BISHOP'S CLEEVE

The large parish of Bishop's Cleeve lay north of Cheltenham, stretching from the top of the Cotswold escarpment westwards almost as far as the Gloucester-Tewkesbury road. The ancient parish, which was 8,667 a. in area (fn. 1) and compact in shape, was mostly comprised in the grant of land by King Offa of Mercia to the monastery of Cleeve between 768 and 779. The land was said to be at Timbingctun, a name which has disappeared; the name Cleeve, indicating the position beneath the escarpment, was used then of the monastery, and was later applied to the whole parish. The boundaries described in the grant excluded the north-west part of Stoke Orchard, a hamlet which was later partly in Tewkesbury hundred but wholly within Bishop's Cleeve parish, and may have included part of Charlton Abbots. (fn. 2) The prefix was added to the name Cleeve after the monastery and its property were granted in the 9th century to the Bishop of Worcester. (fn. 3) It is doubtful whether the monastery survived long after the grant.

The ancient parish, the area which is the subject of the account here printed, included the hamlets of Stoke Orchard on the west, Gotherington on the north, Woodmancote on the east, and Southam and Brockhampton on the south. Another small hamlet on the eastern edge of the parish, called Huntlowe in the Middle Ages and later Wontley, (fn. 4) had disappeared as a hamlet by the 16th century. (fn. 5) On the north-east edge of the parish the area known as Cockbury was partly in Bishop's Cleeve parish. (fn. 6) The land called Sapperton, mentioned in 969, 1046, 1086, 1166, and c. 1300, has not been identified but was clearly in Bishop's Cleeve. (fn. 7)

Bishop's Cleeve, Stoke Orchard, Gotherington, Woodmancote, and Southam and Brockhampton were separate units for poor-law purposes, (fn. 8) and they therefore became separate civil parishes in the 19th century. Minor boundary changes took place between the hamlets in 1883. In 1935 Stoke Orchard civil parish was enlarged to 2,487 a. by the addition of nearly the whole of Tredington, (fn. 9) from which it had formerly been separated by the Moor brook and a line running west and south-west from the brook to the River Swilgate. (fn. 10) In 1935 640 a. of the ancient parish, including most of Brockhampton, were transferred to Swindon, and the remaining 2,719 a. of the civil parish of Southam and Brockhampton came to be called simply Southam. The former south boundary of Brockhampton followed the stream south of Brockhampton village as far as the west boundary of Stoke Orchard. In 1953 143 a. were transferred from Woodmancote to Bishop's Cleeve civil parish, and 46 a. from Bishop's Cleeve to Woodmancote, so that Bishop's Cleeve comprised 1,490 a. and Woodmancote 886 a. Gotherington is 1,643 a. (fn. 11)

The ancient parish includes not only the uplands and escarpment of the Cotswolds but also the lowlying land in the Severn Valley. The western and central part of the parish rises gently from 100 ft. to c. 200 ft., the eastern part steeply to 1,083 ft. at Cleeve Cloud, the highest point of the Cotswold scarp. The northern boundary of the ancient parish and of Gotherington is marked by the Tirle brook and by the Moor brook. The River Swilgate marks the western limit of the ancient parish, and its tributary, the Hyde brook, forms the southern boundary. The Hyde brook was called the Tirle brook in the 8th century. (fn. 12) A common fishery at Loudlow in Stoke Orchard, on the Hyde brook, was recorded in 1276. (fn. 13) The small stream running through Southam was called the Pease stream in the 18th century, (fn. 14) when the Dean brook, the South brook of the 8th century, was called the Barnaby brook. (fn. 15) The Dean brook running into the Swilgate divides Gotherington from Bishop's Cleeve.

