Oldbury-on-the-Hill explained

Country:England
Static Image:Nan Tows Tump 343047 8125d5cb.jpg
Static Image Width:200px
Static Image Caption:Nan Tow's Tump, Oldbury-on-the-Hill
Coordinates:51.59°N -2.26°W
Official Name:Oldbury-on-the-Hill
Civil Parish:Didmarton
Shire District:Cotswold
Shire County:Gloucestershire
Region:South West England
Constituency Westminster:The Cotswolds
Post Town:Badminton
Postcode District:GL9
Postcode Area:GL
Os Grid Reference:ST8082

Oldbury-on-the-Hill is a small village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Didmarton, in the Cotswold district, in Gloucestershire, England, ninety-three miles west of London and less than 1adj=onNaNadj=on north of the village of Didmarton.[1] In 1881 the parish had a population of 386.[2]

History

Oldbury-on-the-Hill has been inhabited since prehistoric times, and Nan Tow's Tump, a round barrow beside the A46 road, is a Bronze Age earthwork and archaeological site.[3] [4] The tree-grown barrow is about thirty metres in diameter and three metres high.[5] [6] The name refers to Nan Tow, said to have been a local witch who was buried upright in the barrow.[7] [8] [9] [10]

The parishes of Oldbury-on-the-Hill and Didmarton were together surrounded on all sides by the parish of Hawkesbury and the county boundary with Wiltshire, which is taken to suggest that they were anciently part of Hawkesbury.[11]

The Domesday Book of 1086 calls the village Aldeberie.[12] Before 1066, it was held by Eadric, Sheriff of Wiltshire, and in 1086 by Ernulf de Hesdin.[11] A document of 972 gives the name as Ealdanbyri, meaning 'old fortification'.[13] A possible derivation from the name of St Arilda has also been suggested.

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.[11]

Together with neighbouring Didmarton, the parish was subject to enclosure by the Didmarton and Oldbury-on-the-Hill Inclosure Act 1829 (10 Geo. 4. c. 4).[14] [15]

Benjamin Clarke's British Gazetteer (1852) says:[16]

According to The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868):[17]

On 25 March 1883 the civil parish was incorporated into the civil parish of Didmarton, the two having shared a Rector since 1735.[18] [19]

Parish records

Parish registers for Oldbury-on-the-Hill survive from as early as 1568, and all surviving records for the period 1568 to 1978 are deposited at the Gloucester Record Office.[20] [21] [22]

Monumental inscriptions from St Arilda's churchyard include the names Alcock, Baker, Bayliss, Chappell, Clark, Cockram, Dale, Fry, Gunter, Hatherell, Hatherle, Holborow, Holobrow, Long, Pirtt, Rice, Thompson, Toghill, Verrinder, Walker, Watts, Webb, White, and Yorke.[23]

Parish church

See main article: St Arild's Church, Oldbury-on-the-Hill. 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.[24] In 1291, the Rector of Great Badminton had a portion of 8s. and 6d. in the chapel of Oldbury.[11] The oldest part of the present medieval parish church of Oldbury is estimated to date from the 14th century.[25]

The church shares its ancient dedication to St Arilda with the church of Oldbury-on-Severn, some 20miles away. St Arilda was a Gloucestershire virgin and martyr who lived at an uncertain time before the Norman Conquest of England at Kington, near Thornbury, which is now in the parish of Oldbury-on-Severn. Her feast day is 20 July.[26]

St Arilda's at Oldbury-on-the-Hill has been declared redundant, so is no longer used for regular worship.[26]

External links

Notes and References

  1. http://abstuk.co.uk/uk/oldbury-on-the-hill Oldbury on the Hill
  2. Web site: Population statistics Oldbury on the Hill CP/AP through time. A Vision of Britain through Time. 2 December 2023.
  3. https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/343047 ST8089: Nan Tow's Tump, near to Oldbury on the Hill, Gloucestershire, Great Britain
  4. http://thecotswoldgateway.co.uk/history.htm History of the Cotswolds
  5. http://www.stonehenge-avebury.net/tours/MegSocWALK.07.StroudAreaGlosMegSites.htm NEOLITHIC-EBA EXCURSION number 7
  6. O'Neil, Helen, & and Grinsell, Leslie, Gloucestershire barrows in Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society (1960)
  7. http://www.digital-brilliance.com/hyperg/history/iron_age.htm The Cotswolds - Neolithic, Bronze and Iron Age Sites
  8. http://www.megalithic.info/article.php?sid=2069685175 Nan Tow's Tump - Round Barrow(s) in England in Gloucestershire
  9. http://www.ralphhoyte.net/poems/exeter_riddling_rhymes.html 'The Exeter Riddling Rhymes'
  10. http://www.countrycottagesonline.com/Self-catering_Country_Cottages_Holiday_Accommodation_in_Gloucestershire.htm Country Cottages Online
  11. Barrow, Julia, & Brooks, Nicholas, St Wulfstan and His World (Ashgate Publishing, 2005,) pp. 158-159 online at books.google.co.uk (accessed 13 April 2008)
  12. http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline/details-result.asp?Edoc_Id=7577470&queryType=1&resultcount=13048 Place name: Oldbury on the Hill, Gloucestershire Folio: 169r Great Domesday Book
  13. Mills, A. D., Oxford Dictionary of British Place Names (Oxford University Press, 2003,,)
  14. AN ACT for inclosing Lands in the Manors and Parishes of Didmarton and Oldbury-on-the-Hill (HMSO, 1829, 10 Geo. 4. c. 4,18pp.)
  15. http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/nra/searches/subjectView.asp?ID=O13604 Didmarton and Oldbury on the Hill enclosure
  16. Clarke, Benjamin, The British Gazetteer, Political, Commercial, Ecclesiastical, and Historical, Volume III, L-Z, (London, H. G Collins, 1852) page 333 online at books.google.co.uk (accessed 13 April 2008)
  17. Hamilton, N. E. S. (ed.), The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (London, J. S. Virtue, 1868)
  18. Didmarton: A ramble through history (Didmarton Parish Council, 2000)
  19. Web site: Tetbury Registration District. UKBMD. 2 December 2023.
  20. http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/nra/searches/subjectView.asp?ID=O123562 Oldbury-on-the-Hill parish
  21. http://www.glosgen.co.uk/oldburyonhillmar.htm Oldbury-on-the-Hill, Gloucestershire, UK, Marriages 1568-1751
  22. http://www.glosgen.co.uk/oldburydidmar.htm Oldbury-on-the-Hill, Gloucestershire, UK, Marriages 1754-1812
  23. http://www.wishful-thinking.org.uk/genuki/GLS/OldburyontheHill/MIs.html Some Memorial Inscriptions - Oldbury on the Hill, Gloucestershire, St Arilda's Churchyard
  24. [William Phillimore Watts Phillimore|Phillimore, W. P. W.]
  25. Verey, D., The Buildings of England: Gloucestershire: The Cotswolds (London, Penguin Books, 1974) p. 351
  26. http://people.bath.ac.uk/liskmj/living-spring/sourcearchive/ns5/ns5jb1.htm St Arilda of Oldbury on Severn, Gloucestershire