Naunton

Not to be confused with Nauton Worcestershire

Naunton
Gloucestershire
A house in Naunton
Location
Grid reference:	SP113234
Location:	51°54’35"N, 1°50’10"W
Data
Postcode:	GL54
Local Government
Council:	Cotswold
Parliamentary constituency:	The Cotswolds

Naunton is a village in Gloucestershire. It lies on the River Windrush in the Cotswolds. Stow-on-the-Wold is about six miles to the east and Cheltenham twelve miles to the west.

The population of Naunton was recorded as 371 in 2001. Once a farming community with the usual supporting trades, it had moved towards being a commuter village by the turn of the second millennium. It has had no shops since 1999. Despite spiralling property prices a vibrant community remains.

The Nauton Recreation Ground off the High Street is enrolled as a Queen Elizabeth II Field.

History

Naunton is referred to in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Niwetone. There has probably been a settlement there for at least 2000 years.

The present church, dedicated to St Andrew, dates largely from the 15th century, but it replaced a Saxon church on the same site. It has two 18th-century sun dials, one of which has below it a Latin inscription, Lux Umbra Dei, meaning "Light is the shadow of God."

The Renaissance playwright and poet Ulpian Fulwell was Rector of Naunton from about 1570 until his death in about 1586, but he seems to have neglected his clerical duties. An episcopal visitation in 1572 found that the church was decaying. Four years later Fulwell was fined when his clerk was found to be illiterate and that parents had ceased to send their children to catechism classes.

Another Rector, from 1660, was the prolific author and translator Clement Barksdale (1609–1687), who held the parish in plurality with Stow-on-the-Wold.

Naunton has a famous dovecote erected in 1660.

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Naunton)

References

• A History of the County of Gloucester - Volume 6 pp 76-87: Parishes: Naunton (Victoria County History)