many rare plants.
To the west of Frampton, on a great bend in the river, is
the Arlingham Peninsula, part of the Severn Way
Shepperdine-Tewkesbury Long Distance footpath. The land on which
the village of Arlingham stands once belonged to the monks of
St Augustine's Abbey, Bristol, and is believed to be the point where
St
Augustine crossed the Severn on his way to convert the
heathen Welsh tribes.
Coleford
A former mining town, Coleford developed into an important
iron-processing centre due to the availability of local ore deposits
and of the ready supply of timber for the smelting process. Still
regarded as the capital of the Royal Forest of Dean, Coleford is also home
to the Great Western Railway Museum, which is housed in
an 1883 goods station and numbers several steam locomotives
among its exhibits. Another treat for railway enthusiasts is
the Perrygrove Railway, with its narrow-gauge steam train
and treasure hunt through the woods.
To the southeast lies Parkend, which, like many communities
in the area, was once based around the extraction of minerals. At
the northern terminus of the Dean Forest Railway, just west of
the village, is the RSPB's Nagshead Nature
Reserve.
Just to the south of Coleford are Clearwell
Caves, the only remaining working iron mine in
the Forest of Dean, where ochres for use as paint pigments are
produced. Visitors can tour the nine impressive caverns, and
several marked walks explore surface mining remains.
Around Coleford
Westbury-on-Severn
9 miles NE of Coleford on the A48
This village is best known as the home of
Westbury Court Garden, a formal Dutch water
garden laid out between 1696 and 1705 that is home
to many historic varieties of apple, pear and plum. To the west
lies Littledean Hall, reputedly the oldest inhabited house in
England, which has both Saxon and Celtic remains in its cellars and is
thought to date from the 6th century. Westbury is an excellent place
to view the famous Severn Bore, a tidal wave that several times
a month makes its often dramatic way along the river.
Lydney
5½ miles SE of Coleford on the B4234
Lydney is the largest settlement between Chepstow and
Gloucester, with a harbour and canal that served the iron and coal
industries. The town is the southern terminus of the
Dean Forest Railway, which operates a regular service
of steam and diesel trains between here and Parkend. At
Norchard Railway Centre, the line's headquarters, there is a
railway museum, souvenir shop and details of restoration projects.
One of the key attractions in the area is Lydney Park
Gardens and Museum on the western outskirts of the town. The
gardens are not only a riot of colour, particularly in May and June,
but they contain the site of an Iron Age hill fort and the remains of
a Roman temple.
St Briavels
4 miles SW of Coleford on the B4228
Named after a 5th century Welsh bishop, St Briavels became
an important administrative centre in the Middle Ages and was a
leading manufacturer of armaments that supplied both weapons
and ammunition to the Crown - in 1223 it is believed that Henry
III ordered 6,000 crossbow bolts (called `quarrels') from the village.
Cheltenham
This was a small, insignificant village until a mineral spring
was accidentally discovered here in 1715 by a local man,
William Mason, who built a pump room and began
Cheltenham's transformation into one of Europe's leading Regency
spa towns. In 1788, the spa received the royal seal of approval
when George III spent five weeks here taking the waters with his family.
As an entirely new town was planned and built on the
best features of neo-classical Regency architecture there are very
few buildings of any real antiquity left, but one is the
Church of St Mary that dates back in parts to the
12th
century.
The tree-lined Promenade is one of the most
beautiful boulevards in the country, and its crowning glory is the
wonderful Neptune's Fountain modelled on the Fontana di Trevi in Rome.
Housed in Pittville Park, in the magnificent Pump
Room overlooking gardens and lakes, is the Pittville Pump Room
Museum, which uses original period costumes to bring alive the story
of Cheltenham from its Regency heyday to the 1960s.
Gustav Holst was born in a terraced Regency house in
Clarence Road in 1874 and this is now the Holst Birthplace Museum
and Period House. The composer's original piano is the centrepiece
of the collection that tells the story of the man and his works.
