Buckland, Gloucestershire
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Buckland 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
borough of Tewkesbury Tewkesbury is a local government district and borough in Gloucestershire, England. Named after its main town, Tewkesbury, the borough had a population of 85,800 in 2015. Other places in the borough include Ashchurch, Bishop's Cleeve, Churchdown ...
,
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. The parish, which also includes the village of Laverton, had a population of 225 in 2010. The village is close to the
Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see His ...
border and south of
Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
. East of the village is the Burhill Iron Age hillfort. To the south, and within Buckland Parish, is the hamlet of Laverton. Within the village itself is the medieval Church of St Michael, a seventeenth-century manor house, and what claims to be the oldest Rectory in England.


Hill Fort

Burhill
hillfort A hillfort is a type of earthwork used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze Age or Iron Age. Some were used in the post-Roma ...
occupies a spur on 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 Juras ...
escarpment An escarpment is a steep slope or long cliff that forms as a result of faulting or erosion and separates two relatively level areas having different elevations. The terms ''scarp'' and ''scarp face'' are often used interchangeably with ''escar ...
, overlooking Buckland and the Severn/Avon valley. Very little remains of any ramparts, except for a stretch on the eastern side, against the slope of the scarp, indicating an entranceway. The site was only identified as a hillfort in 1960. An area of some may have been enclosed, but on most sides the natural scarp is now the only remaining defensive feature. The whole area has been extensively ploughed, and within the hillfort a scatter of early to mid iron-age pottery has turned up. An area outside the fort, east of the entrance, has produced much greater quantities of pottery dating to the earliest period of the
Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...
, with many fragments of various jars and bowls. For website see www.burhillfort.co.uk


The village

The name 'Buckland' originates from
Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, 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- ...
'Boc-land', meaning land assigned under a charter, as distinct from the 'Folc-land' which bases its ownership on folk-testimony. The Charter in this case dates to 709AD, when
Coenred of Mercia Coenred (also spelled Cenred or Cœnred fl. 675–709) was king of Mercia from 704 to 709. Mercia was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom in the English Midlands. He was a son of the Mercian king Wulfhere, whose brother Æthelred succeeded to the throne in ...
gave the land to
St Peter's Abbey, Gloucester Gloucester Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of St Peter and the Holy and Indivisible Trinity, in Gloucester, England, stands in the north of the city near the River Severn. It originated with the establishment of a minster dedicated to S ...
. The abbey had been founded 30 years before, and in 709 Coenred made this gift to the Church, gave up being King of the Mercians and went on pilgrimage to Rome, where he died. Buckland (which may be the manor described as Bibladene in the original charter), having come into the possession of Gloucester Abbey, remained so until the reformation, in around 1546. When the
Normans The Normans (Norman language, Norman: ''Normaunds''; french: Normands; la, Nortmanni/Normanni) were a population arising in the medieval Duchy of Normandy from the intermingling between Norsemen, Norse Viking settlers and indigenous West Fran ...
took over, Abbot Serlo was put in charge of Gloucester Abbey, and under his stewardship Buckland, along with many of the Abbey's lands, increased in prosperity. By 1190 it had a church, although possibly this was at Laverton, within the parish, rather than in Buckland. The present Church, St. Michael's, has fabric dating back to the 13th century, and its rectory dates in part to the 14th century. In 1086, 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 ...
records 22
villains A villain (also known as a "black hat" or "bad guy"; the feminine form is villainess) is a stock character, whether based on a historical narrative or one of literary fiction. ''Random House Unabridged Dictionary'' defines such a character as ...
, 6
borders A border is a geographical boundary. Border, borders, The Border or The Borders may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Film and television * ''Border'' (1997 film), an Indian Hindi-language war film * ''Border'' (2018 Swedish film), ...
and 8 serfs (slaves). By 1266 this had risen to 29 villains, and 14 borders, with no mention of serfs. The villagers were in the main paying an annual rent rather than working for the lord, and the value of the rents was some 7 times greater than in 1086 (and 20 times greater than in 1066). In 1518 the site of the Manor was leased on a 31-year lease to James Appery, along with his wife, son and daughter. However the lease was relinquished to Henry VIII's commissioners, following the dissolution of Gloucester Abbey, and in 1546 the manor of Buckland was granted to Sir Richard Gresham in exchange for his lands in Yorkshire. In a survey of 1650, Buckland with Laverton is listed as having 51 families, 10th largest of the 28 settlements in Kiftsgate
Hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101. In medieval contexts, it may be described as the short hundred or five score in order to differentiate the English and Germanic use of "hundred" to de ...
. The manor house, now Buckland Manor Hotel, dates back to this period, the earliest parts of it dating to the 17th century, which fits well with the time James Thynne was lord of the manor (see below). Apart from the Church and rectory, at least two other houses in the village date to this period, Honeysuckle Cottage and Woodbine Cottage, both grade II listed.British Listed Buildings: Buckland
Accessed 28 January 2013
Outlying settlements within the parish also have ancient buildings. Laverton has 8 listed buildings, and there is a 17th-century farmhouses at Leasow House, near Laverton and one dating to 1720 in Little Buckland.


