Wotton-under-Edge
Encyclopedia
Wotton-under-Edge is a market town
Market town
Market town or market right is a legal term, originating in the medieval period, for a European settlement that has the right to host markets, distinguishing it from a village and city...

 within the Stroud district
Stroud (district)
Stroud is a local government district in Gloucestershire, England. It is named after its largest town, Stroud, and has its administrative headquarters in Ebley Mill, in the Ebley area on the outskirts of the town.thumb |left |Ebley Mill...

 of Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn, and the entire Forest of Dean....

, England. Located near the southern end of the Cotswolds
Cotswolds
The Cotswolds are a range of hills in west-central England, sometimes called the Heart of England, an area across and long. The area has been designated as the Cotswold Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty...

, the Cotswold Way
Cotswold Way
The Cotswold Way is a long-distance footpath, running along the Cotswold Edge escarpment of the Cotswold Hills in England. It was officially inaugurated as a National Trail on 24 May 2007 and several new rights of way have been created.-History:...

 long-distance footpath passes through the town. Standing on the B4058
B4058 road
The B4058 is a minor road in southwest England. It starts in Eastville, a suburb of Bristol and ends at Nailsworth in the Cotswolds, passing through the counties of Bristol, South Gloucestershire and Gloucestershire.- Route :...

 Wotton is about 5 miles (8 km) from the M5 motorway
M5 motorway
The M5 is a motorway in England. It runs from a junction with the M6 at West Bromwich near Birmingham to Exeter in Devon. Heading south-west, the M5 runs east of West Bromwich and west of Birmingham through Sandwell Valley...

. The nearest railway station is Cam and Dursley
Cam and Dursley railway station
Cam and Dursley railway station is a railway station serving the towns of Cam and Dursley in Gloucestershire. It is located on the main Bristol-Birmingham line, between Yate and Gloucester, at a site close to where Coaley Junction railway station was situated from 1856 to 1965.-The new...

, 7 miles (11.3 km) away by road, on the Bristol to Birmingham line. It is increasingly becoming a popular commuter town
Commuter town
A commuter town is an urban community that is primarily residential, from which most of the workforce commutes out to earn their livelihood. Many commuter towns act as suburbs of a nearby metropolis that workers travel to daily, and many suburbs are commuter towns...

.

History

The first record of the town is in a Anglo-Saxon
Anglo-Saxon
Anglo-Saxon may refer to:* Anglo-Saxons, a group that invaded Britain** Old English, their language** Anglo-Saxon England, their history, one of various ships* White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, an ethnicity* Anglo-Saxon economy, modern macroeconomic term...

 Royal Charter of King Edmund I
Edmund I of England
Edmund I , called the Elder, the Deed-doer, the Just, or the Magnificent, was King of England from 939 until his death. He was a son of Edward the Elder and half-brother of Athelstan. Athelstan died on 27 October 939, and Edmund succeeded him as king.-Military threats:Shortly after his...

, who in AD 940 leased four hides
Hide (unit)
The hide was originally an amount of land sufficient to support a household, but later in Anglo-Saxon England became a unit used in assessing land for liability to "geld", or land tax. The geld would be collected at a stated rate per hide...

 of land in Wudetun to Eadric. The name Wudetun means the enclosure, homestead or village (tun) in or near the wood (wude). The "Edge" refers to the limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....

 escarpment
Escarpment
An escarpment is a steep slope or long cliff that occurs from erosion or faulting and separates two relatively level areas of differing elevations.-Description and variants:...

 of the Cotswold Edge which includes the hills of Wotton Hill and Tor Hill that flank the town. "The Edge" has also become a term used by locals to describe the area.

Kingswood Abbey
Kingswood Abbey
Kingswood Abbey was a Cistercian abbey, located in the village of Kingswood near Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire, England.- History :Kingswood Abbey was founded in the year 1169 by William of Berkeley in accordance with the wishes of his uncle, Roger II of Berkeley, and colonised from the...

 was founded in 1139, but all that remains is a 16th century Cistercian gatehouse. Nearby historical buildings include the Tudor houses
Tudor style architecture
The Tudor architectural style is the final development of medieval architecture during the Tudor period and even beyond, for conservative college patrons...

 of Newark Park
Newark Park
Newark Park is a Grade I listed country house of Tudor origins located near the village of Ozleworth, Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire. The house sits in an estate of at the southern end of the Cotswold escarpment with views down the Severn Valley to the Severn Estuary...

 and Owlpen Manor
Owlpen Manor
Owlpen Manor is a Tudor Grade I listed manor house of the Mander family, situated in the village of Owlpen in the Stroud district in Gloucestershire, England. There is an associated estate set in a picturesque valley within the Cotswold Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty...

