Down Hatherley is a civil parish and village in the

Tewkesbury Borough Tewkesbury is a local government district and borough in Gloucestershire, England. Named after its main town, Tewkesbury, the borough had a population of 85,800 in 2015. Other places in the borough include Ashchurch, Bishop's Cleeve, Churchdo ...

, between Cheltenham and

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east ...

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 ...

. It has approximately 165 houses and a population of 450, reducing to 419 at the 2011 census. The village is situated approximately 3.5 miles (5.6 km) northeast of Gloucester city centre. The village was recorded (combined with

Up Hatherley Up Hatherley is a civil parish and a suburb of the spa town of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. Formerly a hamlet in the parish of Shurdington, it became a parish in 1887 and became a part of Cheltenham in 1991. History The village was r ...

) as ''Hegberleo'' in 1022. It was listed as ''Athelai'' 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 manus ...

of 1086. In 1273 it was known as ''Dunheytherleye'' and in 1221, ''Hupheberleg''. The name derived from the

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th c ...

''hagu-thorn'' + ''lēah'' meaning "

hawthorn Hawthorn or Hawthorns may refer to: Plants * '' Crataegus'' (hawthorn), a large genus of shrubs and trees in the family Rosaceae * ''Rhaphiolepis'' (hawthorn), a genus of about 15 species of evergreen shrubs and small trees in the family Rosace ...

clearing". the distinguishing affixes "Up" and "Down" derived from the Old English ''upp'' meaning "higher upstream" and ''dūne'' meaning "lower downstream". Up Hatherley is a separate parish three miles upstream on the Hatherley Brook. Historic buildings include St Mary's Church (15th-century tower, otherwise rebuilt 1860) and Hatherley Court (or House) (17th century), now a hotel. Jemmy Wood, ''The Gloucester Miser'', was a former owner of Hatherley House and estate.Jemmy Wood.
Down Hatherley History, 2011. Retrieved 3 July 2011.

Notable residents

Button Gwinnett Button Gwinnett (March 3, 1735 – May 19, 1777) was a British-born American Founding Father who, as a representative of Georgia to the Continental Congress, was one of the signers (first signature on the left) of the United States Declaration o ...

(1735–1777), second of the signatories (first signature on the left) on the

United States Declaration of Independence The United States Declaration of Independence, formally The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen States of America, is the pronouncement and founding document adopted by the Second Continental Congress meeting at Pennsylvania State House ( ...

, son of the rector * Peter Bellinger Brodie (1815–1897),

geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid, liquid, and gaseous matter that constitutes Earth and other terrestrial planets, as well as the processes that shape them. Geologists usually study geology, earth science, or geophysics, althoug ...

and churchman * The

Page Wood Baronets The Wood, later Page Wood Baronetcy, of Hatherley House in the County of Gloucester, is a title in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 16 December 1837 for Matthew Wood, Lord Mayor of London from 1815 to 1817 and Whig Member ...

of Hatherley House * Sir Matthew Wood, 1st Baronet (1768-1843), Lord Mayor of London *

William Wood, 1st Baron Hatherley William Page Wood, 1st Baron Hatherley, PC (29 November 1801 – 10 July 1881) was a British lawyer and statesman who served as a Liberal Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain between 1868 and 1872 in William Ewart Gladstone's first ministr ...

(1801–1881),

Lord Chancellor The lord chancellor, formally the lord high chancellor of Great Britain, is the highest-ranking traditional minister among the Great Officers of State in Scotland and England in the United Kingdom, nominally outranking the prime minister. Th ...

, son of last-named, took his peerage title from Down Hatherley * Sir Frederick Courtenay Selous (1851–1917), explorer, officer, hunter, and conservationist

References and sources

;References ;Sources * ''Gloucestershire: the Vale and the Forest of Dean'', David Verey,

Pevsner Architectural Guides The Pevsner Architectural Guides are a series of guide books to the architecture of Great Britain and Ireland. Begun in the 1940s by the art historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, the 46 volumes of the original Buildings of England series were published b ...

: The Buildings of England, Penguin, 1970, . P.172.

External links

Village web site
Villages in Gloucestershire {{Gloucestershire-geo-stub