Sheepscombe is a small village in the

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

county of

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a Counties of England, 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 ...

. Sheepscombe is located some south-east of the

city of Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east of the ...

, north-east of the town of Stroud, and east of the village of Painswick. It lies in a narrow valley, hidden behind 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 J ...

scarp, and just off the A46 and B4070 roads.

Origin and name

The first record of the village dates from around 1260, with the original name of Sebbescumbe – the name possibly comes from the names of early local settlers named Ebba or Sebba. 'Combe' means valley. Variations of the name over the centuries have included ''Sebbescumbe'', ''Sciapp'scombe'', ''Sheppescombe'', ''Sheppiscombe'', ''Shepescombe'', ''Shepyscombe'', ''Shipscombe'' and ''Shepscombe''.

History

Since the early 17th century, Sheepscombe was involved in cloth making like many of the

towns in the area and its near neighbour

Painswick Painswick is a town and civil parish in the Stroud District in Gloucestershire, England. Originally the town grew from the wool trade, but it is now best known for its parish church's yew trees and the local Rococo Garden. The village is mainly ...

. It enjoyed its industrial heyday during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, and the last mill closed in 1839. Following this, Sheepscombe suffered from increasing poverty and a falling population.

Historic buildings

The village church, St John the Apostle, was built and opened in 1820. It was designed by John Wight, and later expanded in 1872 by Francis Niblett. It is constructed of limestone ashlar with a stone slate roof to coped gables. English Heritage has listed the church as Grade II for its special architectural and historic interest. The school was opened in 1822, a modernised building opening on the same site in 1882. Many of the houses in the village, at the northern end, date from the late 17th and early 18th centuries. The village pub is the Butcher's Arms.

Gentrification

During the early part of the 20th century, Sheepscombe was still a rural, agricultural village, but today it has become, like many Cotswold villages, an expensive and select place to live. Most of its inhabitants are of the professional middle classes, who pay considerably for the privilege of living there. Situated at the bottom of a steep valley, Sheepscombe is a relatively inaccessible village, and not easy to live in for those without a car.

Notable people

Sheepscombe is the childhood home of the actor William Moseley.

Government

For the purposes of local government, Sheepscombe is within the

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 authorit ...

, the

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...

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 V ...

and the

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

. The civil parish of Painswick also contains the neighbouring villages of

Slad Slad is a village in Gloucestershire, England, in the Slad Valley about from Stroud on the B4070 road from Stroud to Birdlip. Slad is notable for being the home and final resting place of Laurie Lee, whose novel ''Cider with Rosie'' (1959) ...

and

Edge Edge or EDGE may refer to: Technology Computing * Edge computing, a network load-balancing system * Edge device, an entry point to a computer network * Adobe Edge, a graphical development application * Microsoft Edge, a web browser developed ...

. For parliamentary purposes, Sheepscombe is within the UK constituency of

. Before

Brexit Brexit (; a portmanteau of "British exit") was the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February 2020 CET).The UK also left the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or ...

in 2020, it was in the European constituency of

South West England South West England, or the South West of England, is one of nine official regions of England. It consists of the counties of Bristol, Cornwall (including the Isles of Scilly), Dorset, Devon, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire. Cities and ...

References

External links

Village websiteSchool websitePub websiteHistory Society website Stroud Voices (Sheepscombe filter) - oral history site
{{authority control Villages in Gloucestershire Painswick