Chedworth 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 ...

, southwest England, in the

Cotswolds 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 Jur ...

. It is known as the location of

Chedworth Roman Villa Chedworth Roman Villa is located near Chedworth, Gloucestershire, England and is a scheduled monument. It is one of the largest and most elaborate Roman villas so far discovered in Britain and one with the latest occupation beyond the Roman per ...

, administered since 1924 by the

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

. Chedworth Stream rises close to the village and flows east for about 3 km in a narrow valley before joining the River Coln at the point where it is crossed by the ancient

Fosse Way The Fosse Way was a Roman road built in Britain during the first and second centuries AD that linked Isca Dumnoniorum (Exeter) in the southwest and Lindum Colonia (Lincoln) to the northeast, via Lindinis (Ilchester), Aquae Sulis ( Bath), Corini ...

Roman villa

The villa is a 1,700-year-old farmstead between Yanworth and Withington, about 3 miles or 5.5 km from Chedworth village by road, although it sits to the south of the River Coln and so is within Chedworth parish. It is connected with Chedworth village by two alternative long-distance footpaths, the

Macmillan Way The Macmillan Way is a long-distance footpath in England that links Boston, Lincolnshire to Abbotsbury in Dorset. The route's distance is . It is promoted to raise money for the charity Macmillan Cancer Relief. The fully waymarked route foll ...

and the

Monarch's Way The Monarch's Way is a long-distance footpath in England that approximates the escape route taken by King Charles II in 1651 after being defeated in the Battle of Worcester. It runs from Worcester via Bristol and Yeovil to Shoreham, West Sus ...

, both about 1 mile of walking distance. The villa was discovered by accident in 1864. It is the remains of one of the largest

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, a ...

villa A villa is a type of house that was originally an ancient Roman upper class country house. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of the Roman Republic, villas became s ...

s in England, featuring several

mosaic A mosaic is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and were particularly pop ...

s, two bathhouses,

hypocaust A hypocaust ( la, hypocaustum) is a system of central heating in a building that produces and circulates hot air below the floor of a room, and may also warm the walls with a series of pipes through which the hot air passes. This air can warm th ...

s (underfloor heating), a water-shrine and a latrine. The water shrine became very special as the Romans used it to worship the goddess of the natural spring that gives it an endless amount of water. New facilities opened in 2014.

History

The

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...

church of St Andrew is of 12th century

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

origin, but was much rebuilt in the second half of the 15th century. The south doorway has been described as "a most notable piece of rich

Perpendicular In elementary geometry, two geometric objects are perpendicular if they intersect at a right angle (90 degrees or π/2 radians). The condition of perpendicularity may be represented graphically using the ''perpendicular symbol'', ⟂. It can ...

work" and the south range of five Perpendicular windows has also been admired: "The interior is very charming because these great Perpendicular windows are like a wall of clear tinted glass which reflects the light onto the plastered walls." The eminent medieval judge and cleric

Thomas de Chaddesworth Thomas de Chaddesworth, de Chedworth or de Chadsworth (c.1230-1311) was an English-born Crown servant and cleric who spent some fifty years in Ireland, and died there at a great age. He was Deans of St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, Dean of St ...

, or de Chedworth,

Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin The Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral is the senior cleric of the Protestant St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, elected by the chapter of the cathedral. The office was created in 1219 or 1220, by one of several charters granted to the cathedral by A ...

, and an unsuccessful candidate to be

Archbishop of Dublin The Archbishop of Dublin is an archepiscopal title which takes its name after Dublin, Ireland. Since the Reformation, there have been parallel apostolic successions to the title: one in the Catholic Church and the other in the Church of Irelan ...

, was born here in about 1230, and took his surname from the village. He died in

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

at a great age in 1311. Between 1892 and 1961 the village had a

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 ...

on the

Midland and South Western Junction Railway The Midland and South Western Junction Railway (M&SWJR) was an independent railway built to form a north–south link between the Midland Railway and the London and South Western Railway in England, allowing the Midland and other companies' tr ...

Governance

Until the 2015 district council elections, there was an

electoral ward A ward is a local authority area, typically used for electoral purposes. In some countries, wards are usually named after neighbourhoods, thoroughfares, parishes, landmarks, geographical features and in some cases historical figures connected to t ...

in the same name. This ward started in the south at Chedworth and stretched north to end at

Dowdeswell Dowdeswell is a civil parish in the ward of Chedworth, Cotswold, in the ceremonial county of Gloucestershire, England. It is separated into Upper and Lower Dowdeswell, the former being south of the latter. The population of the civil parish at t ...

. The total ward population taken at the 2011 census was 1,705. Chedworth Parish Council was formed under the Local Government Act of 1894. Its first preliminary meeting was held on 4 December 1894, and the first full meeting was held on 3 January 1895, chaired by the Rev. Sackett Hope. Fifteen candidates stood for election to the seven seats available. Subsequently, in 1904 again 15 candidates stood for the seven seats, and none of the previous incumbents was re-elected. The last contested Chedworth Parish Council election was in 2015, when 10 candidates stood for the seven available seats. The council holds monthly meetings on the second Monday of each month at 7.30 at the Village Hall. The Parish Council has its own website which gives contact details.

Amenities

The Seven Tuns Inn is close to the church at the far western, "upper" end of the village. The "tuns" are variously chimneys or barrels, both of which have featured on the pub sign at different times. It is a Grade II

listed building 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 ...

. Chedworth had a post office and village store for over 120 years before the final postmistress, Miss Lait, closed her Fields Road establishment in 1993, leaving Chedworth with no retail outlets. Following a vigorous campaign by local residents, Chedworth Farm Shop opened in 2006, using former dairy buildings at Denfurlong Farm on Fields Road. However, the farm shop closed permanently on 27 February 2021.

References

External links