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Gretton is a small village located at the foot of the western scarp of the
Gretton is a small village located at the foot of the western scarp of 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 Jur ...
, about 9 miles north of Cheltenham
Cheltenham (), also known as Cheltenham Spa, is a spa town and borough on the edge of the Cotswolds in the county of Gloucestershire, England. Cheltenham became known as a health and holiday spa town resort, following the discovery of mineral s ...
in the English 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 ...
. The population taken in mid 2016 was 475.
The place-name 'Gretton' is first attested in 1175, and means 'village or town on gravelly soil'.Eilert Ekwall
Bror Oscar Eilert Ekwall (born 8 January 1877 in Vallsjö (now in Sävsjö, Jönköpings län), Sweden, died 23 November 1964 in Lund, Skåne län, Sweden), known as Eilert Ekwall, was Professor of English at Sweden's Lund University from 1909 to ...
, ''Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-names'', p.205.
The village has a small primary school for children aged 4 to 11 years old, with four mixed aged classes catering for 94 attendees.
The Anglican Church in the village is ''Christ Church''. Its bell tower houses a single bell, weighing four hundredweight (about 200 kg). The War Memorial stands opposite Village Hall.
The village shares the name with the village of Gretton in the county of Northants in the East Midlands. Similarly there is another Gretton in Shropshire.
Governance
Gretton civil parish was created in 1994 from part of Winchcombe parish. The parish falls under the Tewkesbury Borough Council ward of Winchcombe, the Gloucestershire County Council division of Winchcombe and Woodmancote, and the UK Parliament constituency of Tewkesbury, whose MP since 1997 is Laurence Robertson of the Conservative Party.Railways
The village was once served by Gretton Halt railway station which closed in 1960. TheGloucestershire Warwickshire Railway
The Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway (GWR, GWSR or Gloucs-Warks Steam Railway) is a volunteer-run heritage railway which runs along the Gloucestershire/Worcestershire border of the Cotswolds, England.
The GWSR has restored and reo ...
passes the site of the halt en route.
Notable residents
* Wing CommanderBill Loxton
Wilfrid William Loxton (20 January 1909 – 2 November 1992), known as Bill Loxton, was a British Royal Air Force pilot during the Battle of Britain.
Loxton was born in Gretton, Gloucestershire, the son of Ernest Robert Loxton and Mary Ann Loxt ...
- WWII RAF pilot
References