The flat part of the parish is on the Lower Lias, with patches of gravel and sand. The rising ground on the east side is on the successive strata of Middle and Upper Lias and Inferior Oolite. (fn. 16) The flat land was used mainly for arable farming, and most of it lay in open fields until the early 19th century. (fn. 17) On the east side of the parish Cleeve Hill provided 1,002 a. of common land on which the rights of pasturing were frequently disputed between the manors of Southam and Bishop's Cleeve. (fn. 18) By the late 19th century it was held that the common was waste of the manors of Bishop's Cleeve and Southam, and that the land-holders of those two manors and of Brockhampton and Woodmancote had rights of common. In the 1830's Cleeve Hill was used for Cheltenham Races, and throughout the 19th century it was used for training racehorses. (fn. 19) The use of the common was regulated by an Act of 1891. The Act confirmed the grazing rights, and in 1964 landowners in the parish still had those rights. It provided that the common should be reserved for the use of the people of Bishop's Cleeve, Cheltenham (for an annual payment), and the neighbourhood, for recreation, and should be managed by a committee of twelve. (fn. 20) A golf-course was laid out in 1891, (fn. 21) and the common continued to be used for training racehorses. Only one of the quarries, (fn. 22) which had long been a feature of the common, remained in use in the mid-20th century. (fn. 23) A small wood was mentioned in 1086, (fn. 24) and it is thought that some of the wood recorded as at Sudeley may have been in Southam. (fn. 25) The name Woodmancote suggests a heavily wooded area, and the south-east part of the parish contained in 1964 large areas of woodland, of which Queen's Wood, although it had been reduced in area, was the most extensive.

The number of prehistoric earthworks is a feature of the parish. Barrows or mounds were mentioned in the 8th-century definition of the boundaries of Cleeve; (fn. 26) round barrows recorded on Cleeve Hill in the 19th century were no longer visible in 1964. (fn. 27) Iron-age pottery was found at one of the quarries on Cleeve Hill in 1903. (fn. 28) An earthwork on Cleeve Hill at c. 1,000 ft. comprises two ditches and two ramparts and is presumably an Iron-Age camp. The remains of two watch-towers near the camp are thought not to be connected with it. Nottingham Hill is capped by a hill fort that is nearly rectangular and c. 250 a. in area. Cleeve Hill Ring at c. 900 ft. is an earthwork on a site with no natural defence; it has been partly levelled for the golf course. (fn. 29) There are other earthworks on Cleeve Hill of uncertain character. (fn. 30) The large stone near Cleeve Hill Camp, known as Huddlestone's Table and inscribed with that name, bears an older and illegible inscription; (fn. 31) the Huddleston family owned land in the parish in the 16th century, but their connexion with the stone is not known.

There was a monastery at Cleeve by the late 8th century, and there was apparently also a small settlement associated with it. That was the village called Timbingctun described as lying beneath the cliff called Wendlesclif and north of the stream later called the Hyde brook. (fn. 32) The site was presumably that of Bishop's Cleeve village, which was built mainly on a sandy bed in the Lower Lias (fn. 33) and developed around the parish church and the bishop's manor-house, later the rectory. The main street is Church Street, which runs from the rectory to the south side of the churchyard. A fire that damaged the village in 1445 (fn. 34) may have been followed by extensive rebuilding. Houses in Church Street of the 16th and 17th centuries are mostly timberframed with roofs of thatch or stone tiles. Houses of the same period were built in the parallel street north of the church, later called Station Road, and in School Lane, east of the church; they include Old Farm, a timber-framed house with two gabled wings. The large house called the Priory, standing close to the church, may include parts of an earlier house, but the surviving building is mainly of the 17th century. It is of rubble with a Cotswold stone roof, and has three stories, a front of three gables facing the church, and a gabled wing at the back; the wing, which gives the house an L-shaped plan, may be later than the rest. On the front the mullioned windows were replaced by sash windows in the early 19th century, when the doorway was given a pediment.

Bishop's Cleeve was, and has remained, the chief village of the parish. A higher number of people than in the other villages was recorded there both in 1327 and in 1608. (fn. 35) In 1672 Bishop's Cleeve village had 62 houses listed for hearth tax compared with 47 in the next largest village. (fn. 36) Brick and stone houses of the 18th century are evidence that building or rebuilding continued at that time, but the extent of the village did not increase significantly in any direction. The number of houses recorded in 1801 was 102, and that number increased by about half during the course of the 19th century. (fn. 37) Expansion in the 19th century and early 20th was mainly along Station Road and the road leading from Station Road towards Gotherington. Up to the Second World War the main centre of population in Bishop's Cleeve had expanded little beyond the limits of the old village. (fn. 38)

