Nympsfield is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

in the

English county The counties of England are areas used for different purposes, which include administrative, geographical, cultural and political demarcation. The term "county" is defined in several ways and can apply to similar or the same areas used by each ...

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 is located around four miles south-west of the town 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 ...

. As well as Nympsfield village, the parish contains the

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

of Cockadilly. The population taken at the 2011 census was 382.

Sights

Nympsfield is on the path of a former

Roman road Roman roads ( la, viae Romanae ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, and were built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Re ...

, which ran from

Cirencester Cirencester (, ; see below for more variations) is a market town in Gloucestershire, England, west of London. Cirencester lies on the River Churn, a tributary of the River Thames, and is the largest town in the Cotswolds. It is the home of ...

Arlingham Arlingham is a village and civil parish in the Stroud District of Gloucestershire, England. The 2001 Census recorded a parish population of 410, increasing to 459 at the 2011 census (226 males, 233 females with 176 Households). The parish conta ...

. The village has a pub, the Rose and Crown, a working men's club, both

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

(St Joseph's) and

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

(St Bartholomew's) churches and a Catholic primary school (St Joseph's). Nearby

Woodchester Mansion Woodchester Mansion is an unfinished, Gothic revival mansion house in Nympsfield, Gloucestershire, England. It is on the site of an earlier house known as Spring Park. The mansion is a Grade I listed building. The mansion was abandoned by its b ...

, an unfinished

gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

mansion, has always been associated with the village, as Nympsfield's history of

Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

tied it to the Leigh family, who built the mansion. Parking is just outside the village and a free

minibus A minibus, microbus, minicoach, or commuter (in Zimbabwe) is a passenger-carrying motor vehicle that is designed to carry more people than a multi-purpose vehicle or minivan, but fewer people than a full-size bus. In the United Kingdom, th ...

to the mansion is operated by volunteers on days when it is open to the public. A Neolithic burial site known as the

Nympsfield Long Barrow Nympsfield Long Barrow is the remains of a Neolithic burial site or barrow, located close to the village of Nympsfield in Gloucestershire, South West England. It lies at the edge of a woods, and is now the location of a picnic site. It is one ...

is located adjacent to the nearby

Coaley Peak Coaley Peak is a picnic site and viewpoint in the England, English county of Gloucestershire. Located about south-west of the town of Stroud, Gloucestershire, Stroud overlooking the village of Coaley, Coaley Peak offers of reclaimed farmland ( ...

picnic site, around half a mile from the village. The Tudor

Owlpen Manor Owlpen Manor is a Tudor Grade I listed manor house of the Mander family, situated in the village of Owlpen in the Stroud district in Gloucestershire, England. There is an associated estate set in a valley within the Cotswold Area of Outstandi ...

Hetty Pegler's Tump Uley Long Barrow, also known locally as Hetty Pegler's Tump, is a Neolithic burial mound, near the village of Uley, Gloucestershire, England. Details Although typically described as a long barrow, the mound is actually a transepted gallery g ...

(a neolithic

long barrow Long barrows are a style of monument constructed across Western Europe in the fifth and fourth millennia BCE, during the Early Neolithic period. Typically constructed from earth and either timber or stone, those using the latter material repres ...

) and

Uley Bury Uley Bury is the long, flat-topped hill just outside Uley, Gloucestershire, England. It is an impressive multi-vallate, scarp-edge Iron Age hill fort dating from around 300 B.C. Standing some 750 feet (235 metres) above sea level it has views ...

(an iron age hill fort) are also nearby. Nympsfield is the home of the Bristol and Gloucestershire

Gliding Gliding is a recreational activity and competitive air sport in which pilots fly unpowered aircraft known as gliders or sailplanes using naturally occurring currents of rising air in the atmosphere to remain airborne. The word ''soaring'' is al ...

Club.

Peter Hennessy Peter John Hennessy, Baron Hennessy of Nympsfield, (born 28 March 1947) is an English historian and academic specialising in the history of government. Since 1992, he has been Attlee Professor of Contemporary British History at Queen Mary Unive ...

, the constitutional historian, took the title Baron Hennessy of Nympsfield on receiving his peerage in 2010.

Alfred Bird Alfred Bird (1811 – 15 December 1878) was an English food manufacturer and chemist. He was born in Nympsfield, Gloucestershire, England in 1811Baptised 25 August 1811 in Nympsfield, Gloucester, England. Parents John and Mary. International Ge ...

, inventor of egg-free custard and also baking powder, was born in Nympsfield in 1811.

Etymology

The name 'Nympsfield' is a mix of

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

and

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 settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

, meaning 'Open land by the holy place'. The Celtic element of the name is ''nimet'' (holy place), and the Old English element is ''feld'' (field, open space). The earliest known recording of the village was as ''Nymdesfelda'' in 862 AD. 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 ...

, the settlement was recorded as ''Nimdesfelde''.

In fiction

Nympsfield and the Rose and Crown Inn appear in several scenes in the 2012 novel ''Caballito'' by Robin Baker. The author uses the fictional names Pegbury (for Nympsfield) and The Crown (for the inn) but from the description of location and interior it is clearly the Rose and Crown as it was in the early 1980s.

References

External links

Woodchester Mansion official websiteSt Josephs NympsfieldBristol and Gloucestershire Gliding Club
{{authority control Villages in Gloucestershire Stroud District Civil parishes in Gloucestershire

Sights

Etymology

In fiction

See also

References

External links