Chipping Sodbury is a
market town and former
civil parish, now in the parish of Sodbury, in the unitary authority area of
South Gloucestershire, in the ceremonial county of
Gloucestershire, England. It was founded in the 12th century by
William le Gros
William le Gros, William le Gras, William d'Aumale, William Crassus (died 20 August 1179) was Earl of York and Lord of Holderness in the English peerage and the Count of Aumale in France. He was the eldest son of Stephen, Count of Aumale, and ...
. It is the principal settlement in the
civil parish of Sodbury, which also includes the village of
Old Sodbury
Old Sodbury is a small village and former civil parish in the valley of the River Frome just below and to the west of the Cotswold escarpment and to the east of Chipping Sodbury and Yate, now in the parish of Sodbury, in the South Gloucestershir ...
.
Little Sodbury
Little Sodbury is an English village in South Gloucestershire, located between Chipping Sodbury, to the West, Old Sodbury to the South, Badminton, and the A46 road to the East and Horton and Hawkesbury Upton, to the north.
The "manor of Sodbur ...
is a nearby but separate civil parish. Sodbury
parish council has elected to be known as Sodbury Town Council. At the 2011
census the population of Chipping Sodbury was 5,045, but in the last decade the town has become part of a much larger built-up area due to the rapid expansion of nearby
Yate
Yate is a town and civil parish in South Gloucestershire, England. It lies just to the southwest of the Cotswold Hills and is northeast of Bristol city centre and from the centre of Bath, with regular rail services to Bristol and Gloucest ...
, with which it is contiguous to the west. At the census the combined population of Yate and Chipping Sodbury was 26,834.
Governance
An
electoral ward in the same name (not Sodbury) exists. This ward starts in the north at Chipping Sodbury Golf Course and stretches south to
Dodington. The total population of the ward taken at the
2011 census was 6,834. In 1931 the parish had a population of 973. On 1 April 1946 the parish was abolished to form Sodbury.
Transport
East of the town is the
Chipping Sodbury Tunnel
Chipping Sodbury Tunnel is a railway tunnel that is situated on the South Wales Main Line in England. It runs under the Cotswold Hills some west of Badminton railway station and Chipping Sodbury Yard.
The tunnel was built between 1897 and 1902 ...
, a railway tunnel under 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 Ju ...
2 miles 924 yards (4.06 km) long, which was opened by the
Great Western Railway in 1902. The tunnel is notorious for
flooding in wet weather, often leading to disruption of services on the
main railway line to and from
South Wales. Chipping Sodbury had a
railway station from 1903 to 1961.
Yate station, on the
Bristol
Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...
to
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...
main line, closed in January 1965 but reopened in May 1989.
Cultural activities
Chipping Sodbury hosts a twice yearly Mop Fair, usually the last weekends of March and September. The town holds a Festival Week in early June, including a "Big Lunch" where the main road is closed and residents bring picnics to eat on the street. A Big Lunch is also held in December to combat loneliness amongst elderly people at Christmas. There is a farmers' market twice a month, on the second and fourth Saturdays.
A Victorian Day is held on the first Saturday in December. The event starts with school choirs performing in the street, followed by the arrival of Father Christmas with snow guaranteed (from a blower). The streets are lined with stalls from local charities and organisations and old time amusements, including a Ferris wheel, Helter Skelter and two children's rides. Choirs sing, bands play, the stalls bring a market feel, and a Hog Roast is held.
The town celebrated its 800th anniversary in August 2018 with a weekend of medieval activities including another Big Lunch. A time capsule was buried containing photographs of local businesses and poems written by local schoolchildren. The capsule is to be dug up on the town's 900th anniversary in August 2118.
The town is served by a community radio station,
GLOSS FM
GLOSS FM was an online community radio station in the United Kingdom, broadcasting to Thornbury and District, South Gloucestershire. Its strapline is "Your Local Station". It originally started broadcasting to the South Gloucestershire area o ...