In 1939 a large factory was opened by S. Smith & Sons Ltd. on the west side of the road to Cheltenham just within the boundary of Southam hamlet. The factory, making watches and instruments for aircraft, expanded during the war and afterwards, and in 1964 employed c. 3,750 people. (fn. 39) After the war the company bought several farms in the area, and with the rural district council set up a joint housing scheme to provide houses partly for council tenants but mainly for people employed at Smith's factory. The Cleeve estate, a large group of brick houses, mostly semi-detached but varying in design, was built on the south side of Bishop's Cleeve village. About 500 houses had been built by 1964, when building was still in progress. The estate includes a shopping centre, a public house, and a chapel. An independent body, called the Cleeve Housing Association, was set up to manage the letting of the houses.

Apart from the Cleeve estate, about 40 council houses were built on the north-east side of the village after the Second World War, and in the 1950's another estate of c. 100 houses was built north of Station Road, partly to house people who had been living in temporary buildings in Stoke Orchard. (fn. 40) In the 1960's the main feature in the extension of the village was the building of private, mostly semidetached, brick bungalows and houses. About 200 such houses had been built by 1964, mainly on the north and east sides of the village. A few larger detached houses had been or were being built in 1964. Several old buildings, including some timberframed cottages in Church Street, had been taken down and new shops were built in reconstituted stone. About 1960 an old people's home was opened, housing c. 50 people.

Gotherington had some form of settlement by 1086, (fn. 41) and it has been suggested (fn. 42) that the moated site at Moat Farm was an early settlement beside an ancient trackway running west from Nottingham Hill. In the 15th century the settlement was divided between Upper and Lower Gotherington. (fn. 43) It seems likely that Lower Gotherington was by Moat Farm, near the centre of gravity of the modern village, and Upper Gotherington was by Manor Farm. (fn. 44) In modern times Manor Farm has stood isolated a short way east of the village, on a part of the supposed trackway called Green Lane; (fn. 45) near the house, however, are numerous mounds and depressions suggesting the sites of buildings. Upper Gotherington may be represented also by the group of older houses towards Manor Farm at the east end of the village, including Brickhouse Farm, a large brick house of c. 1700. In modern times most of Gotherington village has been grouped along the village street near Moat Farm and along the winding Shutter Lane that runs south from the village street. Moat Farm, within the moat which in 1964 was barely discernable, (fn. 46) and Moat House standing opposite were built in the Cotswold tradition in the 17th century or early 18th. One of the oldest surviving houses, called Ashmead in 1964, stands at the west end of the village and is reputed to have been occupied by members of a single family since 1648. It is two-storied, partly rubble and partly timberframed, with a Cotswold stone roof. The windows have mullions and dripmoulds and the chimneys have moulded stone capitals. A few timber-framed cottages with thatched or stone-tiled roofs survive from the 16th and 17th centuries, of which at least one retains its wattle-and-daub panels. Many of the older buildings are in Shutter Lane, and among them is White's Farm, a timber-framed house of the early or mid-17th century with gabled dormers. The later houses of the 18th and 19th centuries are of brick or stone, mostly with Cotswold stone roofs.

Gotherington seems to have been the second largest village in the parish. (fn. 47) The 23 houses recorded in 1672 did not include the ones exempted from hearth tax, (fn. 48) and in the early 18th century there were said to be 50 houses in Gotherington. (fn. 49) In 1768 the houses were grouped along the village street, particularly between the points where the roads from Bishop's Cleeve and Woolstone joined the street, and towards Manor Farm. (fn. 50) During the 19th century and early 20th the number of houses increased by about a quarter. (fn. 51) The new houses, mostly of brick, were built among the older houses of the village and beside the road to Bishop's Cleeve near the site of the pound. (fn. 52) Six council houses were built on the road to Woolstone before the Second World War. In the fifties and early sixties the number of houses was further increased by about half: (fn. 53) the new houses up to 1964 were all privately built, some of them larger detached houses in brick or reconstituted stone, others in attached pairs. Most of them lay east of the road to Bishop's Cleeve, where there were also some shops, and a few west of the road to Woolstone. A mile to the west of the village, Gotherington Field Farm (formerly Tithe Farm) was built between 1808 and 1824. (fn. 54)

