Didmarton 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 authorit ...

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. It lies in the

Cotswold District Cotswold is a local government district in Gloucestershire, England. It is named after the wider Cotswolds region. Its main town is Cirencester. Other notable towns include Tetbury, Moreton-in-Marsh, Stow-on-the-Wold and Chipping Campden. ...

, about southwest of

Tetbury Tetbury is a town and civil parish inside the Cotswold district in England. It lies on the site of an ancient hill fort, on which an Anglo-Saxon monastery was founded, probably by Ine of Wessex, in 681. The population of the parish was 5,250 in ...

. The parish is on the county borders with South Gloucestershire (to the southwest) and Wiltshire (to the south and southeast). Since 25 March 1883, the civil parish has included the former parish of Oldbury-on-the-Hill.

History

A military survey of Didmarton in 1522 shows that it was then a very small village, overshadowed by the neighbouring Oldbury-on-the-Hill. In the 16th century, the manor of Didmarton was owned by the Seacole family. In 1571, Simon Codrington married Agnes, daughter and co-heiress of Richard Seacole, and the estate thus passed to their son Robert Codrington. It was sold to Charles Somerset, 4th Duke of Beaufort, in about 1750, but has had a succession of other owners since then. Together with Oldbury, the parish was subject to

enclosure Enclosure or Inclosure is a term, used in English landownership, that refers to the appropriation of "waste" or " common land" enclosing it and by doing so depriving commoners of their rights of access and privilege. Agreements to enclose land ...

in 1829. According to ''The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland'' (1868):

Places of worship

St Laurence's church at Didmarton (

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 Britai ...

) is an early English building with a later open bell tower, unusual in England. Archaeological work has suggested an origin in the 12th century. The church's dedication is to St Laurence of Canterbury, whose feast day is on 3 February. The village's Congregational church is a square stone building with arched sash windows. Another Anglican church at the western end of the village, once dedicated to St Michael and All Angels, has been converted to a private house, although its churchyard is still consecrated ground.

Public houses

The village's present-day

pub A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...

, the King's Arms, was first mentioned in 1772. The former George Inn dated from at least 1791, and the former Compasses Inn (or Three Compasses) from 1798.''Didmarton: A ramble through history'' (Didmarton Parish Council, 2000)

Local names

Parish register A parish register in an ecclesiastical parish is a handwritten volume, normally kept in the parish church in which certain details of religious ceremonies marking major events such as baptisms (together with the dates and names of the parents), ma ...

s from 1674 to 1991 are held at the Gloucestershire Record Office. Surnames in the marriages register for 1675 to 1751 are: Acton, Allen, Biggs, Bishop, Brooks, Brush, Burcombe, Byrton, Carey, Chapman, Chappel(l), Codrington, Collings, Davies, Drew, Emely, Frith, Gingill, Harris, Hatchett, Heaven, Iddols, Kingscott, Lewis, Milsum, Minchin, Porter, Powel, Power, Robbins, Scrope, Shipton, Smart, Sparkes, Taunton, Thompson, Walls, Watts, Weekes, White, and Witchell.Didmarton, Gloucestershire, Marriages 1675-1751
online at glosgen.co.uk (accessed 13 April 2008) The surnames recorded in the parish

graveyard A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek , "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a buri ...

, and in that of the Didmarton Congregational church, include: Baker, Bickerton, Borham, Cox, Gould, Hatherell, Inane, Lucas, Pritchard, Short, Rice, Robbins, Till, and Tuck.Some Memorial Inscriptions - Didmarton, Gloucestershire, St Michael's & St Lawrence's Churchyards and Didmarton Congregational Church
online at wishful-thinking.org.uk (accessed 13 April 2008)

Notes

External links

at genuki.org.uk
Didmarton location map
from google.co.uk/maps

page at rootsweb.ancestry.com, with photograph of St Lawrence's Church, Didmarton

at genuki.org.uk
Video report of the nearby Leighterton School
b
BizView.tv
{{authority control Villages in Gloucestershire Cotswold District