. The medieval former public house
Public house
A public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...

 The Ancient Ram Inn
The Ancient Ram Inn
The Ancient Ram Inn is a Grade II* listed building and a former pub located in Wotton-under-Edge, a market town within the Stroud district of Gloucestershire, England. It is believed to be one of the most haunted hotels in the country. This famous inn is owned by and the home to John Humphries. It...

 dates back to 1145.

St. Mary the Virgin
St. Mary the Virgin, Wotton-under-Edge
One of the oldest churches in its area, St. Mary's was consecrated on the 19 August 1283 by Bishop of Worcester, Godfrey Giffard. It is believed that most of the church as it is today was completed in 1325, some 171 years after its first recorded vicar, Gerinus, in 1154...

 was consecrated in 1283, remaining the oldest and largest church in the town.

The Katharine Lady Berkeley's Grammar School was established in 1384 and is now a comprehensive
Comprehensive school
A comprehensive school is a state school that does not select its intake on the basis of academic achievement or aptitude. This is in contrast to the selective school system, where admission is restricted on the basis of a selection criteria. The term is commonly used in relation to the United...

 named Katharine Lady Berkeley's School
Katharine Lady Berkeley's School
Katharine Lady Berkeley's School is a state comprehensive school near Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire, England, for ages 11 to 18. It was founded by Lady Berkeley for the use of six scholars in 1384 which makes it one of the oldest surviving schools in England, and the oldest state school in the...

 although the present modern building is a little outside of the town on the way to the village of Kingswood
Kingswood, Gloucestershire
Kingswood is a village and civil parish within the Stroud district of Gloucestershire, England. It is southwest of Wotton-under-Edge and has a population of 1,290....

.

Overlooking the town on the top of Wotton Hill are a collection of trees planted in the 19th century to commemorate the Battle of Waterloo
Battle of Waterloo
The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815 near Waterloo in present-day Belgium, then part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands...

. These are situated on the site that housed one of the early warning beacon
Beacon
A beacon is an intentionally conspicuous device designed to attract attention to a specific location.Beacons can also be combined with semaphoric or other indicators to provide important information, such as the status of an airport, by the colour and rotational pattern of its airport beacon, or of...

s used to warn England of the approach of the Spanish Armada
Spanish Armada
This article refers to the Battle of Gravelines, for the modern navy of Spain, see Spanish NavyThe Spanish Armada was the Spanish fleet that sailed against England under the command of the Duke of Medina Sidonia in 1588, with the intention of overthrowing Elizabeth I of England to stop English...

 in 1588.
New Mills, founded in 1810, prospered by supplying both sides in the Napoleonic wars
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...

 but after a century of decline the mill was near to closing in 1981 when it was acquired by Renishaw plc
Renishaw plc
Renishaw plc is an engineering company based in Wotton-under-Edge in Gloucestershire, England. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.-History:The Company was founded by Sir David McMurtry and John Deer in 1973...

.

The town's corporation status was abolished in 1886 following the Municipal Corporations Act of 1883

The Wotton-under-Edge BT Tower
Wotton-under-Edge BT Tower
Wotton-under-Edge BT Tower is a telecommunication tower built of reinforced concrete at Wotton-under-Edge in Gloucestershire, UK. Wotton-under-Edge BT Tower is one of the few British towers built of reinforced concrete.-See also:...

 formed part of the microwave communication network
British Telecom microwave network
The British Telecom microwave network was a network of point-to-point microwave radio links in the United Kingdom, operated at first by the General Post Office, and subsequently by its successor BT plc...

.

