Whitminster
| Whitminster | |
| Gloucestershire | |
|---|---|
 Whitminster crossroads | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SO773082 |
| Location: | 51°46’21"N, 2°19’45"W |
| Data | |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Stroud |
Whitminster is a village in Gloucestershire, in the Vale of Gloucester on the A38 trunk road some six miles south of Gloucester and six miles north-west of Stroud. The River Frome flows by the village as it runs towards the Severn, flowed closely by the disused Stroudwater Canal.
The village used to be a mile to the north-east and named Wheatenhurst. The hamlet at that position is still the location of the manor house, Whitminster House, and the parish church, and retains the earlier name. The name 'Whitminster' appeared over time as a variant of the original and was finally accepted by officialdom in 1945.
The parish population at the 2011 census was 881.
Name
The manor is known as Wheatenhurst rather than Whitminster. It is recorded in the Domesday Book in 1086 as Witenhert.[1] The name is Fapparentlyy Form the Old English hwitan hyrst meaning "white wooded hill", or possibly "Hwita's wooded hill".[2]
The name was later corrupted to Whitnester and then Whitmister, and by the 17th century evolved by popular etymology to Whitminster. There was never a minster here. Either or both names were used of the parish until the 20th century, but the village on the A38 came to be known as Whitminster, whereas the smaller group of houses west of the main road in the centre of the parish were stil known as Wheatenhurst.[3]
Parish church
The parish church, St Andrew, stands close by the manor house a mile to the west of the modern village.
About the village
Whitminster has one pub, 'The Old Forge', a village shop, a chip shop, a Chinese restaurant and takeaway, an Indian takeaway and a recently refurbished hotel, The Whitminster Inn.[4]
Whitminster is a fast-growing village due to its proximity to the M5 motorway, with Bristol, South Wales and the south Midlands all within an hour's drive, and plans for additional new housing were announced in Spring 2017. The hamlet of Wheatenhurst is still signposted from the A38 at Whitminster.
The Whitminater Playing Field is enrolled as a Queen Elizabeth II Field.
History
The manor of Wheatenhurst was held by Brictric "of Newton Valence",[5] at the time of Edward the Confessor and after the Conquest it was held by Harding of Bristol in pledge from Brictric.[6] It later passed to the de Bohun family, as part of their large landholdings in the west of England.
In literature
Whitminster is the location used in the short ghost story titled The Residence at Whitminster by M. R. James, published in his third collection of ghost stories, A Thin Ghost and Others, in 1919.
Outside links
 |
("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Whitminster) |
- A History of the County of Gloucester - Volume 10 pp 291-294: Wheatenhurst or Whitminster (Victoria County History)
- Information on Whitminster from GENUKI
- Whitminster Parish Council
- Whitminster Cricket Club
- OS Bench Marks in Whitminster
- audio history referencing Whitminster
References
- ↑ Open Domesday Online: Witenhert , accessed June 2017
- ↑ The Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names: Whitminster (Cambridge University Press)
- ↑ A History of the County of Gloucester - Volume 10 pp 289-291: Wheatenhurst or Whitminster (Victoria County History)
- ↑ The Whitminster Inn
- ↑ Open Domesday: Brictric of Newton
- ↑ Domesday Book, Wheatenhurst, Gloucestershire