Cheltenham Racecourse, two miles north of town at
Prestbury Park, is the home of National Hunt Racing and stages numerous
top-quality race meetings throughout the season, culminating in
the prestigious March Festival when the Gold Cup and the
Champion Hurdle find the year's best steeplechaser and hurdler.
Around Cheltenham
Winchcombe
5½ miles NE of Cheltenham on the B4632
The Winchcombe Folk and Police Museum tells the
history of the town from prehistoric times, and the
Winchcombe Railway
Museum and Garden has one of the largest collections of
railway equipment in the country: visitors can work signals and clip
tickets and generally go misty-eyed about the age of steam. The
Cotswold garden surrounding the building is full of old and rare plants.
Just to the north stands the ruins of Hailes
Abbey, which was founded in 1246 by Richard,
Earl of Cornwall and became a place of pilgrimage after a wealthy
patron donated to the Cistercian monks a phial said to contain the blood
of Christ.
Stanton
10½ miles NE of Cheltenham off the B4632
One of the prettiest spots in the Cotswolds, the whole village
was restored by the architect Sir Philip Scott in the years before
World War I; his home from 1906 to 1937 was Stanton
Court, an elegant Jacobean residence built by Queen Elizabeth I's Chamberlain.
Beyond Stanton, on the road to Broadway, is Snowshill
Manor, an elegant mansion dating from Tudor times, which was once
the home of Catherine Parr. It now contains a fascinating collection
of crafts and artefacts assembled by the last private owner,
Charles Paget Wade.
Chipping Campden
16 miles NE of Cheltenham on the B4081
The `Jewel of the Cotswolds' and full of beautifully
restored buildings, Chipping Campden was a regional capital of the wool
trade from the 13th to the 16th century
and much of the town dates from that era. The Market
Hall was built in 1627 by the wool merchant, Sir Baptist Hicks; he also
endowed a group of almshouses and Old Campden House, which was
burnt down by Royalists to prevent it falling into the hands of the enemy.
Stow-on-the-Wold
15½ miles E of Cheltenham on the A429
At 800 feet above sea level, this is the highest town in the
Cotswolds and at one time held a twice-yearly sheep fair on the market
square where the town stocks still stand today. In Park Street is the
Toy and Collectors Museum, housing a charming display of toys,
trains, teddy bears and dolls, along with textiles and lace, porcelain
and pottery.
Bourton-on-the-Water
13 miles E of Cheltenham on the A429
Probably the most popular of all the Cotswold villages, Bourton
has the willow-lined River Windrush flowing through its centre,
crossed by several delightful pedestrian bridges. Here, among the
golden stone cottages, is Miniature World - the Museum of
Miniatures that houses a unique collection of miniature scenes and
models. Miniatures seem to be something of a feature here as Bourton is
also home to a famous Model Village and a Model Railway. Those with
a keen nose will want to visit the unique Perfumery
Exhibition, where the extraction and manufacture of perfume
is
Gloucester
In the 1st century AD, the Romans established a fort here to
guard what was then the lowest crossing point of the River Severn; it
was soon replaced by a much larger fortress and the settlement
of Glevum quickly became one of the most important military bases
in Roman Britain. It was at Gloucester that William the Conqueror held
a Christmas parliament and also ordered the rebuilding of
the abbey, an undertaking that included a magnificent church that was
the forerunner of the superb Norman Gloucester
Cathedral. The exquisite fan tracery in the
cloisters of the Cathedral is the earliest and among the finest in existence
and the great east window is the largest surviving medieval stained
glass window in the country. It was built to celebrate the English victory
at the Battle of Crécy in 1346 and depicts the coronation of
the Virgin surrounded by assorted kings, popes and saints. The
young Henry III was crowned at the Cathedral, with a bracelet on
his little head rather than a crown.
Gloucester Docks were once the gateway for waterborne
traffic heading into the Midlands and the handsome Victorian warehouses
are home to several award-winning museums. The
National Waterways Museum, which is entered by a lock chamber
with running water, tells the fascinating story of Britain's canals, and
the Robert Opie Collection at the Museum of Advertising
and
explained and where there is also a perfume garden.