Lords of the Manor


The Greshams

Sir
Richard Gresham Sir Richard Gresham (c. 1485 – 21 February 1549) was an English mercer, Merchant Adventurer, Lord Mayor of London, and Member of Parliament. He was the father of Sir Thomas Gresham. Biography The Gresham family had been settled in the Norfo ...
(1494–1549) was a successful merchant who in 1537 was elected Lord Mayor of London. He served as a commissioner under
Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...
, Three years after being granted the manor of Buckland, one of his many properties, he died, and the estates passed to his son
Sir Thomas Gresham Sir Thomas Gresham the Elder (; c. 151921 November 1579), was an English merchant and financier who acted on behalf of King Edward VI (1547–1553) and Edward's half-sisters, queens Mary I (1553–1558) and Elizabeth I (1558–1603). In 1565 G ...
. Thomas was even better than his father at accumulating wealth and land, serving as a financier and royal agent in turn to Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I. Although he was lord of the manor for 30 years, there is, however no evidence that he lived at Buckland, or even visited it. Amongst his many achievements, he founded the Royal Exchange. His only son died unmarried in 1566, so when Thomas died in 1579, his bequests included generous provision for his foundation,
Gresham College Gresham College is an institution of higher learning located at Barnard's Inn Hall off Holborn in Central London, England. It does not enroll students or award degrees. It was founded in 1596 under the will of Sir Thomas Gresham, and hosts ove ...
, London's first institution of higher learning. The manor of Buckland, however, passed to the eldest son of his sister, Christian.


The Thynnes

Christian Gresham married
Sir John Thynne Sir John Thynne (c. 1515 – 21 May 1580) was the steward to Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset (c. 1506 – 1552), and a member of parliament. He was the builder of Longleat House, and his descendants became Marquesses of Bath. Early life ...
in 1549, just before her father died. John Thynne was steward to the
Duke of Somerset Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are rank ...
, and even before this advantageous marriage was gaining preferments and amassing a considerable fortune. Christian died before 1566, leaving 9 children, and Sir John married again. He had by this time acquired a vast estate at
Longleat Longleat is an English stately home and the seat of the Marquesses of Bath. A leading and early example of the Elizabethan prodigy house, it is adjacent to the village of Horningsham and near the towns of Warminster and Westbury in Wiltshire, ...
and began the long task of building his mansion. His eldest son, also
John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second ...
, received his maternal inheritance, including Buckland, in 1579 on the death of Christian's father, but within a year his own father died, and he was master of Longleat. His son
Thomas Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the Ap ...
inherited the Longleat and Gloucestershire estates when the younger Sir John died in 1604. Tangible evidence of the Thynnes at Buckland occurs over a hundred year's later. Thomas's third son, Henry Frederick, had three sons, the second of whom, James Thynne of Buckland, had become the lord of the manor, and appears to have been resident in the village. He is credited with renewing the wainscotting, pews and pulpit in the Church. He died unmarried, aged 66, in 1709, and a memorial in St Michael's Church records how he left his 'large personal estate to pious uses', and his lands to his nephew, Thomas Thynne. Thomas, as third son of a third son, would have had few expectations of inheritance. However his uncle (the 1st Viscount Weymouth, James' elder brother) had inherited Longleat when another Thomas Thynne was assassinated in Pall Mall in 1682,Burke, Sir Bernard, (1938 ed) Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage. Shaw, London. p.243 and when Henry, the heir, died without sons in 1708, Thomas, who erected the Buckland monument, had become heir to the entire Longleat estate. Tragically he died a year after James, in 1710, a month before his son was born, The baby Thomas became heir to Longleat, and became 2nd Viscount Weymouth, inheriting the Longleat estates aged just 4, when his great uncle, the 1st Viscount, died. The manor of Buckland was thus re-united with the Longleat estates, and Thomas's son, the 3rd Viscount, was made 1st Marquis of Bath in 1789.


The Phillippses

In the 1790s the 1st or 2nd Marquess sold Buckland Manor to Thomas Phillipps, a local magistrate and landowner, who acquired a number of local estates around Broadway, including Middle Hill and Child's Wickham. Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900 vol 45. Entry for Thomas Phillipps accessed 29 January 2012 Phillipps died in 1818, and the property all passed to his son, also
Thomas Phillipps Sir Thomas Phillipps, 1st Baronet (2 July 1792 – 6 February 1872), was an English antiquary and book collector Book collecting is the collecting of books, including seeking, locating, acquiring, organizing, cataloging, displaying, storing, ...
, who had embarked on a lifetime of collecting documents and manuscripts on a huge scale. He accumulating some 60,000 manuscripts, a great many of which he worked on, indexed, transcribed, and in many cases published, printing his books and leaflets from his printing press in
Broadway Tower Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
, Middle Hill. In addition to acquiring documents, Phillipps was meticulous in keeping his own estate records.Martin Antonetti and Eric Holzenberg (199
The Horblit Phillipps Collection at the Grolier Club
accessed 30 January 2013
Harrison Horblit, an American with a similar enthusiasm for documents, acquired many of the Phillipps documents and these, including many Buckland estate records, are now in the library of the
Grolier Club The Grolier Club is a private club and society of bibliophiles in New York City. Founded in January 1884, it is the oldest existing bibliophilic club in North America. The club is named after Jean Grolier de Servières, Viscount d'Aguisy, Tre ...
of New York. When Thomas jnr died in 1872, the terms of his father's will ensured the inherited properties were passed on to his eldest daughter, Henrietta. She had eloped to marry
James Orchard Halliwell James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps (born James Orchard Halliwell; 21 June 1820 – 3 January 1889) was an English Shakespearean scholar, antiquarian, and a collector of English nursery rhymes and fairy tales. Life The son of Thomas Halliwell, he ...
, a Shakespeare scholar who met her whilst studying her father's manuscripts. Thomas refused his consent, and cut off all communication following the elopement. But it was still Henrietta and Halliwell (who later change his name to Halliwell-Phillipps) who became the next masters of Buckland Manor. For many years the village church, St Michael's, housed a sixteenth-century copy of '' The Acts and Monuments'' (popularly known as ''Foxe's Book of Martyrs''). However, the book was stolen in January 2012.


References


External links

{{Authority control Villages in Gloucestershire Borough of Tewkesbury Civil parishes in Gloucestershire