Windrush, Gloucestershire

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Windrush
Gloucestershire
Windrush church (geograph 3781350).jpg
Windrush church
Location
Grid reference: SP192130
Location: 51°48’58"N, 1°43’18"W
Data
Post town: Cheltenham
Postcode: OX18
Dialling code: 01451
Local Government
Council: Cotswold
Parliamentary
constituency:
The Cotswolds

Windrush is a village in Gloucestershire, approximately five miles south-east of Northleach, in the very east of the county close to the border of Oxfordshire. It is within the Cotswolds on the River Windrush, from which it derives its name. The village name is first attested in the Domesday Book of 1086, where it appears as Wenric.[1]

History

The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868) says of this place:

WINDRUSH, a parish in the lower division of Slaughter hundred, county Gloucester, 5 miles S.E. of Northleach. The village is situated on the Windrush rivulet, which rises among the Cotswold hills, and joins the Thames near Standlake. There is a valuable quarry of white oolite building stone belonging to Lord Sherborne. The living is a vicarage, united to that of Sherborne in 1776. The church, dedicated to St. Peter, contains some old tombs. There are day and Sunday schools, chiefly supported by Lord Sherborne. The charities produce about £24 per annum, besides 10 acres of poor's land.[2]

During the Second World War, the parish hosted RAF Windrush, a Royal Air Force Relief Landing Ground. Although it closed for military purposes in 1945, the airfield remains in use for light aircraft and still has its control tower.[3]

References

  1. Ekwall, Eilert, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 4th edition, 1960. p. 523 ISBN 0198691033
  2. The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868)
  3. Windrush at wartimememories.co.uk