Daylesford is a small, privately owned village and former

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 ...

, now in the parish of Adlestrop, in the

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 ...

district, in the county 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 ...

, England, on the border with

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...

. It is situated just south of the A436 two miles east of

Stow-on-the-Wold Stow-on-the-Wold is a market town and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England, on top of an 800-foot (244 m) hill at the junction of main roads through the Cotswolds, including the Fosse Way (A429), which is of Roman origin. The town was found ...

and five miles west of

Chipping Norton Chipping Norton is a market town and civil parish in the Cotswold Hills in the West Oxfordshire district of Oxfordshire, England, about south-west of Banbury and north-west of Oxford. The 2011 Census recorded the civil parish population as ...

. The village is on the north bank of the small

River Evenlode The River Evenlode is a river in England which is a tributary of the Thames in Oxfordshire. It rises near Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire in the Cotswold Hills and flows south-east passing near Stow-on-the-Wold, Charlbury, Bladon, and Cass ...

. This area falls within the Cotswold Hills

Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB; , AHNE) is an area of countryside in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, that has been designated for conservation due to its significant landscape value. Areas are designated in recognition of thei ...

, so designated in 1966. In 1931 the parish had a population of 82.

History

In the medieval period the manor was held by the Hastings family. Until 1931 Daylesford was a detached part of

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see His ...

, but in that year it was transferred to Gloucestershire. It was a separate

until 1 April 1935, when it was absorbed into the civil parish of Adlestrop.

Daylesford House

In 1788, Daylesford House was acquired by

Warren Hastings Warren Hastings (6 December 1732 – 22 August 1818) was a British colonial administrator, who served as the first Governor of the Presidency of Fort William (Bengal), the head of the Supreme Council of Bengal, and so the first Governor-Genera ...

, Governor-General of India, a descendant of its medieval owners. In the following years, he remodelled the mansion to the designs of

Samuel Pepys Cockerell Samuel Pepys Cockerell (1753–1827) was an English architect. He was a son of John Cockerell, of Bishop's Hull, Somerset, and the elder brother of Sir Charles Cockerell, 1st Baronet, for whom he designed the house he is best known for, Sezinc ...

, modelling it on the grand house he had built at

Alipore Alipore (Pron:ˌɑ:lɪˈpɔ:) is a neighbourhood in south Kolkata, in Kolkata district, in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is flanked by the Tolly Nullah to the north, Bhowanipore to the east, the Diamond Harbour Road to the west and New ...

in India. The interior was replete with magnificent classical and Indian decoration (a style later developed successfully at

Sezincote House Sezincote House (pronounced ''seas in coat'') is the centre of a country estate in the civil parish of Sezincote, in the county of Gloucestershire, England. The house was designed by Samuel Pepys Cockerell, built in 1805, and is a notable exam ...

nearby), with much use of silver and crimson. The drawing room and library had furniture made out of ivory brought back from India The gardens were landscaped by John Davenport (fl. 1774). Warren Hastings also rebuilt the

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 ...

Church of St Peter in 1816, where he was buried two years later. The church was again rebuilt to the designs of J. L. Pearson in 1859-63. It is a Grade I Listed Building, having been designated as such on 25 August 1960. During the 20th century, the house and estate were the property of

Charles Edward Baring Young Charles Edward Baring Young (19 March 1850 – 22 September 1928) was an English educationalist and Conservative politician. Young was born at Paddington, the son of Charles Baring Young and his wife Elizabeth Winthrop. He was educated at Eton ...

, and then

Viscount Rothermere Viscount Rothermere, of Hemsted in the county of Kent, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1919 for the press lord Harold Harmsworth, 1st Baron Harmsworth. He had already been created a baronet, of Horsey in the ...

, who restored the house with the help of the interior decorator John Fowler, and Baron Heinrich Thyssen. It is currently the Gloucestershire home of Lord Bamford and Lady Bamford, major shareholders in the JCB excavator company, and significant donors to the Conservative Party. The

Earl of Snowdon Earl of Snowdon is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1961, together with the subsidiary title of Viscount Linley, of Nymans in the County of Sussex, by Queen Elizabeth II for her then brother-in-law, Antony Armstron ...

and his family rent a cottage on the estate. The lakeside gardens with wooded walks and unusual trees and shrubs are occasionally open to the public in the summer months. There is a farm shop on the estate, which sells

organic food Organic food, ecological food or biological food are food and drinks produced by methods complying with the standards of organic farming. Standards vary worldwide, but organic farming features practices that cycle resources, promote ecological ...

under the Daylesford Organic brand.

References

External links

'Parishes: Daylesford', A History of the County of Worcester: volume 3 (1913)
British History Online * Nicholas Mander, ''Country Houses of the Cotswolds'' (Aurum Press, 2008) {{authority control Villages in Gloucestershire Former civil parishes in Gloucestershire Cotswold District