Facilities

In 1958, local people and school students built the town swimming pool, which was completed in 1961. Subsequently the pool has had solar and electric heating installed. In 1999 with the fund raising support of community groups, a retractable enclosure was fitted in order to prolong the swimming season.
In 2002, following the closure of the local cinema, a group of volunteers got together and raised funds for a refurbishment to become one of the first digital cinema
Digital cinema
Digital cinema refers to the use of digital technology to distribute and project motion pictures. A movie can be distributed via hard drives, optical disks or satellite and projected using a digital projector instead of a conventional film projector...

s in the UK. It re-opened in 2005 as a 100 seat modern facility inside an old stable yard, once part of the Crown Inn which closed in 1911. Films were first shown in the old Banqueting Hall of the Inn and moved to the stable yard some years later, due to the popularity of films. The Wotton Electric Picture House (the original name) is now a thriving venue

Notable people

  • Ian Alexander
    Ian Alexander
    Ian "Jocky" Alexander is a former professional footballer, who played the majority of his career at Bristol Rovers.Alexander played for Rotherham United and Motherwell, Greenock Morton, and spent a year playing in Cyprus with Pezoporikos Larnaca, before joining Rovers in 1986...

     - footballer
  • John Biddle
    John Biddle (Unitarian)
    John Biddle or Bidle was an influential English nontrinitarian, and Unitarian. He is often called "the Father of English Unitarianism".- Life :...

     - Unitarian
  • Charles Blagden
    Charles Blagden
    Sir Charles Brian Blagden FRS was a British physician and scientist. He served as a medical officer in the Army and later held the position of Secretary of the Royal Society...

     - physician
  • U. A. Fanthorpe
    U. A. Fanthorpe
    Ursula Askham Fanthorpe, CBE, FRSL was an English poet. She published as UA Fanthorpe.-Early life:She was educated in Surrey and at St Anne's College, Oxford, where she received a first-class degree in English language and literature, and subsequently taught English at Cheltenham Ladies' College...

     - poet
  • Sir Matthew Hale - Lord Chief Justice (1671–1676)
  • Matthew Blagden Hale
    Matthew Blagden Hale
    Matthew Blagden Hale was the first Bishop of Perth and then the Bishop of Brisbane.Born in Alderley, Gloucestershire, England, Matthew Hale was the son of Robert and Lady Theodosia . His maternal grandfather was The Earl of Mayo, Lord Archbishop of Tuam...

     - bishop
  • Mark Horton
    Mark Horton (archaeologist)
    Mark Chatwin Horton is a British maritime and historical archaeologist, television presenter and writer. He is the youngest of four children, the oldest being the industrialist Sir Robert Horton...

     - archaeologist
  • Catherine Johnson
    Catherine Johnson
    Catherine Johnson is a British playwright, producing works for stage and television. She is best known for her script for the musical Mamma Mia! and screenplay for the film of the same name, which became the highest grossing UK film of all time and the biggest selling UK DVD of all time in January...

     - playwright
  • Richard Knill
    Richard Knill
    Richard Knill was an English missionary.Knill, fourth child of Richard Knill, carpenter , by Mary Tucker , was born at Braunton, Devon, on 14 April 1787. In 1804 he enlisted as a soldier, but was shortly afterwards bought out by his friends...

     - missionary
  • Sir Isaac Pitman
    Isaac Pitman
    Sir Isaac Pitman , knighted in 1894, developed the most widely used system of shorthand, known now as Pitman shorthand. He first proposed this in Stenographic Soundhand in 1837. Pitman was a qualified teacher and taught at a private school he founded in Wotton-under-Edge...

     - creator of Pitman Shorthand, Pitman Place is named after him
  • Mark Porter
    Mark Porter (doctor)
    Mark Porter, MBE is a GP and medical correspondent for The Times. He also has a weekly programme on Radio 4 called Case Notes and joined The One Show on BBC One in 2011....

     - doctor
  • Sean Rigg
    Sean Rigg
    Sean Michael Rigg is an English footballer who plays for League Two side Port Vale. He can play on the wing or as a striker.Having graduated through the Bristol Academy of Sport, his professional career began at Bristol Rovers in 2006...

     - footballer
  • Thomas de Berkeley, 5th Baron Berkeley
    Thomas de Berkeley, 5th Baron Berkeley
    Thomas de Berkeley, 5th Baron Berkeley the Magnificent was an English peer born in the Berkeley Castle, Berkeley, Gloucestershire, England to Maurice de Berkeley, 4th Baron Berkeley and Elizabeth le Despencer....

    (d.1417)
  • Sir Robert Rigby - Paris Marathon finisher, record collector and quizmaster extraordinaire

Further reading

  • E.S. Lindley. Wotton under Edge: Men and Affairs of a Cotswold Wool Town. Published by Museum Press, 1962
  • Simon Herrick. Under the Hill. (1979). ISBN 0904387364

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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