Weston Subedge
| Weston Subedge | |
| Gloucestershire | |
|---|---|
 St Lawrence, Weston Subedge | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SP126412 |
| Location: | 52°4’5"N, 1°49’1"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 431 (2011) |
| Post town: | Chipping Campden |
| Postcode: | GL55 |
| Dialling code: | 01386 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Cotswold |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
The Cotswolds |
Weston-sub-Edge, also known as Weston Subedge, is a village in Gloucestershire, amongst the Cotswolds. It is at the north-easternmost of the county, close to the border of Worcestershire. Just to the east is Aston Subedge.
The village sits at the foot of Dover's Hill, a hill now owned by the National Trust and named after Robert Dover who organised his 'Olimpick Games' there from 1612. The hill is a well-known beauty spot with extensive views over the surrounding countryside.
Name
The name of the village is given as 'Weston-sub-Edge' but also as 'Weston Subedge'., and there is no consistency. The original name was simply 'Weston' (and it appears as Westone in the Domesday Book.[1] The suffix 'Sub-Edge' was added to the name of the parish to distinguish this parish from many others named 'Weston, and indicates the village's position under the Cotswold Edge.
Ordnance Survey use both spellings, and it appears in the form 'Weston Subedge' in official papers.[2] However the Parish Council now uses the hyphenated version, Weston-sub-Edge.[3]
The hyphenated version appeared on all of the railway timetables when the station at Honeybourne Line was active,[4] and it may well be that this was taken from the Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales which had added hyphens to a lot of the names in the content, even for the normally unhypenated 'Burnt-Norton' and 'Chipping-Campden'.
The Royal Mail use a third version, 'Weston-Subedge', on postal addresses.[5]
History
The Romans were in Weston from the 2nd Century AD, a date based on coins and pottery found in the village.[6] A Roman road known as Ryknild Street (now called Buckle Street) forms the parish boundary with Saintbury and provided a link with Watling Street and The Fosse Way. Weston, said to have been a station for the Imperial Post, lies roughly halfway between Alcester and Slaughter Bridge, near Bourton-on-the-Water, where Ryknild joins the Fosse. There are three listed Romano-British sites in the village, including one just below the Lynches Wood. It is said that the Romans grew their vines on the clearly defined terraces there.
The village is recorded in the Domesday Book as Westone,[1]
In 1612, Robert Dover organised an annual sporting contest here inspired by the Olympic Games of ancient Greece, and which they named accordingly 'the Olimpick Games'. The games lasted until 1642, when the Puritans and the Civil War ended them, but were revived at the Restoration and lasted as an increasingly riotous country festival of games until the enclosure of the common in 1852. It is suggested that the games inspired Baron de Coubertin to found the modern Olympic Games. The Cotswold Olimpick Games were revived once again in 1966.
The hill was given to The National Trust in 1928.
Weston-sub-Edge railway station, now disused, is on the Honeybourne Line from Stratford-upon-Avon to Cheltenham Malvern Road. The station served the village between 1904 and 1960.
Sport
- The Cotswold Olimpicks held annually on Dover's Hill.
- Bowling Club, formed in 1987
The designs of the owling club's badge and ties are taken from the frontispiece to the Annalia Dubrensia, a book of poems written in praise of Robert Dover published in 1636.[7]
About the village
The Kiftsgate Stone,[8] is a stone pillar marking the meeting place of the Kiftsgate Hundred. It is a scheduled ancient monument.[9] The Stone can be seen on the boundary of Weston Park, almost 200 acres of ancient woodland, first sold from the Giffard Estate in 1610. It still remains in private hands. A boundary stone at the south end of the parish was erected in the 18th century and has been designated as a listed structure.[10]
The manor house, next to the church, was built in the late 17th century.[11]
The village has some stone houses and a public house, called the Seagrave Arms which was built in the 17th century.[12]
Parish church
The parish church, St Lawrence, was built in the 13th century. It underwent Victorian restoration by Frederick Preedy in the 1850s.[13] The lych gate was added in 1922 by Norman Jewson.
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Weston Subedge) |
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Doomsday Entry Weston Subedge". Open Domesday. http://opendomesday.org/place/SP1240/weston-subedge/. Retrieved 14 September 2015.
- ↑ "The District of Cotswold (Electoral Changes) Order 2001". The Stationery Office. http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2001/3885/pdfs/uksi_20013885_en.pdf. Retrieved 22 September 2015.
- ↑ "Parish and town councils-Weston-sub-Edge". http://www.cmis.cotswold.gov.uk/cmis5/ParishCouncils/tabid/137/FolderID/64/Weston-sub-Edge.aspx. Retrieved 15 September 2015.
- ↑ Crowder, Ian (2014). "Chronology". GWR - Gloucestershire's mainline heritage railway. http://www.gwsr.com/about-us/history/chronology.aspx. Retrieved 14 September 2015.
- ↑ "Postcode: GL55 6QH". Address Postcode Finder. http://www.addressesandpostcodes.co.uk/postcode/code/GL55_6QH/. Retrieved 15 September 2015.
- ↑ "Weston Subedge". Ancient and Historical Monuments in the County of Gloucester Iron Age and Romano-British Monuments in the Gloucestershire Cotswolds. London: HMSO. 1976. pp. 123–124. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/rchme/ancient-glos/pp123-124. Retrieved 14 September 2015.
- ↑ "Scanned copy of original book". http://luna.folger.edu/luna/servlet/detail/FOLGERCM1~6~6~20607~101810:Annalia-Dubrensia-#.
- ↑ National Monuments Record: No. 330605 – Kiftsgate Stone
- ↑ National Heritage List 1003590: Kiftsgate Stone
- ↑ National Heritage List 1342024: Boundary stone at south end of Weston- Sub Edge
- ↑ National Heritage List 1341774: Manor House
- ↑ National Heritage List 1171397: Seagrave Arms
- ↑ National Heritage List 1171337: Church of St. Lawrence
