EDGEWORTH
Edgeworth, an isolated rural parish lying between
the valleys of the river Frome and Holy brook, is
about six miles ENE. of Stroud. The Frome,
except that a small piece of land lies east of it at
Edgeworth mill, and Holy brook form the eastern
and western boundaries of the parish respectively,
and part of the northern boundary follows the stream
which runs along Ashcombe Bottom. The ancient
parish, which included a detached area of 15 a. in
Tunley south of the parish, comprised 1,598 a. (fn. 1) The
detached portion was probably the result of lands
held in the Tunley fields by Edgeworth tenants,
possibly those of Cirencester Abbey at Westwood; (fn. 2)
it was transferred to Sapperton parish in 1935. (fn. 3)
The account which follows refers to the whole of the
ancient parish.
The parish possibly derives its name from the
steep wooded valley of the river Frome. (fn. 4) From the
valley the land rises sharply in the east of the parish
from 450 ft. to 650 ft. and then continues to climb
more steadily to c. 775 ft. before sharply descending
to the Holy brook valley. Most of the parish lies on
the Great Oolite with exposed layers of fuller's earth
and the Inferior Oolite in the valleys. (fn. 5) The soil is
stone brash cultivated mainly as grassland in the
north of the parish and arable in the south-west part,
where one of the two open fields formerly existed. (fn. 6)
Woodland measuring 1 league by ½ league was
recorded in 1086 (fn. 7) and was evidently on the valley
slopes and at Westwood, part of which had been
assarted by the mid 13th century. (fn. 8) There were only
102 a. of woodland recorded in 1838 (fn. 9) but the
establishment of a park to the south and west of the
manor-house later in the 19th century more than
doubled the acreage of woodland in the parish.
The church, situated on the southern limb of an
ancient trackway running due east from Bisley to a
crossing of the river Frome, had been built by the
end of the 11th century. (fn. 10) The settlement around
the church includes the 17th-century manor-house (fn. 11)
but the few other buildings mostly date from a
19th-century rebuilding in the gabled Cotswold
style. One large cottage dates from the late 18th
century and was probably the farm-house of Church
farm, (fn. 12) one of the farms on the manor estate
before the park occupied that part of the parish.
The main settlement of the parish formerly lay
at the junction of the Duntisbourne road and the
road to the church, about ½ mile north-west of the
church. It included several cottages around the
junction and the small island of green there (fn. 13) but
those on the island and on the south side of the road
were removed in the 19th century presumably to
make way for the park. The removal of the cottages
and the building of 19th-century residences gave the
settlement the appearance of being strung out along
the Duntisbourne road rather than being based on
the road junction. Apart from a 17th-century barn
and a pair of cottages with attic dormers at the west
end of the village which perhaps date from the
18th century, the buildings are of the 19th century.
The cottages include the former smithy at the
junction, (fn. 14) converted to a private residence by 1971,
and further east, the Terrace, a row of three 19thcentury stone dwellings. The village is dominated
by the former rectory and the residences Edgeworth
Paddock and North Farm which were built by
the James family in the late 19th century. (fn. 15)
Edgeworth Paddock, formerly the Closes, (fn. 16) occupies
the site of the former Edgeworth Farm, and is a
large, late-19th-century gabled residence typical of
the Cotswold revival of the period. North Farm, at
the west end of the village, also occupies the site of
an earlier farm-house and is a house of similar type.
Among the out-buildings of the farm is an earlier
rubble-walled barn c. 90 ft. in length with a stoneslated roof. Edgeworth House, on the south side of
the road and east of the junction, is a mid-20thcentury residence in stone with the upper storey
faced in rough-cast. A school was built in 1872 (fn. 17) on
the road linking the village to the church, and a small
parish hall, which housed the parish library, was
built near by later in the 19th century. (fn. 18)
An outlying settlement at Westwood, 1½ mile
south-west of the village, was recorded from the
mid 13th century when it was referred to as a vill. (fn. 19)
The settlement probably contained a few habitations
until it was incorporated into the manorial estate in
the late 17th or early 18th century, (fn. 20) from which
time it degenerated to the single farm-house
recorded there in 1838. (fn. 21) Other outlying farms of the
parish are the farm at the old mill in the Frome
valley, and, further north, Valley Farm, the centre
of a small freehold estate that was sold to the lord
of the manor in 1837. (fn. 22) Valley Farm is a late-17thor early-18th-century one-storey house with dormer
windows in a stone-slated roof and a modern
two-storey north wing.
Some scattered building has taken place since
1800 along the Gloucester-Sapperton road, which
runs from north to south through the central
heights of the parish. A barn, called Field Barn in
1838, (fn. 23) was rebuilt as a house and further outbuildings added in the later 19th century. A small
house near by, Greystones, was built at the same
period, and further north are a pair of 19th-century
stone cottages which were formerly gate-houses to
the park. In the north part of the parish are
Waverley Farm, a 19th-century farm-house occupied as two cottages in 1971, and Waverley House,
a large residence built in the 1930s by Ethelbert
Wheeler, the land agent on the manor estate, (fn. 24)
who farmed in that part of the parish after the
estate was divided. (fn. 25)
Thirteen people were assessed for tax at Edgeworth in 1327. (fn. 26) There were 45 communicants
recorded in 1551, (fn. 27) and 19 households in 1563. (fn. 28)
Twenty two families were recorded in 1650 (fn. 29) and
c. 120 inhabitants in the early 18th century. (fn. 30) The
population was said to be 106 c. 1775, (fn. 31) and in 1801
there were 116 people living at Edgeworth. The
population rose during the following 20 years but
had fallen back to 116 by 1831; it then increased
sharply to 149 by 1841, staying near that figure for a
while until another decline to 124 persons in 1871.
From that date the population has fluctuated
between 124 and 157 and in 1961 129 people were
living in the parish. (fn. 32)