Badminton 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 authority ...

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. It consists of Great Badminton and Little Badminton. Badminton village main street in glos england arp

History

In 1612

Edward Somerset, 4th Earl of Worcester Edward Somerset, 4th Earl of Worcester, KG, Earl Marshal (c. 1550 – 3 March 1628) was an English aristocrat. He was an important advisor to King James I (James VI of Scots), serving as Lord Privy Seal. He was the only son of three children ...

, bought from Nicholas Boteler his manors of Great and Little Badminton, called ''Madmintune'' in 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 manusc ...

while one century earlier the name ''Badimyncgtun'' was recorded, held by that family since 1275.

Badminton House

The village houses the

Duke of Beaufort Duke of Beaufort (), a title in the Peerage of England, was created by Charles II in 1682 for Henry Somerset, 3rd Marquess of Worcester, a descendant of Charles Somerset, 1st Earl of Worcester, legitimised son of Henry Beaufort, 3rd Duke of So ...

's residence,

Badminton House Badminton House is a large country house and Grade I Listed Building in Badminton, Gloucestershire, England, which has been the principal seat of the Dukes of Beaufort since the late 17th century. The house, which has given its name to th ...

, which has been the principal seat of the

Somerset family ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

since the late 17th century. Badminton House also gives its name to the sport of

badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per side) and "doubles" (with two players pe ...

Amenities

The village has a small shop which also serves as a post office.

Transport

The village is located close to the A46 and

A433 The A433 road is an A road and primary route in Gloucestershire, England. Route It starts at a junction with the A46 at Dunkirk north of junction 18 of the M4 and northeast of Chipping Sodbury. It runs northeast for to a junction wit ...

, the B4040 passes south of it. The next motorway junction is Tormarton Interchange between A46 and M4. The former

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

in nearby

Acton Turville Acton Turville is a parish in the Cotswold Edge ward within South Gloucestershire, England. It lies 17 miles (27 km) east-northeast of Bristol and 93 miles (150 km) due west of London, with the M4 south of the parish. Acton Turville co ...

closed in 1968, but the

line Line most often refers to: * Line (geometry), object with zero thickness and curvature that stretches to infinity * Telephone line, a single-user circuit on a telephone communication system Line, lines, The Line, or LINE may also refer to: Arts ...

is still active. The nearest railway station is

Yate Yate is a town and civil parish in South Gloucestershire, England. It lies just to the southwest of the Cotswolds, Cotswold Hills and is northeast of Bristol city centre and from the centre of Bath, Somerset, Bath, with regular rail services ...

on the Bristol–Gloucester line. West of the village is Badminton Airfield.

Horse trials

The village is famous for its

horse trials Eventing (also known as three day eventing or horse trials) is an equestrian event where a single horse and rider combine and compete against other competitors across the three disciplines of dressage, cross-country, and show jumping. This ...

, which take place in early May each year in the grounds of Badminton House.

St Michael and All Angels

The parish church of St Michael and All Angels in Great Badminton is attached to the Duke of Beaufort's residence. The current church was built in 1785 and serves as the principal burial place of the Somerset family. Nearly all Dukes and Duchesses are interred here. A smaller church, also dedicated to St Michael and All Angels, stands in neighbouring Little Badminton.

Little Badminton

To the north of the main village is the small rural settlement of Little Badminton. Here can be found farm houses, cottages and estate lodges very much in the traditional

Cotswold The Cotswolds (, ) is a region in central-southwest England, along a range of rolling hills that rise from the meadows of the upper Thames to an escarpment above the Severn Valley and Evesham Vale. The area is defined by the bedrock of Juras ...

style of architecture. Remains of a medieval 'sunken village' can be seen in Little Badminton, as well as an ornamental dovecote or croft, which is mentioned in the Domesday book.

Notable events

Field Marshal

FitzRoy James Henry Somerset, 1st Baron Raglan Field marshal (United Kingdom), Field Marshal FitzRoy James Henry Somerset, 1st Baron Raglan, (30 September 1788 – 28 June 1855), known before 1852 as Lord FitzRoy Somerset, was a British Army officer. When a junior officer, he served in the ...

, aide-de-camp to the

Duke of Wellington Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, (1 May 1769 – 14 September 1852) was an Anglo-Irish soldier and Tory statesman who was one of the leading military and political figures of 19th-century Britain, serving twice as prime minister of ...

in the

Peninsular War The Peninsular War (1807–1814) was the military conflict fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Spain, Portugal, and the United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. In Spain ...

and later commander of all the British forces in the

Crimean War The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included the de ...

was born, raised and buried in Badminton. He was the youngest son of the 5th Duke of Beaufort. The village of Badminton played host to the Dowager Queen Mary during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, who was evacuated from

Marlborough House Marlborough House, a Grade I listed mansion in St James's, City of Westminster, London, is the headquarters of the Commonwealth of Nations and the seat of the Commonwealth Secretariat. It was built in 1711 for Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marl ...

in London to take up residence at

for the duration of the war. She lived here with her

niece In the lineal kinship system used in the English-speaking world, a niece or nephew is a child of the subject's sibling or sibling-in-law. The converse relationship, the relationship from the niece or nephew's perspective, is that of an ...

Mary, Duchess of Beaufort, wife of the 10th Duke. Badminton Golf Club (now defunct) was founded in the late 1890s or early 1900s. The club closed in 1914."Badminton Golf Club"
"Golf’s Missing Links".

References

External links

* * {{Authority control Villages in South Gloucestershire District Civil parishes in Gloucestershire