Marshfield, Gloucestershire
| Marshfield | |
| Gloucestershire | |
|---|---|
 Old school building on the High Street | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | ST781737 |
| Location: | 51°27’43"N, 2°19’1"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 1,716 (2011) |
| Post town: | Chippenham |
| Postcode: | SN14 |
| Dialling code: | 01225 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | South Gloucestershire |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Thornbury and Yate |
Marshfield is a town Gloucestershire, adjacent to the borders with Wiltshire and Somerset. Its name is from the Old English language word "mearc" meaning a border, rather than "marsh" in the sense of bog. It forms a detached part of Thornbury Hundred.
Marshfield is in the south of the county, at the southern end of the Cotswold Hills, eight miles north of Bath, fifteen miles east of Bristol and twenty-eight miles south of Gloucester. The A420 road bypasses the town on its northern side.
To the north of Marshfield is a long stretch of flat-looking fields bordered by dry-stone walls. To the south, the view and the country is quite different, for one is quickly into the wooded valleys and hedge-lined fields of northern Somerset.
High Street is the single main thoroughfare of Marshfield and is approximately 400 yards long and straight. The eastern part of the town contains the parish church, Manor House and Home Farm, a group of historic buildings noted for their architectural features.
The parish church
St Mary's is the parish church and it provides an important focal point for the village.
A church has stood on that site for more than 1,000 years. The first was dedicated to St Nicholas, and at west Marshfield there was another, of which no traces remain, to St Pancras, possible in a field now called St Pancras Close. In Bristol Museum is deed of about 1125 confirming to the Abbot of Tewkesbury various tithes and ecclesiastical benefices, among them Marshfield church, at that time very much smaller than the church we see today.
The church was restored in 1860 and more carefully in 1887 and 1902-3 under Canon Trotman, who was disparaging of the preceding work. The chapel of St Clement in the north aisle was restored to its original design in 1950 as a memorial to the late Major Pope of Ashwicke Hall, a considerable benefactor of Marshfield.
Historic buildings
Almost every house along the high street is more than 100 years old, from the Georgian architecture Gothic toll house at the western end to the groups of mediæval barn, dovecote, and early Georgian stable range which go with the manor house and Home Farm. Near the toll house stand the fine almshouses of 1612, built for the use of eight elderly villagers by two sons of Marshfield, Nicholas and Ellis Crispe, who had gone to London and made their fortunes largely through the West Indies trade. They endowed the houses with funds to provide a free residence, garden, and £11 yearly. Many houses date from Tudor era and Stuart times (a few were originally timber-framed) and have gables and mullioned windows. Several have bow fronts and there are five examples of shell-pattern door arches typical of Queen Anne work. The finest front in the high street is perhaps the Catherine Wheel some of whose buildings at the rear are much older than 1700.
The Malting house is a typical example of the village's former prosperity in that trade. Other notable high street buildings include the former Old Meeting, a Presbyterian / Independent, later Unitarian chapel of 1752, the gabled range of the Hospice, the Red House, the former police station (now number 123), numbers 44, 83, 115, and 126.
The former vicarage, now known as "Marshfield House", whose front was rebuilt in the 1730s by Mrs Dionysia Long, is particularly handsome with its barn, stable block, and large walled garden fringing the market place. It has four storeys, including a basement and extensive attics. The vicarage did not have electricity until the 1950s, in fact only two of the floors had electricity in the early 1980s. The last vicar to inhabit the old vicarage was Rev John Miskin Prior. Following his departure from the village in 1982, a new vicarage was built on land in Church Lane, and the old vicarage was sold as a private residence.
Vernacular buildings
The Tolzey or Town House was built in 1690 for the people of Marshfield by John and Mary Goslett. As well as being the old town's administrative headquarters (the parish council still meets here) it also housed a Marshfield fire engine and served as a lock-up.[1]
Castle Farm is about half a mile to the north of Marshfield. In its two-acre farmyard is an ancient longhouse with the original fireplace and the dividing screen between the human and animal dwellings. On the neighbouring land where lynchets show in some fields, many Bronze Age and Stone Age implements have been picked up and a skeleton in a stone coffin discovered.
Formerly there were two mansions to the south of the village; the Rocks, now a ruin, and Ashwicke Hall. The Rocks, covering 1,188 acres belonged to the Taylor family, and was originally of Jacobean design. It was visited by the late Queen Mary during her stay at Badminton House in the Second World War. Ashwicke, ancient seat of the Webb family, was bought and rebuilt by John Orred in 1857, replacing an older house that stood nearby. After his death it was bought by the Horlocks who later moved to the Manor House. The hall then passed through other hands and the Firth family sold it to its last private owner, Major Pope, in 1909. The two houses employed many people from the parish in the past and the footpath running from the village to Ashwicke is a reminder of those days of service. On this former estate is the Rocks East woodland training centre which has several guided walks and wooden sculptures.
