Hawkesbury is a hamlet consisting of a few cottages around a triangular green. It is also the name of a

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of Parish (administrative division), administrative parish used for Local government in England, local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below district ...

in the

South Gloucestershire South Gloucestershire is a unitary authority area in the ceremonial county of Gloucestershire, South West England. Towns in the area include Yate, Chipping Sodbury, Thornbury, Filton, Patchway and Bradley Stoke, the latter three forming par ...

unitary authority A unitary authority is a local authority responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are usually performed by a higher level of sub-national government or the national governme ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

in which Hawkesbury itself lies, it is located west of Hawkesbury Upton, off the A46 road. The civil parish includes Hawkesbury itself, the larger village of Hawkesbury Upton and the hamlets of

Dunkirk Dunkirk (french: Dunkerque ; vls, label= French Flemish, Duunkerke; nl, Duinkerke(n) ; , ;) is a commune in the department of Nord in northern France.Petty France and Little Badminton. According to the 2001 census the parish had a population of 1,235, increasing to 1,263 at the 2011 census. Prior to 1991 what is now the

Hillesley and Tresham Hillesley and Tresham is a civil parish in the Stroud District of Gloucestershire, England. It had a population of 591 according to the 2001 census, decreasing to 391 at the 2011 census. The parish contains the villages of Hillesley and Tresham ...

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, Stonehou ...

formed the northern part of the parish. The village is in 'Cotswold Edge' electoral ward. This ward starts at ''Hawkesbury'' in the north and stretches south to

Tormarton Tormarton is a village in South Gloucestershire, England. Its name may come from ''Thor Maer Tun'' meaning ''The settlement with the thorn (tree) on the boundary''. Another source suggests the name derives from the church tower (Tor) on the bord ...

. The total population of this parish taken from the 2011 census was 3,381. The Cotswold Way passes by the two settlements. There is a monument (the '

Somerset Monument The Somerset Monument in Hawkesbury Upton, Gloucestershire, England was built in 1846 to commemorate Lord Robert Edward Somerset. It is a Grade II* listed building, and on the Heritage at Risk register. History Lord Robert Edward Somerset was ...

') on the Cotswold Edge at . The monument was erected in 1846 to commemorate General Lord Edward Somerset. He was a soldier son of the 5th

Duke of Beaufort Duke of Beaufort (), a title in the Peerage of England, was created by Charles II in 1682 for Henry Somerset, 3rd Marquess of Worcester, a descendant of Charles Somerset, 1st Earl of Worcester, legitimised son of Henry Beaufort, 3rd Duke of ...

, (whose ancestral home is at Badminton), who had served with distinction at

Waterloo Waterloo most commonly refers to: * Battle of Waterloo, a battle on 18 June 1815 in which Napoleon met his final defeat * Waterloo, Belgium, where the battle took place. Waterloo may also refer to: Other places Antarctica *King George Island (S ...

. The first keeper of the monument was Shadrack Byfield, a one-armed veteran of the Anglo-American

War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It ...

, whose memoirs of that conflict have achieved a measure of fame.

History

John Marius Wilson described nineteenth century Hawkesbury in his '' Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales'' as a "tything, a parish, and a sub-district, in Chipping-Sodbury district, Gloucester…has a post office, of the name of Hawkesbury-Upton, under Chippenham, a police station, and a fair on the last Friday of Aug." The population of Hawkesbury at that time was 466 and the town included 108 houses. Together with the tithings of Upton, Hillesley, Little Badminton, and Saddlewood-with-Tresham and Killcott, the parish of Hawkesbury had a population of 2,173 with 499 houses Hawkesbury was a rural parish in

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 ...

in which agriculture and animal husbandry were economically dominant. The climate in southwestern Gloucestershire was partial to raising potatoes, along with domesticated animals. Cattle and sheep were important to the livelihood of the residents of Hawkesbury as there was a fair held on last Friday in August for the sale of those animals. The raising of sheep was a principal source of income, primarily for their wool. Homes constructed along streams aided in the wool production industry as it provided water necessary for dying and washing. This water also provided means to grind corn in

grist mills A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the Mill (grinding), grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist i ...

and finish cloth in

fulling Fulling, also known as felting, tucking or walking (Scots: ''waukin'', hence often spelled waulking in Scottish English), is a step in woollen clothmaking which involves the cleansing of woven or knitted cloth (particularly wool) to elimin ...

mills.http://www.hawkesburylocalhistorysociety.co.uk/windmill.html Hawkesbury Local History Society,"Hawkesbury Upton’s Mill"

Religious sites

The

Church of St Mary Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chris ...

was built in the 12th century. It is a Grade I

listed building 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 I ...

References

External links

*http://www.hawkesburyhistory.com/ {{South Gloucestershire Villages in South Gloucestershire District Civil parishes in Gloucestershire