Bourton-on-Dunsmore is a small village in

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...

, England. It is within the

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 ...

Bourton and Draycote Bourton and Draycote is a civil parish in the Rugby (borough), Rugby borough of Warwickshire, England which consists of the villages of Bourton-on-Dunsmore and Draycote. Of these, Bourton is the larger. In the United Kingdom 2001 census, 2001 Censu ...

, along with the nearby hamlet of

Draycote Draycote is a small hamlet in Warwickshire, England. It forms part of the civil parish of Bourton and Draycote along with nearby Bourton-on-Dunsmore, which is located around half a mile to the west, uphill from Draycote. Draycote is located in ...

. Bourton is part of the

borough of Rugby The Borough of Rugby is a local government district with borough status in eastern Warwickshire, England. The borough comprises the town of Rugby where the council has its headquarters, and the rural areas surrounding the town. The borough has a ...

and is located around south-west of the town of

Rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby league: 13 players per side *** Masters Rugby League *** Mod league *** Rugby league nines *** Rugby league sevens *** Touch (sport) *** Wheelchair rugby league ** Rugby union: 1 ...

, just south of the

B4453 road B roads are numbered routes in Great Britain of lesser importance than A roads. See the article Great Britain road numbering scheme The Great Britain road numbering scheme is a numbering scheme used to classify and identify all roads in Gr ...

. Bourton is located upon a ridge of high ground overlooking the

Draycote Water Draycote Water is a reservoir and country park near the village of Dunchurch, south of Rugby in Warwickshire, England, owned and operated by Severn Trent Water. It draws its water from the River Leam, and supplies drinking water to Rugby and C ...

reservoir. A short distance to the east, downhill of Bourton is the hamlet of Draycote, and a short distance west is the village of Frankton. Bourton-on-Dunsmore was mentioned 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 ...

. The village church of St Peter dates to the 13th century, but was mostly rebuilt in the 19th century, it is now

grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

. In the village is the grade II listed Bourton Hall; a large stone mansion house which dates from 1791, with later additions. It once had gardens designed by

Harold Peto Harold Ainsworth Peto FRIBA (11 July 1854 – 16 April 1933) was a British architect, landscape architect and garden designer, who worked in Britain and in Provence, France. Among his best-known gardens are Iford Manor, Wiltshire; Buscot P ...

, but had fallen into dereliction by the early-1980s. It was restored, and for many years was the headquarters of the development charity

Practical Action Practical Action (previously known as the Intermediate Technology Development Group, ITDG) is a development charity registered in the United Kingdom which works directly in four regions of the developing world – Latin America, East Africa, Sout ...

(formerly known as ''Intermediate Technology''). In 2019 the hall was bought by a company who sought to convert it into a luxury wedding venue. In 2021 the company was fined for carrying out renovation work to the hall without planning permission.

References

* Allen, Geoff, (2000) ''Warwickshire Towns & Villages'',

External links

Bourton-on-Dunsmore pages from Our Warwickshire
{{authority control Villages in Warwickshire