The settlement of Woodmancote lies on the slope of the escarpment east of Bishop's Cleeve village. The name, which occurs c. 1260, (fn. 55) suggests a single dwelling in wooded country; by 1299, however, the Bishop of Worcester had a number of tenants there. (fn. 56) Woodmancote grew to be a straggling village stretching for a mile along the road from Bishop's Cleeve village to Cleeve Hill. The older houses comprise two groups. At the lower, western end of the village, around a green which was marked in 1964 by a small triangle of grass, a few timberframed cottages and a small rubble house with a pigeon-loft were built in the 16th and 17th centuries. (fn. 57) Most of the cottages were taken down in the mid-20th century. Further east stand three stone farm-houses of the 17th century, including Manor Hall Farm; (fn. 58) beyond them, where the ground begins to rise steeply, the former mill building (fn. 59) may mark the one-time limit of the village. The name Bishop's Combe, which occurred in 1299, (fn. 60) was apparently applied to the fold of the hillside in which Woodmancote lies; it survives in Bushcombe Lane, which runs north of Woodmancote village, between Bishop's Cleeve and Nottingham Hill.

In 1672 Woodmancote had 47 houses, the second highest number recorded in the parish, (fn. 61) but in the early 18th century there were said to be only 20. (fn. 62) The number of houses began to increase significantly in the mid-19th century, (fn. 63) partly because of building along Cleeve Hill Road within the boundaries of Woodmancote hamlet. Large houses of brick were built there throughout the later 19th century. The village also grew eastward from the old settlement along the bifurcated road that rises steeply to join the Cleeve Hill road. In the 20th century Woodmancote also grew north-westward along Station Road towards Bishop's Cleeve. (fn. 64) After the Second World War the number of houses in Woodmancote more than doubled. The new houses were mainly between Bishop's Cleeve village and the green and to the south-west of Manor Hall Farm, with some shops by the green; they were of brick or reconstituted stone, some in small groups of attached pairs and some larger detached houses. By 1961 Woodmancote was much the largest of the villages in the parish after Bishop's Cleeve itself.

Beckford and Bishop's Cleeve area, 1964

Southam, which was so called by c. 991, probably originated as an offshoot of Bishop's Cleeve, its name indicating its position south of the main settlement. (fn. 65) The village, built on gravel (fn. 66) at the foot of the escarpment and between two streams that run into the Swilgate, was for long, apparently, a small one though prosperous, as its comparatively high tax-assessment in 1327 suggests. (fn. 67) The road running diagonally up Cleeve Hill formed the main village street. The smaller houses concentrated where lanes led off from each side of the road; further south was Southam House, and a lane leading west from the road passed the manor-house, (fn. 68) the chapel of ease, and two farm-houses. This lay-out, with the main road passing west of Southam House, was recorded in the late 16th century. (fn. 69) In the 1790's the diversion of the main road along the south and east of Southam House (fn. 70) changed the plan of the village; the old road became disused, the new road south of the village was straightened in the mid-19th century, and the kink in the new road where it passes the village was itself by-passed in the 1960's.

The manor-house has parts that may survive from the 14th century, and Southam House was begun in the early 16th. (fn. 71) Other cottages and farm-houses, both timber-framed and of rubble, were built in the 16th and 17th centuries. In the early 18th century Southam was said to have 25 houses (fn. 72) and the number was about the same in the early 19th century. (fn. 73) The extent of the village had changed little by the late 19th century; (fn. 74) during the 20th century, and particularly after the Second World War, new houses, both detached and in pairs, were built in and around the village in such numbers as to obscure the shape and character of the village. Meanwhile, a major change in the nature of settlement had followed the building in the later 19th century of houses along the road up Cleeve Hill, partly in Woodmancote but mainly in Southam hamlet. Several of the houses are large with large gardens, including Adderstone, by the Rising Sun Inn, with its embattled folly behind; others are small and modest. In the earlier 20th century some of the larger houses became private hotels, and by 1964 there were several restaurants along the road.

