Adlestrop () is a village and
civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...
in the
Cotswolds, east of
Stow-on-the-Wold
Stow-on-the-Wold is a market town and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England, on top of an 800-foot (244 m) hill at the junction of main roads through the Cotswolds, including the Fosse Way (A429), which is of Roman origin. The town was founde ...
,
Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean.
The county town is the city of Gl ...
, England, on the county boundary with
Oxfordshire. The
River Evenlode
The River Evenlode is a river in England which is a tributary of the Thames in Oxfordshire. It rises near Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire in the Cotswold Hills and flows south-east passing near Stow-on-the-Wold, Charlbury, Bladon, and Cass ...
forms the southwest boundary of the parish. The village is on a stream that flows southwest to join the river.
The
A436 road, which links the
A44 road
The A44 is a major road in the United Kingdom that runs from Oxford in southern England to Aberystwyth in west Wales.
History
The original (1923) route of the A44 was Chipping Norton to Aberystwyth. No changes were made to the route of the ...
in Oxfordshire with Stow-on-the-Wold, passes through the parish just south of the village. The
Cotswold Line
The Cotswold Line is an railway line between and in England.
History Early years
The line between Oxford and Worcester was built under an 1845 Act of Parliament and opened in 1851 as part of the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway.
...
railway passes along the Evenlode valley southwest of the village and until 1966 had a station here. The village is best known for the 1917 poem "Adlestrop" by
Edward Thomas, which tells of an unexpected stop at the station.
Since 1935 the parish of Adlestrop has included the village of
Daylesford. The
2011 Census recorded the parish population as 120.
Archaeology
About northeast of the village is a
tumulus
A tumulus (plural tumuli) is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds or ''kurgans'', and may be found throughout much of the world. A cairn, which is a mound of stones bu ...
about long and wide. The tumulus is low, only high at one end and at the other. It is near the
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostl ...
hill fort
A hillfort is a type of earthwork used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze Age or Iron Age. Some were used in the post-Roma ...
in the adjoining Oxfordshire parish of
Chastleton
Chastleton is a village and civil parish in the Cotswold Hills in Oxfordshire, England, about northeast of Stow-on-the-Wold. Chastleton is in the extreme northwest of Oxfordshire, on the boundaries with both Gloucestershire and Warwickshire. T ...
.
Romano-British
The Romano-British culture arose in Britain under the Roman Empire following the Roman conquest in AD 43 and the creation of the province of Britannia. It arose as a fusion of the imported Roman culture with that of the indigenous Britons, ...
pottery and a coin of the
usurper-emperor Allectus (died 296) have been found at the tumulus. The tumulus is a
Scheduled Monument
In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change.
The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage and d ...
.
Place-name
The
Domesday Book
Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...
of 1086 records the
place-name
Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of ''toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage and types. Toponym is the general term for a proper name of ...
as ''Tedestrop''. A
Charter Roll A charter roll is an administrative record created by a medieval chancery that recorded all the charters issued by that office.
Origins
In medieval England, King John in 1199 established a fixed rate of fees for the sealing of charters and letter ...
of 1251 records it as ''Tatletrop'' and the ''
Codex Diplomaticus Aevi Saxonici'' records it as ''Tatlestrop''. The name is derived from the
Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th c ...
''þrop'' for a village, combined with the name of a person called Tātel or Tǣtel.
Manor
King
Coenred of Mercia
Coenred (also spelled Cenred or Cœnred fl. 675–709) was king of Mercia from 704 to 709. Mercia was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom in the English Midlands. He was a son of the Mercian king Wulfhere, whose brother Æthelred succeeded to the throne in ...
is said to have granted the
manor of Adlestrop to
Evesham Abbey
Evesham Abbey was founded by Saint Egwin at Evesham in Worcestershire, England between 700 and 710 following an alleged vision of the Virgin Mary by a swineherd by the name of Eof.
According to the monastic history, Evesham came through the Nor ...
in AD 708. In the 10th century the manor was assessed at seven
hides. The Abbey continued to hold the manor until 1540 when it surrendered all its estates to
the Crown
The Crown is the state in all its aspects within the jurisprudence of the Commonwealth realms and their subdivisions (such as the Crown Dependencies, overseas territories, provinces, or states). Legally ill-defined, the term has different ...
in the
Dissolution of the Monasteries.
