Naunton is a village 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 ...

, England. It lies on the

River Windrush The River Windrush is a tributary of the River Thames in central England. It rises near Winchcombe in Gloucestershire and flows south east for via Burford and Witney to meet the Thames at Newbridge in Oxfordshire. The river gives its name to t ...

in 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 ...

, an

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 ...

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 ...

is about 6 miles to the east.

Community

The population of Naunton in 2000 was 371, which fell to 352 at the 2011 census. Once a farming community with the usual supporting trades, it had moved towards being a dormitory community by the turn of the second millennium. It has had no shops since 1999. Despite spiralling property prices, community activity remains. The village has a parish council with five members. Local associations include clubs for music, for cricket, and for golf and tennis. The village hall was refurbished in 2017–2018 with a twenty-year government loan of £100,000 taken out for the purpose. There are single public bus services on Tuesdays to Andoversford and Fridays to Stow-on-the-Wold. The nearest railway station is at

Moreton-in-Marsh Moreton-in-Marsh is a market town in the Evenlode Valley, within the Cotswolds district and Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in Gloucestershire, England. The town stands at the crossroads of the Fosse Way Roman road (now the A429) and the ...

(10 miles, 16 km), providing several trains daily to

London Paddington Paddington, also known as London Paddington, is a London station group, Central London railway terminus and London Underground station complex, located on Praed Street in the Paddington area. The site has been the London terminus of services pro ...

Great Malvern Great Malvern is an area of the spa town of Malvern, Worcestershire, England. It lies at the foot of the Malvern Hills, a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, on the eastern flanks of the Worcestershire Beacon and North Hill, and is ...

Hereford Hereford () is a cathedral city, civil parish and the county town of Herefordshire, England. It lies on the River Wye, approximately east of the border with Wales, south-west of Worcester and north-west of Gloucester. With a population ...

Worcester Worcester may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England ** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament * Worcester Park, London, Englan ...

and

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

Heritage

Naunton is referred to 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 manusc ...

of 1086 as ''Niwetone''.Cotswold planning trip sit
Retrieved 6 April 2018.
/ref> There has probably been a settlement there for at least 2000 years. The present church, dedicated to

St Andrew Andrew the Apostle ( grc-koi, Ἀνδρέᾱς, Andréās ; la, Andrēās ; , syc, ܐܰܢܕ݁ܪܶܐܘܳܣ, ʾAnd’reʾwās), also called Saint Andrew, was an apostle of Jesus according to the New Testament. He is the brother of Simon Peter ...

, dates largely from the 15th century. The Renaissance playwright and poet

Ulpian Fulwell Ulpian Fulwell (1545/6 – before 1586) was an English Renaissance theatre playwright, satirist and poet. Later as a Gloucestershire parish priest, he appears to have neglected his duties. Church, stage and satire Born one of the two sons of a l ...

was Rector of Naunton from about 1570 until his death in about 1586. Another Rector, from 1660, was the prolific author and translator

Clement Barksdale Clement Barksdale (November 1609 – January 1687) was a prolific English religious author, polymath and Anglican priest. He lost his London parish in the English Civil War, but gained Gloucestershire livings at the Restoration and taught at a pr ...

(1609–1687), who held the parish in plurality with Stow-on-the-Wold. Naunton has a famous

dovecote A dovecote or dovecot , doocot ( Scots) or columbarium is a structure intended to house pigeons or doves. Dovecotes may be free-standing structures in a variety of shapes, or built into the end of a house or barn. They generally contain pige ...

erected in 1660. The 1998 Grand National winner,

Earth Summit The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), also known as the Rio Conference or the Earth Summit (Portuguese: ECO92), was a major United Nations conference held in Rio de Janeiro from June 3 to June 14, 1992. Earth Su ...

was prepared for the race in the village.

References

External links

'Parishes: Naunton', A History of the County of Gloucester: volume 6 (1965), pp. 76-87.
{{authority control Villages in Gloucestershire Cotswold District