Outlying parts of Southam hamlet also include Haymes, Brockhampton, Wontley, and part of Cockbury. There was probably a house at Haymes, west of the Cleeve Hill road, from the 13th century. (fn. 75) Although Haymes was sometimes called a hamlet, it does not seem ever to have been more than a single farmstead. (fn. 76) Brockhampton, 2 miles west of Southam village, was connected tenurially with Southam. (fn. 77) The name, indicating its position between two streams, was in use in the early 13th century. (fn. 78) Brockhampton has never contained more than a few houses. The older buildings include a 17th-century farm-house of Cotswold stone, an early 18th-century brick farm-house, and two small timber-framed and thatched houses. A few small houses were built after the Second World War. At Wontley, or Huntlowe, eight of the Bishop of Worcester's tenants were recorded in 1299. (fn. 79) Five taxpayers were enumerated in Wontley and Cockbury in 1327. (fn. 80) Wontley was presumably deserted or nearly so by 1487 when the former open field had become demesne pasture. (fn. 81) Wontley Farm was built by 1824, (fn. 82) and was derelict in 1964. Cockbury was mainly in Winchcombe parish; the part in Bishop's Cleeve parish and Southam hamlet included Stony Cockbury, where the farm-house later called Cockbury Court was built in the 16th or early 17th century.

Stoke Orchard, in the extreme west of the parish, was one of the earlier settlements there, though the name Stoke implies a secondary settlement and the plural form used of it in 1086 is thought to suggest that it was used of the various buildings of an outlying farm. (fn. 83) The affix Archer, recalling the form of serjeanty by which one of the two manors at Stoke was held, had been added by the 13th century (fn. 84) and modified to Orchard by 1498. (fn. 85) The village, lying between the Dean brook and the Swilgate near where those streams meet, is nearly 3 miles west from Bishop's Cleeve village and therefore the most distant of the principal hamlets. Although Stoke Orchard comprised two distinct manors in two separate hundreds, the village developed as a single settlement, even though a straggling one. The width of the road at the west end suggests that there was once a green there. (fn. 86) On the south side of the road some old houses of timber-framing or stone survive, and others there were removed in the mid-20th century. In 1751 houses stretched along the road east towards Bishop's Cleeve, (fn. 87) but few of the surviving houses there in 1964 were earlier than the 19th century. A 17th-century timber-framed cottage survived in Dean Lane, running north east from the road to Bishop's Cleeve. The road to Tredington ran from the east end of the village until the early 19th century; between 1811 and 1828 it was moved to the west, to come into the village where the green appears to have been. (fn. 88)

In 1672 Stoke Orchard had 23 houses, (fn. 89) and there were c. 20 houses in the early 18th century. (fn. 90) During the 19th century Stoke Orchard village did not expand, and the number of houses declined towards the end of the century. (fn. 91) After the Second World War Stoke Orchard was not affected by the overflow from Cheltenham to the same extent as the other villages of the parish, and it was the only one which did not undergo a rapid expansion in the fifties and sixties. A growth in population immediately after the war resulted from the large number of people living in temporary dwellings; those dwellings lay in two groups, to the north-east of the village, and in the south-east corner of the area of the hamlet, on land known as the Park where there was an airfield during the war. In the fifties both groups of buildings were removed. (fn. 92) Some council houses were built in Stoke Orchard after the Second World War, on the north side of the road to Bishop's Cleeve and in Dean Lane. A few private houses were built in the village and on the road to Hardwicke. The general appearance of the village was changed by the location there, after the war, of the National Coal Board's Coal Research Establishment and of a depot of Tate & Lyle Transport Ltd.

In all, 94 people were enumerated in Cleeve in 1086. (fn. 93) That the population was more numerous in the 16th century is suggested by the figures of c. 580 communicants in 1551 (fn. 94) and 119 households in 1563. (fn. 95) There were said to be 520 communicants in 1603, (fn. 96) and in 1608 237 adult males were listed. (fn. 97) The population perhaps increased during the 17th century: there were said to be c. 200 families in 1650 (fn. 98) and 786 adults in 1676. (fn. 99) Estimates of the population of the parish at 580–600 in the 18th century (fn. 100) appear too low; c. 1775 the population was said to be 1,252. (fn. 101) In the first half of the 19th century the population increased steadily, from 1,360 in 1801 to 2,117 in 1851. In the second half it fell away and had increased only slightly by 1931. In the next 20 years the population more than doubled, to 4,547 in 1951, and by 1961 had increased again to 6,535. (fn. 102)

