Sheepscombe

Sheepscombe
Gloucestershire
St John the Apostle Church, est. 1820
Location
Grid reference:	SO896113
Location:	51°47’29"N, 2°9’21"W
Data
Local Government
Council:	Stroud
Parliamentary constituency:	Stroud

Sheepscombe is a small village in Gloucestershire, some six and a half miles south-east of the City of Gloucester and six miles north-east of the Stroud. The village of Painswick is a mile and a half to the west.

Sheepscombe sits in a narrow valley, hidden behind the scarp of the Cotswolds, and just off the A46 and B4070 roads.

The first record of the village dates from around 1260, with the original name of Sebbescumbe. The name possibly comes from the names of an early settler or landowner named Ebba or Sebba. 'Combe' is the Old English cumb meaning valley, a word originally from the Old British language found in Modern Welsh as cwm. The derivation 'sheep's valley' is not impossible either. Variations of the village's name over the centuries have been: Sebbescumbe; Sciapp'scombe; Sheppescombe; Sheppiscombe; Shepescombe; Shepyscombe; Shipscombe; Shepscombe; Sheepscombe.

The parish church is St John the Apostle, a Regency period church. The village pub is the Butcher's Arms.

The Butcher's Arms

History

Since the early 17th century, Sheepscombe was involved in cloth making like many of the Cotswold towns in the area and its near neighbour Painswick. It enjoyed its industrial heyday during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, and the last mill closed in 1839. Following this, Sheepscombe suffered from increasing poverty and a falling population.

Many of the houses in the village, at the northern end, date from the late 17th and early 18th centuries.

During the early part of the 20th century, Sheepscombe was still a rural, agricultural village, but today it has become, like many Cotswold villages, an expensive and select place to live. Most of its inhabitants are of the professional middle classes, who pay considerably for the privilege of living there. Situated at the bottom of a steep valley, Sheepscombe is a relatively inaccessible village, and not easy to live in for those without a car.

Church and school

The village church, St John the Apostle, was built and opened in 1820. It was designed by John Wight, and later expanded in 1872 by Francis Niblett. It is constructed of limestone ashlar with a stone slate roof to coped gables. It is a Grade II listed building in view of its special architectural and historic interest.

A village school was opened in 1822, a modernised building opening on the same site in 1882.

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Sheepscombe)

• Sheepscombe Village
• Sheepscombe School
• The Butchers Arms
• Sheepscombe History Society
• Stroud Voices: Sheepscombe