Sapperton 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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

in the

Cotswold District Cotswold is a local government district in Gloucestershire, England. It is named after the wider Cotswolds region and range of hills. The council is based in the district's largest town of Cirencester. The district also includes the towns of ...

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( , ; abbreviated Glos.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire ...

in England, about west of

Cirencester Cirencester ( , ; see #Pronunciation, below for more variations) is a market town and civil parish in the Cotswold District of Gloucestershire, England. Cirencester lies on the River Churn, a tributary of the River Thames. It is the List of ...

. It is most famous for Sapperton Canal Tunnel, and its connection with the

Cotswold The Cotswolds ( ) is a region of central South West England, along a range of rolling hills that rise from the meadows of the upper River Thames to an escarpment above the Severn Valley and the Vale of Evesham. The area is defined by the be ...

Arts and Crafts Movement The Arts and Crafts movement was an international trend in the decorative and fine arts that developed earliest and most fully in the British Isles and subsequently spread across the British Empire and to the rest of Europe and America. Initiat ...

in the early 20th century. It had a population of 424, which had reduced to 412 at the 2011 census. The parish includes the villages of Sapperton and

Frampton Mansell Frampton Mansell is a small English village 5 miles (8 km) east-south-east of Stroud, Gloucestershire, in the parish of Sapperton. It lies off the A419 road between Stroud and Cirencester. It has a prominent mid-19th century, Grade II listed ...

. The outlying hamlet of Daneway lies in the parish of Bisley, but is nearer to the village of Sapperton and often considered a part of it.

History and architecture

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 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

of 1086 lists the village as ''Sapleton''. There are many interesting buildings in Sapperton associated with the leading designers of the

Arts and Crafts movement The Arts and Crafts movement was an international trend in the decorative and fine arts that developed earliest and most fully in the British Isles and subsequently spread across the British Empire and to the rest of Europe and America. Initiat ...

in the area, as well as the church, primary school, and a

pub A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the late 17th century, to differentiate private ho ...

. Sir Robert Atkyns, the county historian and author of ''The Ancient and Present State of Gloucestershire'' (1712), lived in the

manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were usually held the lord's manorial courts, communal mea ...

of the village, now demolished, in the early 18th century. The manor was later acquired by the Bathurst family, who still own most of the village and land. Most of the buildings in the eastern part of the village were built (or rebuilt) under the patronage of the Bathurst family in the Cotswold Arts and Crafts style. Upper Dorvel House and Beechanger, designed and built by the brothers Ernest (died 1925) and Sidney Barnsley (died 1926), and the Leasowes, built by their colleague Ernest Gimson (d. 1919) are to the north-east of the Church. Norman Jewson (1884–1975), friend and associate of Gimson, and son-in-law to Ernest Barnsley, lived at Bachelors' Court. His memoir, ''By Chance I did Rove'' (1952; twice reprinted) of village life and his association with the Gimson circle at the turn of the twentieth century is recognised as a minor classic of Cotswold literature.

St Kenelm Saint Kenelm (or Cynehelm) was an Anglo-Saxon saint, venerated throughout medieval England, and mentioned in the ''Canterbury Tales'' ( The Nun's Priest's Tale, lines 290–301, in which the cockerel Chauntecleer tries to demonstrate the reality ...

is the parish church. It was last rebuilt during Queen Anne's reign. It contains a

monument A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, historical ...

to Sir Robert Atkyns and another to Sir Henry and Lady Anne Poole.

Population

* 1086 – 39 tenants (parish) * 1801 – 351 * 1901 – 422 * 1961 – 377

Famous people

Charles I Charles I may refer to: Kings and emperors * Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings * Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily * Charles I of ...

stayed at Sapperton House on 13 July 1644. *

George III George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland, Ireland from 25 October 1760 until his death in 1820. The Acts of Union 1800 unified Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and ...

came here to view the making of the Sapperton Tunnel in 1788. * Sir Richard

Stafford Cripps Sir Richard Stafford Cripps (24 April 1889 – 21 April 1952) was a British Labour Party (UK), Labour Party politician, barrister, and diplomat. A wealthy lawyer by background, Cripps first entered Parliament at a 1931 Bristol East by-election ...

is buried here. *

Robert Addie Robert Alastair Addie (10 February 1960 – 20 November 2003) was an English film and theatre actor, who came to prominence playing the role of Sir Guy of Gisburne in the 1980s British television drama series ''Robin of Sherwood''. Early life ...

an English actor, grew up in Sapperton. * The Sappington family name is said to originate from here.

In film

The village was used for filming most of the outdoor scenes in '' Cider with Rosie'' (1998), set in the 1920s and 1930s, with the main street gravelled to overcome the modern road surface.Barbara Hooper, ''Cider with Laurie: Laurie Lee Remembered'' (1999, p. 181

References

External links