An ancient track running along the foot of the escarpment through Southam and Woodmancote is thought to have linked the moated site at Gotherington with Ermine Street, and two lanes running west from that track — Green Lane at Gotherington and Southam Lane (formerly Kayte Gate Lane) at Southam — may be of equal antiquity. (fn. 103) In later times two main routes have passed through the parish. The Cheltenham-Winchcombe road was perhaps the road called the King's Way, passing through Southam, in 1338. (fn. 104) The road was a turnpike from 1792 to 1874; (fn. 105) the subsequent diversion of its course from the west to the east side of Southam House (fn. 106) was followed by a number of alterations, up to the mid-20th century, to straighten out other bends. The Cheltenham-Evesham road through Bishop's Cleeve village and Southam was turnpiked in 1809. (fn. 107) In 1810 a turnpike road was authorized along a new, direct route between Bishop's Cleeve and Cheltenham, and the road from Bishop's Cleeve to Southam along New Cross Lane and Southam Lane, ceased to be a turnpike in 1824. (fn. 108) The main road through Bishop's Cleeve village was disturnpiked north of the village in 1877 and south of it in 1880. (fn. 109) A bridge carrying the Winchcombe road across the Hyde brook at the southern boundary of Southam may have been the Loudlow Bridge said in 1378 to be repairable by Cleeve township (fn. 110) and recorded as in Southam in 1581 (fn. 111) and the Ludman Bridge recorded in 1749. (fn. 112) Another Loudlow Bridge south of Stoke Orchard was said in 1378 to have been built 40 years earlier where there had formerly been a ford; (fn. 113) it carried the minor road, which fell out of use in modern times, between Stoke Orchard and Uckington. The bridge on the road leading west from Stoke Orchard was recorded as West Bridge in 1509. (fn. 114) In 1599 the road from Stoke Orchard to Bishop's Cleeve, later called Stoke Road, was described as the King's Way. (fn. 115) Among the minor roads of the parish Haymes Lane was recorded in 1413 (fn. 116) and Bottomley Lane and Conduit Lane, near Haymes, c. 1731. (fn. 117) Bottomley Lane to the south and Bushcombe Lane to the north run roughly parallel to the road through Woodmancote village up the steep hillside.

The Midland Railway's line from Gloucester to Birmingham through the west of the parish was opened in 1840; Cleeve station, midway between Stoke Orchard and Bishop's Cleeve village, was opened apparently the same year as the line and closed to passengers in 1950 and wholly in 1960. The Great Western Railway's line from Cheltenham to Honeybourne was opened in 1906, with stations at Bishop's Cleeve and Gotherington, close to the villages. Gotherington station was closed to passengers in 1955, and Bishop's Cleeve in 1960. (fn. 118) An electric tramway from Cheltenham up Cleeve Hill was completed in 1901 and was in use until the thirties. (fn. 119)

A main water supply was provided for Bishop's Cleeve village by the Winchcombe Rural District before 1930; private supplies and wells and springs in Gotherington, Southam, Brockhampton, Woodmancote, and Stoke Orchard, were replaced between 1930 (fn. 120) and 1942 by main supplies. In the thirties Cheltenham Corporation provided electricity for all the villages except Stoke Orchard and Brockhampton, which did not have main electricity until after the Second World War. Bishop's Cleeve and Cleeve Hill had a sewage disposal system before 1942, and one was built at Southam between 1940 and 1942. (fn. 121)

In 1596 and 1597 an unlicensed alehouse was kept in Bishop's Cleeve, (fn. 122) and in 1682 an alehouse was suppressed. (fn. 123) In 1755 there was an inn called the Cleeve Inn, an alehouse at Gotherington, and three other inns apparently in Bishop's Cleeve village. (fn. 124) An inn called the 'Farmers' Arms' was opened by 1833 in Gotherington (fn. 125) on the road to Evesham. Stoke Orchard had an inn in 1839, but it had closed by 1891. (fn. 126) The inn in Bishop's Cleeve called the 'Crown and Anchor' in 1842 (fn. 127) was probably the one later called the 'Crown and Harp', on the road from Cheltenham. By 1891 Bishop's Cleeve hamlet had four more public houses; three of them were in Church Street, and two of the three were 16th- or 17th-century timber-framed houses. The first of several hotels on Cleeve Hill had been opened by 1891, (fn. 128) and a second by 1919. (fn. 129) Gotherington had three public houses in 1891, two of which remained open in 1964, and Woodmancote had two, of which the 'Apple Tree', (fn. 130) an 18th-century stone house opposite Manor Hall Farm, remained open in 1964. One of the larger houses in the parish, formerly Cleeve House, on the Evesham road, was a country club and hotel in 1964. The 'Old Elm Tree' in Church Street was closed in 1960 and became a youth centre. (fn. 131)

