Lasborough Explained

Country:England
Coordinates:51.6464°N -2.2592°W
Static Image Name:Lasborough_church_and_manor_-_geograph.org.uk_-_300564.jpg
Static Image Caption:Lasborough church and manor
Official Name:Lasborough
Civil Parish:Westonbirt with Lasborough
Shire District:Cotswold
Shire County:Gloucestershire
Region:South West England
Constituency Westminster:Cotswold
Post Town:TETBURY
Postcode District:GL8
Postcode Area:GL

Lasborough is a settlement in Gloucestershire, England, part of the Westonbirt with Lasborough civil parish. Lasborough lies to the west of the A46, about two miles north of Leighterton, two miles south of Kingscote and five miles west of Tetbury.

Lasborough is an ancient settlement, with remains of a Roman villa nearby, and it lay on the Roman road from Bath to Chavenage Green. In 1086, the Domesday Book recorded a settlement of 13 households. However, like its sister community of Westonbirt, the village of Lasborough was largely depopulated in the Middle Ages, with only the manor house and the church surviving.[1]

The manor house, which dated from 1319, belonged to the Estcourt family from 1598. It was rebuilt about 1610 as Lasborough Manor (later Lasborough Farm), and the surrounding land enclosed, by Sir Thomas Estcourt (1569–1624). He served as a justice of the peace and a sheriff, as well as two periods as an MP, first for Malmesbury and later for Gloucestershire.[2]

Lasborough House was built in the 1790s on part of the estate of Lasborough Farm for the then owner, Edmund Estcourt, by the architect James Wyatt in a castellated neo-Gothic style.[3]

By the 1820s, the church of St. Mary's, Lasborough was derelict. It was rebuilt in 1861–2 by Lewis Vulliamy for R. S. Holford, who had purchased the Lasborough estate in 1844. The church featured in the BBC TV series Lark Rise to Candleford. It is one of the ten churches in the benefice of Badminton.[4]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Westonbirt with Lasborough. N M Herbert, R B Pugh (Editors), A P Baggs, A R J Jurica, W J Sheils . Institute of Historical Research . 1976 . A History of the County of Gloucester: Volume 11: Bisley and Longtree Hundreds .
  2. Web site: ESTCOURT, Sir Thomas. History of Parliament.
  3. Web site: Lasborough Park. Parks and Gardens.
  4. Web site: St Mary's Lasborough. Badminton Churches.