Dyrham is a village and parish in

South Gloucestershire South Gloucestershire is a unitary authority area in the ceremonial county of Gloucestershire, South West England. Towns in the area include Yate, Chipping Sodbury, Thornbury, Filton, Patchway and Bradley Stoke, the latter three forming ...

, England.

Location and communications

Dyrham is at lat. 51° 29' north, long. 2° 22' west (). It lies at an altitude of 100 metres above sea level. It is near the

A46 trunk road A46 may refer to: Roads: * A46 road, a long distance A road between Bath and Cleethorpes, in England * Bundesautobahn 46, a motorway in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany * A46 autoroute The A46 autoroute is a highway in central France. It connec ...

, about north of Bath and a little south of the M4 motorway. 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 ...

long-distance footpath runs through the village.

Administration

Dyrham is administered by 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 ...

of Dyrham & Hinton and by the

unitary authority A unitary authority is a local authority responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are usually performed by a higher level of sub-national government or the national governmen ...

. The population of this parish was 296 at the 2011 census.

History

Dyrham is thought to have been the site of the important

Battle of Deorham The Battle of Deorham (or Dyrham) is claimed as a decisive military encounter between the West Saxons and the Britons of the West Country in 577. The battle, which was a major victory for Wessex's forces led by Ceawlin and his son, Cuthwine, ...

fought in AD 577 between the

West Saxons la, Regnum Occidentalium Saxonum , conventional_long_name = Kingdom of the West Saxons , common_name = Wessex , image_map = Southern British Isles 9th century.svg , map_caption = S ...

under

Ceawlin Ceawlin (also spelled Ceaulin and Caelin, died ''ca.'' 593) was a King of Wessex. He may have been the son of Cynric of Wessex and the grandson of Cerdic of Wessex, whom the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' represents as the leader of the first grou ...

and

Cuthwine Cuthwine, born c. 565, was a member of the House of Wessex, the son of King Ceawlin of Wessex. Cuthwine's father Ceawlin was deposed from the throne of Wessex in 592 by his nephew Ceol. Therefore, Cuthwine never inherited the throne. Cuthwine ...

, and the

Britons British people or Britons, also known colloquially as Brits, are the citizens of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the British Overseas Territories, and the Crown dependencies.: British nationality law governs mod ...

of the

West Country The West Country (occasionally Westcountry) is a loosely defined area of South West England, usually taken to include all, some, or parts of the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset, Bristol, and, less commonly, Wiltshire, Glo ...

. The outcome of the battle was a decisive win for the West Saxons, allowing them to colonise three important cities,

Glevum Glevum (or, more formally, Colonia Nervia Glevensium, or occasionally ''Glouvia'') was originally a Roman fort in Roman Britain that became a " colonia" of retired legionaries in AD 97. Today, it is known as Gloucester, in the English county o ...

(Gloucester), Corinium (Cirencester) and Aquae Sulis ( Bath). The Domesday Book of 1086 records the tenant-in-chief of Dyrham as William FitzWido who held seven Hide (unit), hides in Dyrham, formerly the land of Aluric. The manor passed to the Norman magnate Wynebald de Ballon, and then via the Newmarch family to the Russell family, notably being held by John Russell (knight), John Russell (died c.1224) and William Russell (knight), William Russell (1257–1311). By the 15th century the manor had passed into the Denys family, the most notable holder being William Denys (1470–1533). After the family accumulated debts in the 16th century, the manor was sold to the Wynter family and then the Blathwayte family, who built the present mansion known as Dyrham Park, which is said to incorporate some of the structure of the earlier manor house.

Nearby features

*Dyrham Park. At the edge of the village is Dyrham Park, a spectacular mansion in of parkland built between 1691 and 1702 for William Blathwayt (William III of England, William III's Secretary of State and at War)Visit Bristol - Dyrham Park
/ref> and now owned by the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, National Trust. Dyrham Park was used as the set for the 1993 Merchant Ivory film ''The Remains of the Day (film), The Remains of the Day'' and also for a BBC production of Dracula. *Dyrham Wood. A woodland named Dyrham Wood lies about a mile to the south of the village. *Lower Ledge Farm, south of the village, is where the new Farbio GTS sports car was made.

References

External links

{{South Gloucestershire Villages in South Gloucestershire District