, which broadcasts 365 days a year on its webcasts and twice a year on 87.7 MHz FM.
Chipping Sodbury Town Hall
Chipping Sodbury Town Hall is a municipal building in Broad Street, Chipping Sodbury, Gloucestershire, England. The building, which is used as an events venue and also as the meeting place of Chipping Sodbury Town Council, is a Grade II listed ...
, which was remodelled in 1858, is a significant events venue in the town.
Education
Chipping Sodbury has two government funded primary schools and a secondary school.
Chipping Sodbury School
Chipping Sodbury School is a coeducational secondary school and sixth form, located in Chipping Sodbury in the Unitary authority of South Gloucestershire, England. It shares ground with the Cotswold Edge sixth-form.
Chipping Sodbury School was ...
, the secondary school, caters for children aged 11 to 18 and describes itself as a 'Specialist Technology School'. The School shares a sixth form, named Cotswold Edge, with both Brimsham Green School and Yate International Academy. Subjects taken by students are split between the three locations. The School obtained a 'Requires Improvement' status from Ofsted in 2018.
St John's Mead Primary School is named after the parish church, St. John's Chipping Sodbury. The other primary school is Raysfield Infants and Junior schools. Also within the parish boundary is Old Sodbury Primary School.
Dodington Parish Hall, which is situated next to Raysfield Junior and Infant Schools, is also the home of Raysfield Preschool.
Toponymy
The town's name is recorded in
Old English (in the
dative case) as ''Soppanbyrig'' = "Soppa's fort". "Chipping" (from Old English ''cēping'') means that a market was held there.
Notable people
Edward Jenner, pioneer of
vaccination in the 18th century, started his medical training in Sodbury, observing people catching
cowpox
Cowpox is an infectious disease caused by the ''cowpox virus'' (CPXV). It presents with large blisters in the skin, a fever and swollen glands, historically typically following contact with an infected cow, though in the last several decades more ...
and then ''not'' catching
smallpox.
RC "Jack" Russell: former England cricket wicketkeeper and artist owns an art gallery in the town.
Sir
James Dyson
Sir James Dyson (born 2 May 1947) is a British inventor, industrial designer, farmer, and billionaire entrepreneur who founded Dyson Ltd. He is best known as the inventor of the dual cyclone bagless vacuum cleaner, which works on the princip ...
, inventor of the
Dual Cyclone bagless vacuum cleaner, lives at
Dodington Park
Dodington Park is a country house and estate in Dodington, South Gloucestershire, England. The house was built by James Wyatt for Christopher Bethell Codrington (of the Codrington baronets). The family had made their fortune from sugar p ...
just outside Chipping Sodbury.
J. K. Rowling
Joanne Rowling ( "rolling"; born 31 July 1965), also known by her pen name J. K. Rowling, is a British author and philanthropist. She wrote ''Harry Potter'', a seven-volume children's fantasy series published from 1997 to 2007. The ser ...
, author of the ''
Harry Potter'' fantasy series, was born in 1965 at the Chipping Sodbury Maternity Hospital (later the Chipping Sodbury Memorial Day Centre), on Station Road,
Yate
Yate is a town and civil parish in South Gloucestershire, England. It lies just to the southwest of the Cotswold Hills and is northeast of Bristol city centre and from the centre of Bath, with regular rail services to Bristol and Gloucest ...
. Until the age of four, she lived with her parents in Sundridge Park, Yate.
Lynne Hutchinson, ''Concerns raised about future of former Chipping Sodbury cottage hospital site'', Gazette Series, 6 September 2012
. Retrieved 6 April 2013
References
* David Verey, ''Gloucestershire: the Vale and the Forest of Dean'', The Buildings of England edited by Nikolaus Pevsner
Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, '' The Buildings of England'' ( ...
, 2nd ed. (1976) , pp. 155–157
External links
*
{{authority control
Market towns in Gloucestershire
Towns in Gloucestershire
Former civil parishes in Gloucestershire
South Gloucestershire District