Frocester ( ) is a village and
civil parish in
Stroud District
Stroud District is a district in the ceremonial county of Gloucestershire, South West England. The district covers many outlying towns and villages. The towns forming the district are Dursley, Minchinhampton, Nailsworth, Painswick, Stonehouse, ...
,
Gloucestershire, England. It lies below 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 ...
escarpment, 10 miles south of
Gloucester and 4 miles west of
Stroud
Stroud is a market town and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England. It is the main town in Stroud District. The town's population was 13,500 in 2021.
Below the western escarpment of the Cotswold Hills, at the meeting point of the Five ...
. In the 2001 census the parish had a population of 194, decreasing to 155 at the 2011 Census.
Frocester was the site of a Roman settlement, on a Roman road which ran from
Cirencester to
Arlingham. The remains of a
Roman villa have been excavated in the grounds of Frocester Court, and another near the remains of St Peters Church. The name of the village, first recorded in the
Domesday Book as ''Frowecestre'', means "Roman town on the Frome", although the
River Frome is just beyond the present northern boundary of the parish.
In 1726 the line of the Roman road became a
turnpike road, and formed part of the coaching route between Gloucester and
Bath
Bath may refer to:
* Bathing, immersion in a fluid
** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body
** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe
* Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities
Plac ...
. Use of the road declined in the 19th century, and it is now a minor road.
Between 1844 and 1961, Frocester had a
railway station on the
Bristol and Gloucester Railway
The Bristol and Gloucester Railway was a railway company opened in 1844 to run services between Bristol and Gloucester. It was built on the , but it was acquired in 1845 by the Midland Railway, which also acquired the Birmingham and Gloucester R ...
, later the
Midland Railway.
For the past 33 years, Frocester has been the site of the Frocester Beer Festival, organised by the Dursley
Lions as a fund-raising event. Usually over 100 beers, from all over the British Isles, are offered at this popular event.
Frocester Court
Frocester Court is a Grade II*
listed building within the village. Once much larger, it was vastly reduced in size in the mid 19th century. The Victorian rebuilding of the house and its precincts hid many medieval features which remain in situ. Parts of the house predate the
Reformation, while other parts date from the 15th century.
The grounds have a late medieval dovecote and 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 ...
late 13th-century
estate barn.
English Heritage Pastscape: Frocester Court
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References
External links
Victoria County History of Gloucestershire
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Villages in Gloucestershire
Stroud District
Civil parishes in Gloucestershire