A friendly society which met at the 'Farmers' Arms' began in 1833 and was dissolved in 1855. (fn. 132) A branch of the British Legion was formed in 1950 for Woodmancote, Southam, and Cleeve Hill. (fn. 133)

A convalescent home for the poor was opened in 1893 in Cleeve Hill; it was supported by voluntary subscription and provided beds for 8 men and 12 women. It was enlarged in 1908, (fn. 134) and by 1923 had become a private convalescent home belonging to Courtaulds Ltd. (fn. 135)

In the late 19th century the tithe barn belonging to the rectory began to be used as a church hall. The barn, standing opposite the rectory at the west end of the village, is of stone with a stone tiled roof; it was built in the 15th century, and was a simple building, c. 130 ft. long, with a gabled entrance in the middle of the west side. In the late 19th century the part south of the entrance was taken down, reducing the barn by nearly half its length. The side walls have buttresses and narrow windows. The 15th-century roof has arched collars and curved wind-braces. The Church Commissioners sold the barn to the parish council c. 1952 for a village hall. The alterations were completed by 1956, and included the insertion of an upper floor for an assembly room and the division of the lower story into a number of meeting rooms and offices. Larger windows were inserted, but the main structure was preserved. The hall was widely used for meetings and entertainments. In 1964 it also housed a branch of the country library, but a new library building was then being built in the village. (fn. 136)

The former Methodist chapel in School Road, Bishop's Cleeve, was used by the Women's Institute in 1964. A children's recreation ground was provided by the parish council. (fn. 137)

In Gotherington a former meeting-room was converted into a village hall and enlarged in the early 1960's. In 1964 the parish council was in process of laying out playing fields and a tennis court. (fn. 138) In Woodmancote in the early 20th century a converted cottage was used as a working men's club, called the Woodmancote and Bishop's Cleeve Institute. (fn. 139) It had closed by 1964.

For a parish of its size and population Bishop's Cleeve has had comparatively few associations with names and events of national renown. Landowners and rectors of more than local reputation are mentioned below. As a residence of the medieval bishops of Worcester Bishop's Cleeve was the scene of three miraculous cures attributed to St. Wulfstan in the late 11th century. (fn. 140) In 1643 part of the parliamentary army on the way to relieve the siege of Gloucester passed through Southam. (fn. 141) In 1788 George III, during his stay at Cheltenham, paid a visit to Southam. (fn. 142)

Manors and Other Estates.

Between 768 and 779 King Offa of Mercia and Aldred, underking of the Hwicce, granted land in Cleeve to the monastic church of St. Michael there. (fn. 143) Evidently by 888 the monastery's estates had been appropriated to the bishopric of Worcester, (fn. 144) and in 1066 and 1086 the Bishop of Worcester held the manor of CLEEVE and its members. (fn. 145) The manor, usually distinguished as BISHOP'S CLEEVE, was held in demesne in 1208 and 1303; (fn. 146) in 1255 the bishop was granted free warren there. (fn. 147) By the 15th century the manor was usually let at farm. (fn. 148)

