Deerhurst

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Deerhurst
Gloucestershire
Saxon Church at Deerhurst - geograph.org.uk - 718832.jpg
St Mary's, Deerhurst
Location
Grid reference: SO869295
Location: 51°57’36"N, 2°11’24"W
Data
Post town: Gloucester
Postcode: GL19
Dialling code: 01452
Local Government
Council: Tewkesbury
Parliamentary
constituency:
Tewkesbury

Deerhurst is a village near Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire on the east bank of the River Severn. The Severn in this vicinity forms the county border with Worcestershire and the village of Chaceley stands on the opposite bank in that county.

According to legend, the village was once the home of a dragon, said to have been swept in on the River Severn.[1]

Anglo Saxon church & chapel

Deerhurst has an Anglo Saxon partly 10th century monastic building still standing, St Mary's Priory Church. It is notable among Anglo-Saxon buildings for the many features of the period which can be observed.[2][3][4]

Remarkably, there is a second important Anglo-Saxon building in the village, Odda's Chapel, a Saxon church, standing about 200 yards south-west of the church. An inscription dates this precisely to the reign of King Edward the Confessor.[5]

Riverside setting

The village suffered badly from the floods of 2007 and local residents were seen on the local BBC news network, Midlands Today. Pictures of the floods can be seen at the Flooding Blog.

Odda's Chapel and Abbot's Court

Outside links

Commons-logo.svg
("Wikimedia Commons" has material
about Deerhurst)

References

  1. Glosfolk - The Legend of the Deerhurst Dragon
  2. Taylor, H.M. & Joan, Anglo-Saxon Architecture Cambridge 1965.
  3. Biddulph, Joseph, Getimbrod: A Love of Anglo-Saxon Architecture Pontypridd 2004. ISBN 978-1-897999-52-3.
  4. Biddulph, Joseph, More Anglo-Saxon and Pre-Conquest Building: From England and Wales Pontypridd 2010. ISBN 978-1-897999-80-6.
  5. Higgitt, John, Odda, Orm and others: Patrons and Inscriptions in Later Anglo-Saxon England Deerhurst Lecture 1999. ISBN 0-9521199-7-8.
  • Philip Rahtz (2001). Deerhurst Above and Below Ground. Friends of Deerhurst Church. ISBN 0-9521199-5-1.