Oldbury on the Hill
| Oldbury on the Hill | |
| Gloucestershire | |
|---|---|
 Nan Tow's Tump, Oldbury-on-the-Hill | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | ST817882 |
| Location: | 51°35’36"N, 2°15’53"W |
| Data | |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Cotswold |
Oldbury on the Hill is a small village in Gloucestershire, less than a mile north of the village of Didmarton.
History
Oldbury-on-the-Hill has been inhabited since prehistoric times, from which period is Nan Tow's Tump, a round barrow beside the A46 road; a Bronze Age earthwork and archaeological site.[1] The barrow, overgrown with trees, is about thirty yards in diameter and ten feet high.[2][3] The name 'Nan Tow's Tump' is from a local legend: Nan Tow is said to have been a local witch, who was buried upright in the barrow.[4][5][6]
The Domesday Book of 1086 calls the village Aldeberie.[7] Before 1066, it was held by Eadric, Sheriff of Wiltshire, and in 1086 by Ernulf de Hesdin.[8] A document of 972 gives the name as Ealdanbyri, meaning 'old fortification'.[9]
In 1342, the tithe of hay and other lesser tithes in Didmarton and Oldbury-on-the-Hill belonging to Badminton church were assessed at £4 13s. 4d.[8]
Together with neighbouring Didmarton, the parish was subject to enclosure in 1829.[10]
Benjamin Clarke's British Gazetteer (1852) says:
OLDBURY-ON-THE-HILL, Gloucester, a parish in the upper division of the hundd. of Grumbald's Ash, union of Tetbury: 135 miles from London (coach road 102), 6 from Tetbury, 8 from Malmesbury - Gt. West. Rail. through Bristol to Charfield, thence 3 miles: from Derby, through Birmingham to Charfield, &c. 117 miles, Money orders issued at Tetbury: London letters delivd. 9 a.m.: post closes 4 p.m. The living, a rectory with that of Didmorton, in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol, is valued at £16: pres. net income, £250: patron, Duke of Beaufort: pres. incumbent, E. J. Everard, 1840: contains 1,870 acres: 84 houses: popn. in 1841, 483: assd. propr. £2,329: poor rates in 1848, £165. 9s.
According to The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868):[11]
OLDBURY-ON-THE-HILL, a parish in the upper division of the hundred of Grumbald's Ash, county Gloucester, 5 miles S.W. of Tetbury. Chippenham is its post town. The village, which is of small extent, is situated among the Cotswold hills. The tithes have been commuted for a rent-charge of £245. The living is a rectory with the rectory of Didmarton annexed, in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol, joint value £387. The church, dedicated to St Arild or St Ariva, is a small ancient structure. There is a village school supported by the Duchess of Beaufort.
Parish church
The earliest record so far found of a church at Oldbury-on-the-Hill occurs in 1273, when there is a mention of a 'free chapel' there.[12] In 1291, the Rector of Great Badminton had a portion of 8s. and 6d. in the chapel of Oldbury.[8] The oldest part of the present mediæval parish church of Oldbury is estimated to date from the 14th century.[13]
The church shares its ancient dedication to St Arilda with the church of Oldbury-on-Severn, some twenty miles away. St Arilda was a Gloucestershire virgin and martyr who lived at an uncertain time before the Norman Conquest at Kington, near Thornbury, which is now in the parish of Oldbury-on-Severn.
St Arilda's at Oldbury-on-the-Hill has been declared redundant, so is no longer used for regular worship.
Outside links
 |
("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Oldbury on the Hill) |
- Information on Oldbury on the Hill from GENUKI
- DIDMARTON, LASBOROUGH, LEIGHTERTON, BOXWELL, OLDBURY-on-the-HILL & SADDLEWOOD page at rootsweb.ancestry.com, with photograph of St Arilda's Church, Oldbury-on-the-Hill
- Photograph of St Arilda's Church, Oldbury-on-the-Hill at wishful-thinking.org.uk
References
- ↑ History of the Cotswolds at Cotswold Gateway
- ↑ Neolithic-EBA Excursion number 7 at stonehenge-avebury.net
- ↑ O'Neil, Helen, & and Grinsell, Leslie, Gloucestershire barrows in Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society (1960)
- ↑ The Cotswolds - Neolithic, Bronze and Iron Age Sites at digital-brilliance.com (accessed 13 April 2008)
- ↑ Megalithic Portal: Nan Tow's Tump
- ↑ 'The Exeter Riddling Rhymes' at ralphhoyte.net
- ↑ Place name: Oldbury on the Hill, Gloucestershire Folio: 169r Great Domesday Book abstract at nationalarchives.gov.uk (accessed 13 April 2008)
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Barrow, Julia, & Brooks, Nicholas: 'St Wulfstan and His World' (Ashgate Publishing, 2005) ISBN 0-7546-0802-6 pp. 158-159
- ↑ Mills, A. D., Oxford Dictionary of British Place Names (Oxford University Press, 2003) ISBN 978-0-19-852758-9, ISBN 0-19-852758-6
- ↑ Didmarton and Oldbury on the Hill enclosure at National Archives
- ↑ Hamilton, N. E. S. (ed.), The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (London, J. S. Virtue, 1868)
- ↑ Phillimore, W. P. W. et al. Inquisitiones Post Mortem for Gloucestershire’’, vol. IV (British Record Society Index Library, 1903) pp. 73-74
- ↑ Verey, D.: 'The Buildings of England: Gloucestershire: The Cotswolds' (Penguin Books, 1974) p. 351