Cold Aston
- Not to be confused with Cold Ashton
| Cold Aston | |
| Gloucestershire | |
|---|---|
 Cottages in Cold Aston | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SP129197 |
| Location: | 51°52’33"N, 1°48’50"W |
| Data | |
| Post town: | Cheltenham |
| Postcode: | GL54 |
| Dialling code: | 01451 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Cotswold |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
The Cotswolds |
Cold Aston, also known as Aston Blank, is a village in Gloucestershire, approximately 19 miles east of Gloucester. It sits amongst the Cotswold hills.
The village stands some three miles west of Bourton-on-the-Water. Nearby villages include Turkdean, Notgrove, Clapton, Naunton and Lower Slaughter.
Name
The village was recorded as Eastunæ between 716–43.[1] It is listed in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Estone. The name is from the Old English east tun, meaning simply "eastern farmstead or estate".[1][2] By the mid 13th century, the village was known as Cold Aston.[3]
Occasionally the village appears as Great Aston, to distinguish it from the nearby hamlet of Little Aston.[3] From the 16th century, the name Aston Blank took hold, the suffix "Blank", of unknown provenance; possibly from the Old French word blanc, meaning "white" or "bare".[1][3] The more common name Cold Aston. The origin of "Cold" is unknown, but it is unlikely to be related to the weather.[3]
The Gloucestershire Way passes through the village, and is met here by another long-distance route, the Macmillan Way.
Parish church
The parish church is a Norman church dedicated to St Andrew.[4] Its walls incorporate Saxon stonework and the original church on this site may have been built in around AD 904.[5] A leading modern authority refers approvingly to the "very good" west tower of three stages and other Perpendicular elements of the church, commenting, "All is evidently the work of the best Cotswold masons, and is the fifteenth-century aggrandizement of a Norman church".[6] Much of the present church was restored in 1875.[5]
The village pub, The Plough, is a 17th-century Grade II listed building.[7] It is the only pub between the three villages of Cold Aston, Turkdean and Notgrove.
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Cold Aston) |
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Mills, A. D. (1998). Dictionary of English Place-Names. Oxford University Press. pp. 17. ISBN 0-19-280074-4.
- ↑ "Cold Aston". Domesday Book. The National Archives. 1086. http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline/details-result.asp?Edoc_Id=7577225&queryType=1&resultcount=77. Retrieved 2008-07-10.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 "The History of Cold Aston". Official Cold Aston site. 2007. http://www.coldaston.com/village-history.html. Retrieved 29 October 2019.
- ↑ "Cold Aston - St. Andrew". Gloucestershire County Council. 2006-03-16. http://www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/index.cfm?articleid=1681. Retrieved 2008-05-26.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Cold Aston Village Church". Official Cold Aston site. 2007. http://www.coldaston.com/church.html. Retrieved 29 October 2019.
- ↑ David Verey, Cotswold Churches (B. T. Batsford Ltd., 1976), at page 193
- ↑ The Plough