Crudwell 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 ...

in north

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

, England. The nearest towns are

Malmesbury Malmesbury () is a town and civil parish in north Wiltshire, England, which lies approximately west of Swindon, northeast of Bristol, and north of Chippenham. The older part of the town is on a hilltop which is almost surrounded by the up ...

, about to the south-west, and

Cirencester Cirencester (, ; see below for more variations) is a market town in Gloucestershire, England, west of London. Cirencester lies on the River Churn, a tributary of the River Thames, and is the largest town in the Cotswolds. It is the home of ...

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 ...

to the north-east. Also to the north-east is

Cotswold Airport Cotswold Airport (formerly Kemble Airfield) is a private general aviation airport, near the village of Kemble, Gloucestershire, Kemble in Gloucestershire, England. Located southwest of Cirencester, it was built as a Royal Air Force (RAF) stat ...

. Kemble village, about away, has the nearest

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 ...

, with services to and .

Links and extent

The village lies on the

A429 A4 most often refers to: *A4 paper, a paper size defined by the ISO 216 standard, measuring 210 × 297 mm A4 and variants may also refer to: Science and mathematics * British NVC community A4 (''Hydrocharis morsus-ranae - Stratiotes aloide ...

linking Cirencester and Malmesbury. This route south to Malmesbury opened as a

turnpike Turnpike often refers to: * A type of gate, another word for a turnstile * In the United States, a toll road Turnpike may also refer to: Roads United Kingdom * A turnpike road, a principal road maintained by a turnpike trust, a body with powers ...

in 1778. The parish includes the hamlets of Chedglow, Chelworth, Eastcourt, Murcott and West Crudwell. The

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 ...

, originally a Roman road, forms part of the parish and county boundary. The population of the parish changed little between 1831 (604) and 1951 (618).

History

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 ...

of 1086 recorded a large population of 107 households at Crudwell, and smaller settlements at Chelworth and Chedglow. Most of the parish belonged to

Malmesbury Abbey Malmesbury Abbey, at Malmesbury in Wiltshire, England, is a religious house dedicated to Saint Peter and Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul. It was one of the few English houses with a continuous history from the 7th century through to the dissolution ...

's Brokenborough estate, which in the 13th century had a farmstead with a fishpond and a chapel. A large barn still stands to the south of All Saints' Church, probably dating from the 15th century and 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 ...

. Manor Farm, east of the church, is probably from the 17th century, with additions in the 18th. The old rectory, now a hotel, is from the early 18th century, altered in the late 19th. A school was founded at Crudwell in the 17th century by Lord Lucas. The schoolroom and schoolhouse of 1670 survive in residential use, south-west of the church. A new school was built in 1857, alongside the older buildings, became a National School, and then in 1949 a

voluntary controlled A voluntary controlled school (VC school) is a state-funded school in England and Wales in which a foundation or trust (usually a Christian denomination) has some formal influence in the running of the school. Such schools have less autonomy than ...

school. A small school also opened at Eastcourt in about 1858 and became a National School. It closed in 1923 due to falling pupil numbers. RAF Kemble opened in 1938 in the north of the parish and now serves as

. It was a base for aircraft maintenance and ferrying, and later the home of the

Red Arrows The Red Arrows, officially known as the Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team, is the aerobatics display team of the Royal Air Force based at RAF Waddington. The team was formed in late 1964 as an all-RAF team, replacing a number of unofficial teams ...

aerobatics display team. In the 1980s the airfield became a maintenance base for the US Air Force. Military flying ended in 1993 when the site was used to store surplus equipment. It was sold into private ownership in 2001 and now houses businesses carrying out aircraft maintenance and dismantling, and technical training.

Parish church

All Saints Church Crudwell, Wiltshire, England

The

Church of England Parish Church A parish church in the Church of England is the church which acts as the religious centre for the people within each Church of England parish (the smallest and most basic Church of England administrative unit; since the 19th century sometimes ca ...

of All Saints, probably begun in the 11th century, is a

Grade I 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 ...

building. Work from the 12th–15th centuries can be seen, with alterations and restoration in the 17th and 19th. The 15th-century stained glass in a north-east window depicts the

seven sacraments There are seven sacraments of the Catholic Church, which according to Catholic theology were instituted by Jesus and entrusted to the Church. Sacraments are visible rites seen as signs and efficacious channels of the grace of God to all those ...

. The tower has five bells, recast in 1858 by Mears. In 1151 the church belonged to

, and

Hankerton Hankerton is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, northeast of Malmesbury. The parish includes the hamlets of Cloatley, Cloatley End and Bullock's Horn. Streams which form the Braydon Brook, which becomes the Swill Brook further d ...

Church was dependent on it, but became a separate parish in 1445. The rectories of Crudwell and St James, Ashley (Gloucestershire) were united in 1954, and in 1987 the two churches joined with

and

Oaksey Oaksey is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, on the county boundary with Gloucestershire. The village is about northeast of the market town of Malmesbury and a similar distance south of the Gloucestershire market town of Cirence ...

to form the Braydon Brook group.

Amenities

The village school, extended in 1969, continues as Crudwell CE Primary School. Crudwell has two pubs, ''The Potting Shed'' and the ''Wheatsheaf Inn'', and two hotels, ''Mayfield House Hotel'' and ''The Rectory''; the latter is a Grade II listed building. The village also has a village hall and recreation ground, as well as a post office (housed within the ''Wheatsheaf Inn''). Of several annual village events, the two largest are the Crudwell Bike Ride (June), a 24-hour "Le Mans" style event that raises funds for the local village hall, and the Strawberry Fair (July), held on and around the village green. Both take up a weekend and attract visitors from outside the village.

Notable people

In birth order: *

George Ingram George Morby Ingram, VC, MM (18 March 1889 – 30 June 1961) was an Australian recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest decoration for gallantry "in the face of the enemy" that can be awarded to members of the British and Commonwealth a ...

(1694–1763), rector from 1719 until his death *

Ambrose McEvoy Arthur Ambrose McEvoy (12 August 1877 – 4 January 1927) was an English artist. His early works are landscapes and interiors with figures, in a style influenced by James McNeill Whistler. Later he gained success as a portrait painter, mainly ...

(1878–1927), artist *

Walter Knight-Adkin Walter Kenrick Knight-Adkin (17 August 1880 – 24 May 1957) was an Anglican priest in the first half of the 20th century. Ecclesiastical career Born in Cheltenham, Knight-Adkin was educated at Cheltenham College and St Edmund Hall, Oxford. ...

(1880–1957), Chaplain of the Fleet * Richard Cooper (1945–1990), cricketer *

John Rawling Todd John Rawling Todd () (February 1929 – 18 July 2002) was a British colonial civil servant. He held progressively senior roles in the administration of British Hong Kong, and served as Secretary for Housing from 1986 to 1988. Earlier in his car ...

(1929–2002), colonial administrator in

British Indian Ocean Territory The British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) is an Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom situated in the Indian Ocean, halfway between Tanzania and Indonesia. The territory comprises the seven atolls of the Chagos Archipelago with over 1,000 ...

and

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

"Deaths", ''Hatfield Record'', 2004, p. 105.

References

External links

*
Crudwell community website

Crudwell Parish Council

Crudwell Village Hall and Recreation Ground
{{authority control Villages in Wiltshire Civil parishes in Wiltshire