Horton, Gloucestershire

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Horton
Gloucestershire
Horton church in South Gloucestershire England arp.jpg
St James the Elder, Horton
Location
Grid reference: ST726822
Location: 51°33’50"N, 2°20’20"W
Data
Population: 355  (2011)
Post town: Bristol
Postcode: BS37
Dialling code: 01454
Local Government
Council: South Gloucestershire
Parliamentary
constituency:
Northavon

Horton is a village on the Cotswold Edge, in the south of Gloucestershire, about two and a half miles north of Chipping Sodbury. The nearest settlement is Little Sodbury, about a mile and a half away; Hawkesbury Upton and Dunkirk are both two and a half miles away.

The village is a linear settlement built on the slopes of a steep hill.[1]

The name Horton is a common one in the southern counties. It normally derives from Old English horu 'dirt' and tun 'settlement, farm or estate', presumably meaning 'farmstead on muddy soil', but the historical forms of this Horton vary, including the Domesday Horedone, Hortune from 1167, and the 1291 form Heorton, the latter of which could point to Old English heort 'stag'.[2]

Horton Court

Horton Court is a manor house, now in the ownership of the National Trust and is a Grade I listed building. The estate is reputed to have at one time been owned by one of the sons of King Harold I, the Dane. The oldest part of the house was built as a rectory by Robert de Beaufeu, who was rector of Horton and prebendary of Salisbury. The Norman doorways and windows have rounded arches and the roof is arch-braced and dates to the fourteenth century. It is one of the oldest houses in the country, with parts of the great hall and north wing dating from 1140, with further additions to the north wing added in the fourteenth, fifteenth and eighteenth centuries. The rest of the house was built in 1521 for Willian Knight, who was later the Bishop of Bath and Wells. The house has an L-shaped plan and is constructed of stone with a stone slate roof.[3][4]

Parish church

The parish church of St James the Elder is a Grade I listed building, originally built in the twelfth century and rebuilt in the fourteenth century, with alterations in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and restorations in 1865.[5]

Outside links

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References

  1. Concise Road Atlas of Britain. AA Publishing. 2016. p. 30. ISBN 978-0-7495-7743-8. 
  2. Victor Watts (ed.), The Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names, Based on the Collections of the English Place-Name Society (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), s.vv. HORTON Avon, HORTON COURT.
  3. National Heritage List 1114992: Horton Court
  4. Pauling, Keith: 'Discovering The Cotswold Way' (Lulu.com) ISBN 978-1-4710-2342-2; pages 115–116
  5. National Heritage List 1114993: Parish Church of St James the Elder