History
The town's former wealth derived from its position in the heart of Cotswold wool country, near to Bath and Bristol. Marshfield was granted a market in 1234, and its layout conforms to that of a typical market town with long narrow burgage plot gardens extending back from the narrow frontages, and served by two rear access lanes (Back Lane and Weir Lane).
It is recorded in the annals of Tewkesbury Abbey that on 1 June 1242, in the reign of Henry III, Walter de Cantilupe, Bishop of Worcester, in whose diocese Marshfield then stood, came to dedicate a newly built church at Marshfield. The monks of Tewkesbury Abbey restored and rebuilt the church in the perpendicular style in about 1470.
The majority of buildings lining the street are of 18th-century origin although several buildings date from the 17th century. The building style is largely Georgian. The facades of the buildings are unified by the consistent use of local stone and other materials, which adds character to the village.
Civil War
On 4 July 1643, during the Civil War. A Royalist army under Prince Maurice and Sir Bevil Grenville entered Marshfield as an overnight billet and used the village as a provision store for the King's army of 6,000 men. The next day the royalists were tempted into an abortive Battle at Lansdown, each side withdrawing with heavy losses. Sir Bevil died of his wounds and the Royalists fell back on Marshfield: almost every house had wounded men on its hands. The Cromwellian army moved into the village as the Royalists withdrew, and ravaged the church, which contained statues considered idolatrous.
Canon Trotman, a local historian, found traces of where statues had been torn down, though he reserved his ire for later work:
"Even they [the Puritans] could scarcely have done more havoc with the church than the hand of the so-called restorer in 1860 who, while substituting the pitch pine seats...for the old carefully locked pews and capacious gallery, effaced at the same time much that should have been interesting to us today."[2]
Highwaymen
The place of the village on the road to Bath placed it in the realm of the highwayman in the coaching days. Near to the Three Shire Stones on the Fosse Way near Marshfield there lies, even to this day, a stone that marks the spot of what the Bath Journal calls "wilful murder against some person or persons unknown". The stone marked E.R. 1761 referred to one Edmund Roach aged 38 years who was set upon and murdered by a highwayman, as reported at length in the Bath Journal. In a later report on 27 July 1761 the Bath Journal reported:
Since our last a man has been apprehended on suspicion of the murder and robbery of Mr. Roach last Saturday se'en night in the evening; he says he formerly belonged to the regiment of Royal Gloucestershire Hussars Y. Buffs, (Royal Gloucestershire Hussars) but, having a rupture, was discharged, and that he supported himself by travelling about the country, his account of supporting himself, however was so lame, he is committed to a place of security at Devices for further examination.
This could have been the former Roundway Hospital near Devizes, Wiltshire. Roundway wasn't opened until 1845 so maybe he was taken to a Village lock-up near there.[3]
One rendezvous for the infamous Dick Turpin on the London-Bath road was reputed to be Star Farm, formerly a posting-house, half a mile east of Marshfield.
On 7 July 1763, a highwayman robbed a gentleman's servant of 5/- at Tog Hill turning, amongst other robberies. On 29 January 1798 three highwaymen well-mounted and armed, stopped Mr Stephen Toghill of Marshfield at Lynch Hill, leaving him severely wounded.[4]
Fire
The village fire engine was purchased in 1826 for £50:00 and was still in use in 1931. It had to be operated by a gang of men on either side of it using a hand pump. They were brought into action in 1896 when two houses with thatched roofs, in the main streets, caught fire at midday, when all hands were engaged in the fields, but the Brigade mustered quickly in sufficient force to prevent fire spreading to other houses.
Society
The village has a Community Centre, built in 1991.
Marshfield Mummers or 'the old time paper boys' perform every Boxing Day morning. Seven figures, led by the Town Crier with his handbell, dressed in costumes made from strips of newsprint and coloured paper, perform their play several times along the high street. Beginning in the Market place after the Christmas Hymns which are led by the vicar the mummers arrive to the sound of the lone bell. The five-minute performances follow the same set and continue up to the almshouses.
Historical fair
Until 25 October 1962, two fairs were held annually in Marshfield, one on 24 March and the other on 24 October. The fairs were first held in 1266 when the Abbot of Keynsham purchased the right and this privilege was confirmed in 1462. The rights of the fair must have passed to the Lord of the Manor at some time because in more recent times they were let to a manager at a yearly rental. In about 1885 the fair was rented by Mark Fishlock from Squire Orred of Ashwicke Hall.
Outside links
 |
("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Marshfield, Gloucestershire) |