In 1553 the Crown sold Adlestrop manor to Sir
Thomas Leigh, who in 1558 was elected
Lord Mayor of London
The Lord Mayor of London is the mayor of the City of London and the leader of the City of London Corporation. Within the City, the Lord Mayor is accorded precedence over all individuals except the sovereign and retains various traditional pow ...
. The manor descended in the Leigh family to
Chandos Leigh (1791–1850), who in 1839 was created
Baron Leigh
Baron Leigh has been created twice as a hereditary title, once in the Peerage of England and once in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. The first creation came in the Peerage of England 1643 when Sir Thomas Leigh, 2nd Baronet, was created Ba ...
. Adlestrop remained in the Leigh family in 1960.
Adlestrop Park
![Neale(1818) p2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f3/Neale%281818%29_p2.016_-_Adlestrop_Park%2C_Gloucestershire.jpg)
In 1632 Sir William Leigh, grandson of Sir Thomas, died and left the manor to his son, also called William. The younger William chose to live at Adlestrop, and had a barn near the parish church converted into a
manor house
A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals w ...
.
In 1759–62 much of the house was demolished and rebuilt on a larger scale to designs by the
Gothic Revival architect Sanderson Miller
Sanderson Miller (1716 – 23 April 1780) was an English pioneer of Gothic revival architecture and landscape designer. He is noted for adding follies or other Picturesque garden buildings and features to the grounds of an estate.
Early life ...
. Later
Humphry Repton
Humphry Repton (21 April 1752 – 24 March 1818) was the last great English landscape designer of the eighteenth century, often regarded as the successor to Capability Brown; he also sowed the seeds of the more intricate and eclectic styles of ...
(1752–1818) remodelled the gardens. The house and garden are
Grade II* listed.
Parish church
![Adlestrop Church of St Mary Magdalene Glos - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c0/Adlestrop_Church_of_St_Mary_Magdalene_Glos_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1225223.jpg)
The
Church of England parish church of St
Mary Magdalene is
cruciform
Cruciform is a term for physical manifestations resembling a common cross or Christian cross. The label can be extended to architectural shapes, biology, art, and design.
Cruciform architectural plan
Christian churches are commonly describe ...
, with a
chancel
In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse.
Ov ...
,
nave
The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...
, west tower and north and south
transept
A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform ("cross-shaped") building wi ...
s. The tower arch may be early 13th-century. The chancel arch is 13th-century but has been rebuilt. The tower is 14th-century. The church was rebuilt in about 1750, but the work was re-done in 1765, possibly by Sanderson Miller. The south transept is 18th-century Gothic Revival. The building was
restored again in the early 1860s.
Bells
The west tower has a ring of six bells hung for
change ringing.
Until 2012 they were a ring of five. Abraham I
Rudhall of Gloucester
Rudhall of Gloucester was a family business of bell founders in the city of Gloucester, England, who between 1684 and 1835 cast more than 5,000 bells.
History
There had been a tradition of bell casting in Gloucester since before the 14th century. ...
cast four of them including the treble in 1711. Thomas II Mears of the
Whitechapel Bell Foundry
The Whitechapel Bell Foundry was a business in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. At the time of the closure of its Whitechapel premises, it was the oldest manufacturing company in Great Britain. The bell foundry primarily made church bells ...
cast the tenor bell in 1838. By about 1975
dry rot
Dry rot is wood decay caused by one of several species of fungi that digest parts of the wood which give the wood strength and stiffness. It was previously used to describe any decay of cured wood in ships and buildings by a fungus which resul ...
and
woodworm
A woodworm is the wood-eating larva of many species of beetle. It is also a generic description given to the infestation of a wooden item (normally part of a dwelling or the furniture in it) by these larvae.
Types of woodworm
Woodboring beetle ...
had made the frame unsafe and the tenor bell was cracked, so the bells were listed as unringable. In 2015 the Whitechapel Bell Foundry re-cast the tenor and treble bells to make three new ones, increasing the ring from five to six. The frame was rebuilt, the bells re-hung and the ring of six was first rung in May 2016.
