Abbots Leigh
| Abbots Leigh | |
| Somerset | |
|---|---|
 Holy Trinity parish church | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | ST545735 |
| Location: | 51°27’39"N, 2°39’23"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 799 (2011[1]) |
| Post town: | Bristol |
| Postcode: | BS8 |
| Dialling code: | 01275 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | North Somerset |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
North Somerset |
| Website: | Abbots Leigh web site |
Abbots Leigh is a village and parish in the Portbury Hundred of Somerset, about three miles west of the centre of Bristol.
History
The original Middle English name was Lega and the village became Abbots Leigh in the mid-12th century when Robert Fitzharding (first Earl of Berkeley), who purchased the manor having been rewarded as Lord of the Manor of Portbury by the king, He also purchased Bedminster, Hareclive and Billeswick manors. He went on to found the Abbey of St Augustine at what was Billeswick and bequeathed the income from the parish to support the Abbey Because of this connection to the abbey, when the Diocese of Bristol was carved out of the Bath and Wells, Gloucester and Worcester diocesan territories (Patent Roll, Henry V111, Art. 9, June 1542 ) the boundary to the diocese was drawn around the parish, including the Saxon 'enclosure' at Hamgreen which had been part of Portbury manor lands up to this time. All the surrounding parishes in Somerset are in Bath and Wells diocese. The Parish Map shows this very extended historic boundary which puts St Katherine's School and Chapel Pill Farm both indisputably within the parish and not in Pill as everyone would think!
The manor house here, also named Abbot's Leigh or Leigh Court, was a resting place of Charles II during his escape to France in 1651. He arrived on the evening of 12 September, staying at the home of Mr and Mrs George Norton, who were friends of the Kings's travelling companion, Jane Lane. The Nortons were unaware of the King's identity during his three-day stay.[2]
A description of the house appears in the book The Escape of Charles II, After the Battle of Worcester by Richard Ollard:[3]
"Abbots Leigh was the most magnificent of all the houses in which Charles was sheltered during his escape. A drawing made in 1788, only twenty years before it was pulled down, shows a main front of twelve gables, surmounting three storeys of cowled windows; a comfortable, solid west country Elizabethan house."
While staying at Abbots Leigh, Charles deflected suspicion by asking a trooper, who had been in the King's personal guard, to describe the King's appearance and clothing at the Battle of Worcester. The man looked at Charles and said, "The King was at least three inches taller than you."[4]
The King's escape route is commemorated in the Monarch's Way long distance footpath which passes through the village.[5]
In 1942, during World War II, Rev. Cyril Vincent Taylor (1907–1991) who, at the time, was a producer of Religious Broadcasting at the BBC and was stationed here, wrote a hymn tune which he named after the village. The tune was originally written for the hymn "Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken", which had usually been sung to the tune named AUSTRIA, but since the German national anthem was also sung to that tune, new music was needed in wartime Britain. Other hymn texts that are commonly sung to ABBOTS LEIGH include "Father Lord of All Creation", "God is Here", "Go My Children, With my Blessing" and "Lord, You Give the Great Commission".[6][7][8]
Parish church
The Church of England parish church of the Holy Trinity is a 15th-century Perpendicular Gothic building, restored and partially rebuilt in 1847–48 after a fire. The tower has six bells, three of which were cast in 1781 by William Bilbie of the Bilbie family.[9] Holy Trinity has been designated a Grade-II* listed building.[10]
References
- ↑ "2011 Census Profile" (Excel). North Somerset Council. Archived from the original on 4 January 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20140104204530/http://www.n-somerset.gov.uk/Environment/Planning_policy_and-research/researchandmonitoring/Documents/North%20Somerset%20Small%20area%20geography%20profiles%20tool.xls. Retrieved 4 January 2014.
- ↑ Count Grammont. Memoirs of the Court of Charles the Second and the Boscobel Narratives, edited by Sir Walter Scott, Publisher: Henry G Bohn, York Street, London, 1846. Chapter: King Charles's escape from Worcester: (The Kings own account of his escape and preservation after the Battle of Worcester as dictated to Samuel Pepys at Newmarket on Sunday, October 3d, and Tuesday, 5 October 1680). p.466
- ↑ Ollard, Richard (1966). The Escape of Charles II, After the Battle of Worcester. Hodder and Stoughton.
- ↑ J. Hughes (ed.) (1857). The Boscobel Tracts: Relating to the Escape of Charles the Second After the Battle of Worcester and his subsequent adventures, William Blackwood and Sons. p.166
- ↑ "The Monarch's Way". The Quinton Oracle. 2005. Archived from the original on 28 August 2008. https://web.archive.org/web/20080828205231/http://www.qlhs.org.uk/oracle/monarchs-way/monarchs-way.htm. Retrieved 30 August 2008.
- ↑ "Cyril Vincent Taylor". Hymn Time. http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/t/a/y/taylor_cv.htm. Retrieved 21 March 2017.
- ↑ "Abbot's Leigh". Hymnary. http://www.hymnary.org/tune/abbots_leigh_taylor. Retrieved 21 March 2017.
- ↑ "Composer: Cyril Vincent Taylor". Hymns Without Words. http://www.hymnswithoutwords.com/hymns/Category:Cyril_Vincent_Taylor. Retrieved 21 March 2017.
- ↑ Moore, James; Rice, Roy; Hucker, Ernest (1995). Bilbie and the Chew Valley clock makers. The authors. ISBN 0-9526702-0-8.
- ↑ "Holy Trinity Church". Images of England. http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/details/default.aspx?id=33399. Retrieved 5 October 2007.
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Abbots Leigh) |