To the north, at Lower Slaughter, is the
Old Mill, a restored 19th century flour
mill with a giant water wheel, while, to the southwest, near the
traditional market town of Northleach, is
the Cotswold Heritage Centre, housed in an old country prison. In
the centre of the town, in a 17th century merchant's house,
Keith Harding's World of Mechanical Music is a fascinating museum
of antique self-playing musical instruments.
To the west of Northleach is Chedworth Roman
Villa, a large, well-preserved villa that was discovered by chance in 1864.
Excavations have revealed more than 30 rooms and buildings
and some wonderful mosaics.
Packaging takes a nostalgic look at the 1940s through to the
1970s with the aid of toys and food, fashions, packaging and
a continuous screening of vintage TV commercials.
In the southwestern suburbs of Gloucester are the ruins
of Llanthony Abbey, which was moved in the 12th century from
its original site in the Black Mountains of Wales - bringing with it its
Welsh name - because the monks were terrified of the Welsh.
Around Gloucester
Newent
5 miles NW of Gloucester on the B4215
This is the capital of an area of northwest Gloucestershire that
is known as the Ryelands, home of the renowned Ryelands sheep -
an ancient breed famed for the quality of its wool. Naturally,
therefore, this was one of the county's principal wool trading centres
and there are a number of grand merchant's houses in the town.
The most distinctive building, however, is the splendid
timber-framed Market House which was built as a butter market in the
16th century with its upper floors supported on 16 oak pillars.
The Shambles Museum of Victorian Life is virtually a little
Victorian town, a jumble of cobbled streets and alleyways with shops and
even a mission chapel.
There are not a great many windmills in Gloucestershire but
at Castle Hill Farm is a working wooden mill which provides
great views from its balcony. A short distance south is the
National Bird of Prey Centre that houses one of the largest collections
of birds of prey in the world.
A couple of miles east of Newent lies Pauntley
Court where, in 1350, Richard Whittington, the penniless
orphan of the pantomime, was born. Neither poor nor an
orphan, Whittington became a mercer in London, then a financier, and
he was indeed Mayor three times (though not Lord Mayor as that
title had not yet been created).
Dymock
10 miles NW of Gloucester on the B4215
In the years before World War I, this village became the base for
a group of writers who became known as the Dymock
Poets. The group, which included Rupert Brooke, Wilfred Gibson,
Edward Thomas and Lascelles Abercrombie and was later joined by
Robert Frost, sent out its New Numbers poetry magazine from
Dymock's tiny post office and it was also from here that Brooke published his
War Sonnets, including The Soldier. Brooke and Thomas died in
the Great War, which led to the dissolution of the group.
Tewkesbury
A town of historic and strategic importance at the confluence
of the Rivers Severn and Avon; these rivers restricted the town's
lateral
expansion, which accounts for the unusual number of tall
buildings. Its early prosperity was based on the wool and mustard trades
and the movement of corn by river also contributed to its
wealth. Tewkesbury's main thoroughfares, High Street, Church Street
and Barton Street, form a Y-shape, and the area between is a
marvellous maze of narrow alleyways and small courtyards hiding many grand
old pubs and medieval cottages. At the centre of it all is
Tewkesbury Abbey, one of the largest parish churches in the country, which
was founded in the 8th century and completely rebuilt in the 11th.
After the Dissolution, it was saved from destruction by
the townspeople, who raised £453 to buy it from the Crown.
The Battle of Tewkesbury, which took place in 1471 in a
field south of town, was one of the fiercest in the War of the Roses
and the battle site has been known as Bloody Meadow ever since.
Following the Lancastrian defeat, those who had not
been slaughtered in the battle fled to the Abbey, where the killing
began again. The 17-year-old son of
Henry VI, Edward Prince of Wales, was killed in the conflict and
a plaque marking his final resting place can be seen in the abbey.
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