Before the restoration the bells were:
* Treble (smallest bell), note F: cast in 1711 by Abraham Rudhall
* 2nd bell, note E: cast in 1711 by Abraham Rudhall
* 3rd bell, note D: cast in 1711 by Abraham Rudhall
* 4th bell, note C: cast in 1711 by Abraham Rudhall
* Tenor (largest bell), note B flat (but cracked and toneless): cast in 1838 by Thomas Mears (Gloucester).
Adlestrop House
![Adlestrop House - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9d/Adlestrop_House_-_geograph.org.uk_-_901428.jpg)
Adlestrop House was built in the 17th century as the Rectory. It was altered in the 18th century and extended in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Thomas Leigh, a member of the manorial family, was Rector of Adlestrop from 1762 until his death in 1813. A cousin of his was the mother of the novelist
Jane Austen, who visited the then rectory at least three times between 1794 and 1806. She is thought to have drawn inspiration from the village and its surroundings for her novel ''
Mansfield Park
''Mansfield Park'' is the third published novel by Jane Austen, first published in 1814 by Thomas Egerton. A second edition was published in 1816 by John Murray, still within Austen's lifetime. The novel did not receive any public reviews unt ...
''.
Amenities
Adlestrop has a
post office
A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional ser ...
and
village shop that sells groceries and in the summer months serves teas. There is a
village hall
A village hall is a public building in a village used for various things such as:
United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom, a village hall is usually a building which contains at least one large room (plus kitchen and toilets), is owned by a local ...
. Adlestrop Cricket Club plays at Adlestrop Park.
Railway and former station
![Adlestrop station sign in the bus shelter - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6c/Adlestrop_station_sign_in_the_bus_shelter_-_geograph.org.uk_-_451105.jpg)
In 1853 the
Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway
The Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway (OW&WR) was a railway company in England. It built a line from Wolvercot JunctionThe nearby settlement is spelt ''Wolvercote'' and a later station on the LNWR Bicester line follows that spelling. ...
was built along the Evenlode valley. A station was opened about southwest of Adlestrop village where the main road (now the A436) crosses the river. The station was called "Addlestrop" and Stow Road (note the double "D") until 1862, when it was shortened to "Addlestrop". The
Great Western Railway took over the line in 1863 and changed the spelling to "Adlestrop" with a single "D" in 1883.
British Railways closed the station in 1966 but the railway remains open. The nearest station is now at , about south of the Adlestrop.
Adlestrop was immortalised by
Edward Thomas's poem "
Adlestrop", which was first published in 1917. The poem describes an uneventful journey that Thomas took on 24 June 1914 on the
Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
to
Worcester
Worcester may refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England
** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament
* Worcester Park, London, Engla ...
express. The train made a scheduled stop at
Adlestrop railway station, which the poet thought was unscheduled. He did not alight from the train, but describes a moment of calm pause in which "a blackbird sang close by, and... all the birds of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire".
One of the station signs and one of the benches that used to be on the station platform are now in the village bus shelter. A plaque on the bench quotes Thomas's poem. These are all that remain of the former station.
![Adlestrop railway station in 2008](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/73/Adlestrop_railway_station_in_2008.jpg)
Adlestrop
Yes. I remember Adlestrop—
The name, because one afternoon
Of heat, the express-train drew up there
Unwontedly. It was late June.
The steam hissed. Someone cleared his throat.
No one left and no one came
On the bare platform. What I saw
Was Adlestrop—only the name
And willows, willow-herb, and grass,
And meadowsweet, and haycocks dry,
No whit less still and lonely fair
Than the high cloudlets in the sky.
And for that minute a blackbird sang
Close by, and round him, mistier,
Farther and farther, all the birds
Of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire.
The Millom poet
Norman Nicholson
Norman Cornthwaite Nicholson (8 January 1914 – 30 May 1987) was an English poet associated with the Cumbrian town of Millom. His poetry is noted for local concerns, straightforward language, and elements of common speech. Although known chief ...
wrote a poem,'Do You Remember Adlestrop?' (1981, in the collection 'Sea to the West'). It includes the line,'And Willows, willow-herb and grass'.
Notable people
*
Cecil Fiennes (1831–1870), cricketer
*
Wingfield Fiennes (1834–1923), cricketer
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
*
*
*
External links
Adlestrop– community website
*
*
*
{{authority control
Civil parishes in Gloucestershire
Cotswold District
Villages in Gloucestershire