Miserden 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 ...

Stroud District Stroud District is a district in the ceremonial county of Gloucestershire, South West England. The district covers many outlying towns and villages. The towns forming the district are Dursley, Minchinhampton, Nailsworth, Painswick, Stonehouse, ...

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, 4 miles north east of

Stroud Stroud is a market town and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England. It is the main town in Stroud District. The town's population was 13,500 in 2021. Below the western escarpment of the Cotswold Hills, at the meeting point of the Five ...

. The parish includes

Whiteway Colony Whiteway Colony is a residential community in the Cotswolds in the parish of Miserden near Stroud, Gloucestershire, United Kingdom. The community was founded in 1898 by Tolstoyans and today has no spare land available with over sixty homes and 1 ...

and the hamlets of Sudgrove and The Camp. In the 2001 census the parish had a population of 420, increasing to 449 at the 2011 census. The village lies in the

Cotswolds 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 Jur ...

at an elevation of over 800 ft, above the valley of the River Frome. Until the Middle Ages, Miserden was known as Greenhampstead, and was mentioned by that name in 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 ...

. The name Miserden derives from ''Musardera'', "Musard's manor" - Musard was the name of the family which held the manor at the time of the Domesday Book. Robert Musard built

Miserden Castle Miserden Castle was a castle near the village of Miserden in Gloucestershire, England. The castle is a large motte and bailey Norman castle, built before 1146 by Robert Musard, after whose family the local village is named.Pettifer, p.80. The ca ...

in the 12th century.

In fiction

The battle and siege scenes in ''

Brother Cadfael's Penance ''Brother Cadfael's Penance'' is a medieval mystery novel set in the autumn of 1145 by Ellis Peters. It is the last novel in the Cadfael Chronicles, first published in 1994. When a rebellion arises in the south, Cadfael leaves the Shrewsbury A ...

'' by Ellis Peters (a pen name of

Edith Pargeter Edith Mary Pargeter (28 September 1913 – 14 October 1995), also known by her ''nom de plume'' Ellis Peters, was an English author of works in many categories, especially history and historical fiction, and was also honoured for her translat ...

) are set in the castle built by the Musard family, given the name of "La Musarderie" in the novel. The story is set in the 12th century, in December 1145 as

the Anarchy The Anarchy was a civil war in England and Normandy between 1138 and 1153, which resulted in a widespread breakdown in law and order. The conflict was a war of succession precipitated by the accidental death of William Adelin, the only legiti ...

reaches stalemate. The book includes a map of Greenhamsted, the castle and nearby

Winstone Winstone is a village and civil parish in the English county of Gloucestershire. The population taken at the 2011 census was 270. Winstone forms part of the Cotswold District. The Anglican Church of St Bartholomew was built in the 11th cent ...

, and the road that leads either to Gloucester or the other way, to Cirencester, to an Augustinian monastery.

Church

The

Church of England parish church A parish church in the Church of England is the church which acts as the religious centre for the people within each Church of England parish (the smallest and most basic Church of England administrative unit; since the 19th century sometimes ca ...

, dedicated to St Andrew, is of

Saxon The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic * * * * peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...

origin, though one leading authority has commented severely that "most of its archaeological interest was destroyed in the drastic nineteenth-century restoration". However, the same authority concedes that "the

sanctuary A sanctuary, in its original meaning, is a sacred place, such as a shrine. By the use of such places as a haven, by extension the term has come to be used for any place of safety. This secondary use can be categorized into human sanctuary, a saf ...

is beautiful" and also praises the monuments in the church to Sir William Sandys (d.1640) and William Kingston (d.1614). The church 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 Irel ...

Miserden War Memorial Miserden War Memorial is a First World War memorial in the village of Miserden, near Stroud, in Gloucestershire, south-western England. The memorial, designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, is today a grade II listed building. Background In the aftermat ...

is opposite the church. The memorial was designed by the renowned architect

Sir Edwin Lutyens Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens ( ; 29 March 1869 – 1 January 1944) was an English architect known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era. He designed many English country houses, war memoria ...

and 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 Irel ...

House and gardens

The original house was constructed in the 1620s with a large garden laid out at around the same time. A large area of glass houses was added in the early part of the 20th century, now used to house a Nursery and Cafe for visitors. Further additions and reshaping of the garden were done by

Edwin Lutyens Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens ( ; 29 March 1869 – 1 January 1944) was an English architect known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era. He designed many English country houses, war memori ...

, who contributed the five-bay Tuscan loggia. The gardens are today open to the public.

References

External links

{{authority control Villages in Gloucestershire Stroud District Civil parishes in Gloucestershire