Stanway is a small crossroads 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 authorit ...

in the 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 ...

, England, and about 1 mile south of Stanton: both villages are on the

Cotswold Way The Cotswold Way is a long-distance footpath, running along the Cotswold Edge escarpment of the Cotswold Hills in England. It was officially inaugurated as a National Trail on 24 May 2007 and several new rights of way have been created. His ...

. The parish includes the villages of Didbrook, Hailes, Taddington and Wood Stanway. The population of the parish at the 2011 census was 343. It is part of the Tewkesbury Borough Council area. The village is dominated by

Stanway House Stanway House is a Jacobean manor house, located near the village of Stanway in Gloucestershire, England. The manor of Stanway was owned by Tewkesbury Abbey for 800 years then for 500 years by the Tracy family and their descendants, the Earls ...

, a Jacobean manor house, owned by the

Earl of Wemyss and March Earl of Wemyss ( ) is a title in the Peerage of Scotland created in 1633. The Scottish Wemyss family had possessed the lands of Wemyss in Fife since the 12th century. Since 1823 the earldom has been held with the Earldom of March, created in ...

, undergoing a long 21st century restoration. The demesne estate has the single highest gravity-fed fountain in the UK at just over 300 feet. It was restored for operation in 2004 and can be seen from nearby hills when it spurts. Taddington to the east has the source of the Windrush. The gate of

is the finish of the 1st Stage (and start of the 2nd Stage) of the Cotswold Way Relay race. St Peters Church Stanway

St Peter's Church was rebuilt in the 12th century, the tower added in the 13th century and the whole building thoroughly restored in 1896. The Tithe Barn was built in the 14th century for

Tewkesbury Abbey The Abbey Church of St Mary the Virgin, Tewkesbury–commonly known as Tewkesbury Abbey–is located in the English county of Gloucestershire. A former Benedictine monastery, it is now a parish church. Considered one of the finest examples of No ...

. The bell tower contains a ring of five bells dating from (in order 1-5 wish founders) 2014 (Whitechapel, London) 1625 (Worcester Foundry, possibly James Keene), 1904 (Bond of Burford), 1826 (Rudhall, Gloucester) and 1634 (Unknown founder). They are hung for English Change Ringing and were restored in 2015. The largest (Tenor) bell is a maiden (untuned) bell and is listed for preservation. It weighs just over 11cwt. Stanway

war memorial A war memorial is a building, monument, statue, or other edifice to celebrate a war or victory, or (predominating in modern times) to commemorate those who died or were injured in a war. Symbolism Historical usage It has ...

is south of the village against the B4077 road and the southernmost end of the Stanton Road. The bronze of St George and the Dragon is by Alexander Fisher, the stone column and plinth by Sir Philip Stott carved by

Eric Gill Arthur Eric Rowton Gill, (22 February 1882 – 17 November 1940) was an English sculptor, letter cutter, typeface designer, and printmaker. Although the ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' describes Gill as ″the greatest artist-cra ...

. The war memorial in the church chancel is also by Fisher and Gill. Stanway has a cricket pitch, a fenced ground, in the middle of a field. The field has an undulating surface, which was reportedly made uneven to make landing difficult for - possibly hypothetical -

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

gliders during the Second World War. The cricket ground - itself flat - possesses a pavilion, which is built on staddle stones, and was the gift of the author

J. M. Barrie Sir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Baronet, (; 9 May 1860 19 June 1937) was a Scottish novelist and playwright, best remembered as the creator of Peter Pan. He was born and educated in Scotland and then moved to London, where he wrote several succ ...

who stayed at Stanway House in the 1920s. It is famous lore among the area, that Barrie formed his own “literary cricket team”, promising the club he would help pay for the pavilion if he took a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wic ...

. In 2018, a renowned local cricketer, Matthew Harvey hit the first recorded 'micro-six' here. In 1993 the manor house reopened its brewery, one of only two coal-fired brewing houses in the country.

Locality

*Taddington is east of and higher than most of Stanway, in the parish. *Wood Stanway lies a little less than a mile to the south of Stanway, on the other side of the B4077.

References

* ''Gloucestershire: the Cotswolds'',

David Verey Sir David John Verey CBE (born 1950) is an English banker and philanthropist. Early life Verey was born on 8 December 1950. He went to school at Eton College and later received a Master of Arts degree in English from Trinity College, Cambridge. ...

Pevsner Architectural Guides The Pevsner Architectural Guides are a series of guide books to the architecture of Great Britain and Ireland. Begun in the 1940s by the art historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, the 46 volumes of the original Buildings of England series were published b ...

: The Buildings of England, Penguin, 1970, . Pp. 414–417.

External links

*
GENUKI page
{{authority control Villages in Gloucestershire Civil parishes in Gloucestershire Borough of Tewkesbury