Apperley 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 ...

, England, about southwest of

Tewkesbury Tewkesbury ( ) is a medieval market town and civil parish in the north of Gloucestershire, England. The town has significant history in the Wars of the Roses and grew since the building of Tewkesbury Abbey. It stands at the confluence of the Ri ...

, south of

Deerhurst Deerhurst is a village and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England, about southwest of Tewkesbury. The village is on the east bank of the River Severn. The parish includes the village of Apperley and the hamlet of Deerhurst Walton. The 201 ...

and east of the

River Severn , name_etymology = , image = SevernFromCastleCB.JPG , image_size = 288 , image_caption = The river seen from Shrewsbury Castle , map = RiverSevernMap.jpg , map_size = 288 , map_c ...

. It is the largest settlement in Deerhurst

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 2020 it had an estimated population of 625. The

place-name Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of ''toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage and types. Toponym is the general term for a proper name of ...

is derived from the

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 settlers in the mid-5th ...

''Apuldor-lēah'', meaning "apple-tree wood". The area still had orchards in the 1960s, but by then they were being removed.

Manor

Wightfield manor existed by the reign of

Edward the Confessor Edward the Confessor ; la, Eduardus Confessor , ; ( 1003 – 5 January 1066) was one of the last Anglo-Saxon English kings. Usually considered the last king of the House of Wessex, he ruled from 1042 to 1066. Edward was the son of Æt ...

(AD 1042–66), when it was valued at one hide. But the earliest known record of a settlement at Apperley itself dates from AD 1212, when it was part of

Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the United ...

's Deerhurst manor and was valued at three

knight's fee In feudal Anglo-Norman England and Ireland, a knight's fee was a unit measure of land deemed sufficient to support a knight. Of necessity, it would not only provide sustenance for himself, his family, and servants, but also the means to furnish h ...

s. Westminster Abbey held Wightfield manor by 1284, and possibly earlier. In the 14th century Gilbert Despenser, a son of

Hugh Despenser the Younger Hugh le Despenser, 1st Baron le Despenser (c. 1287/1289 – 24 November 1326), also referred to as "the Younger Despenser", was the son and heir of Hugh le Despenser, Earl of Winchester (the Elder Despenser), by his wife Isabella de Beaucham ...

and

Isabella de Beauchamp Isabella de Beauchamp, Lady Kidwelly, Baroness Despenser (c. 1263 – before 30 May 1306), was an English noblewoman and wealthy heiress. Family Lady Isabella, or Isabel de Beauchamp,Hamilton, J. S"Despenser, Hugh, the elder, earl of Winchester" ...

, bought Wightfield. The bear and ragged staff symbol of the Beauchamp family forms a gable

finial A finial (from '' la, finis'', end) or hip-knob is an element marking the top or end of some object, often formed to be a decorative feature. In architecture, it is a small decorative device, employed to emphasize the apex of a dome, spire, towe ...

on Apperley Hall at Lower Apperley. The house is late 16th- or early 17th-century, but the finial may have been salvaged from an earlier house. In 1357 Gilbert Despenser sold Wightfield to John of Leigh. In 1382 Thomas of Leigh sold Wightfield to John Cassey, whose descendants held the manor until the 17th century. The Cassey family were

recusants Recusancy (from la, recusare, translation=to refuse) was the state of those who remained loyal to the Catholic Church and refused to attend Church of England services after the English Reformation. The 1558 Recusancy Acts passed in the reign ...

and

royalists A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of governm ...

, so between 1647 and 1654 the

Commonwealth of England The Commonwealth was the political structure during the period from 1649 to 1660 when England and Wales, later along with Ireland and Scotland, were governed as a republic after the end of the Second English Civil War and the trial and execu ...

sequestered their property. Between 1660 and 1676 John Cassey sold Wightfield to a prominent recusant, Peter Fermor of

Tusmore, Oxfordshire Tusmore is a settlement about north of Bicester in Oxfordshire. It is the location of the Tusmore country house and estate. Manor Tusmore was settled in Saxon times. The toponym comes from Old English, either ''Thures mere'' ("Thur's pool") or ...

. In 1720 Fermor's son-in-law John More sold Wightfield to a John Snell 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 o ...

. It passed to Snell's descendants in the Powell and Barnard families until it was sold in 1881.

Manor house

Wightfield Manor house is east of Apperley. Remnants of

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo-Saxons happened wit ...

wall, and 12th-century masonry including a Norman arch, have been found here. The Cassey family had a house here by 1385. The current Wightfield Manor house is a Tudor building whose earliest parts are 16th-century. Much of the house is built of stone, probably taken in 1547 from a chapel at the

Benedictine , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , foun ...

Deerhurst Priory, which was dissolved in 1540. The house is partly surrounded by a

moat A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that is dug and surrounds a castle, fortification, building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive ...

, and there is a second moated enclosure just east of the house. The house has red-brick additions from the 17th century and later. It is a

Grade II* 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 Ir ...

Chapels and church

For most of its history Apperley has been the largest settlement in Deerhurst parish, but the only

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...

was

St Mary's Priory Church, Deerhurst St Mary's Priory Church, Deerhurst, is the Church of England parish church of Deerhurst, Gloucestershire, England. Much of the church is Anglo-Saxon. It was built in the 8th century, when Deerhurst was part of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia. ...

. In the 18th century a Moravian congregation was established in Apperley, and in 1750 a red-brick chapel was built for it in School Road. By 1792 the Moravian congregation had ceased to use the chapel, but by 1799 another congregation, possibly

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's ...

, was worshipping there. A Wesleyan Methodist congregation had formed in Apperley in the 18th century, and bought the former Moravian chapel in 1845 or 1846. In 1856 the

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 Brit ...

finally had a church built in Apperley.

Holy Trinity The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the central dogma concerning the nature of God in most Christian churches, which defines one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God th ...

is a

Romanesque Revival Romanesque Revival (or Neo-Romanesque) is a style of building employed beginning in the mid-19th century inspired by the 11th- and 12th-century Romanesque architecture. Unlike the historic Romanesque style, Romanesque Revival buildings tended to ...

building in red brick designed by

Francis Penrose Francis Cranmer Penrose FRS (29 October 1817 – 15 February 1903) was an English architect, archaeologist, astronomer and sportsman rower. He served as Surveyor of the Fabric of St Paul's Cathedral, and as President of the Royal Institute of ...

. In 1890 Penrose added a west tower incorporating a porch, and an eastern

apse In architecture, an apse (plural apses; from Latin 'arch, vault' from Ancient Greek 'arch'; sometimes written apsis, plural apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome, also known as an '' exedra''. ...

for the

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. ...

. In 1904 the Wesleyan Methodists had a larger chapel built next to the old one in School Road. It is a Gothic Revival building in red brick. The Wesleyans turned the old Moravian chapel into a school room. It is now a store house.

School

Apperley has a Church of England primary school. A National School was built in Apperley in 1858. In 1923 it was closed and its pupils were transferred to Deerhurst. But the old school building at Deerhurst has since been closed and the school moved to Apperley.

Cricket club

Apperley has a

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...

club that reached the final of the National Village Cricket Championship in 1998. The

England cricketer The England cricket team represents England and Wales in international cricket. Since 1997, it has been governed by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), having been previously governed by Marylebone Cricket Club (the MCC) since 1903. E ...

Alfred Dipper (1885–1945) was born in Apperley.

References

External links

Apperley and DeerhurstApperley Cricket Club
{{authority control Villages in Gloucestershire Borough of Tewkesbury