In 1561 the Crown granted the Bishop of Worcester various impropriated benefices in exchange for Bishop's Cleeve and other manors. (fn. 149) The manor was granted by the Crown in 1604 to Peter Vanlore and William Blake, (fn. 150) who in 1606 sold it to Giles Broadway, (fn. 151) who in turn sold it in 1624 to Giles Bridges (fn. 152) (d. 1637). Charles Bridges, a younger son of Giles, (fn. 153) had the manor in 1659. (fn. 154) Charles's son, John Bridges, sold the manor in 1730 to Charles Parsons, whose daughter, Merey, and her husband, Thomas Hayward, sold it in 1735 to Sir William Strachan. (fn. 155) Strachan's son, Sir William, baronet of Nova Scotia, sold the manor in 1773 to John Thornloe and William Lely. (fn. 156) John Thornloe's daughter Margaret married Joseph Cocks, and their daughter married William Russell, who was thus the owner in 1807. (fn. 157) By 1862 Sir John Somerset Pakington, Bt. (later Lord Hampton), had acquired the manor, (fn. 158) and in 1870 the manorial rights were held by Pakington and W. C. Smith. Pakington's rights had passed to John Lovegrove by 1879 and to Mrs. Lovegrove by 1885; there was apparently no longer any land attached to the manor, (fn. 159) and the manorial rights seem to have lapsed.

The bishops of Worcester had a residence at Bishop's Cleeve in the Middle Ages; (fn. 160) the manorhouse later became the rectory and is described below. (fn. 161) When the manor was granted in 1604 it had another house, with a dovecot and an adjoining close called the court house. (fn. 162) It was probably no more than a small farm-house, and was occupied by lessees in the 17th and 18th centuries. (fn. 163) In the 20th century a small 19th-century house in Station Road was thought to be connected with the manor, (fn. 164) but it is not known why.

About 1166 and in 1299 Bishop's Cleeve manor included Wontley. (fn. 165) The lord of WONTLEY manor was mentioned, not by name, in 1581, (fn. 166) but no evidence has been found of a true manor either then or later.

What became the manor of GOTHERINGTON was part of the land in Cleeve that King Offa granted to the church of Cleeve, (fn. 167) and in 1086 the Bishop of Worcester had 6 hides in Gotherington held of him by Thurstan son of Rolf. (fn. 168) Gotherington was evidently held c. 1100 by Winebaud de Ballon, and in 1208 was held of the bishop by James of Newmarch as ½ knight's fee; (fn. 169) soon afterwards it passed to Robert Bigod, who granted it to the Abbot of Tewkesbury. (fn. 170) In 1221 Robert's brother Richard claimed Gotherington against the abbot, (fn. 171) but it remained in the possession of Tewkesbury Abbey. (fn. 172) In 1299 Hugh Bigod held the 6 hides in Gotherington as the under-tenant of the abbot, who held of the Bishop of Worcester. (fn. 173) Tewkesbury Abbey was said c. 1401 to hold 1 hide in Gotherington of the bishop, (fn. 174) and in 1535 the Abbot of Tewkesbury paid a small rent to the bishop for land described as once Bigod's. (fn. 175) In 1310 the abbot's land in Gotherington was held by Aumary de St. Amand as undertenant, (fn. 176) and in 1535 the estate, described as the manor of Gotherington, was held from the abbey at farm. (fn. 177)

The Crown granted Gotherington manor in 1557 to Anne, late wife of Sir Adrian Fortescue and then wife of Thomas Parry. (fn. 178) It descended to her son, Sir John Fortescue (d. 1607), and then to Sir John's son, Francis. (fn. 179) Although Sir Francis Fortescue settled the manor in 1618 on his son John, in 1621 he sold it to Elizabeth, Lady Craven, and her son William. (fn. 180) Gotherington then descended, with the other Craven estates, in the Craven family, passing from Henry Augustus Berkeley Craven (d. 1836) to his nephew, William, Earl of Craven (d. 1866), (fn. 181) who in 1853 sold it to James Hutchinson. Hutchinson's grandson sold the estate in 1895. No manorial rights were then mentioned, (fn. 182) and the estate was apparently dispersed by the sale.

Aumary de St. Amand's estate in 1310 included a chief house. (fn. 183) In 1653 a house described as Gotherington Manor was occupied by a tenant, (fn. 184) and it was probably the same house that in 1895, when it was called Manor Farm, was described as 'an old-fashioned stone and tiled farm-house'. (fn. 185) Manor Farm, a short way east of the village, is a rubble house of two stories with attics under a Cotswold stone roof. It has a front wing of c. 1700 with wood-mullioned and transomed windows and hipped dormers; a wing at the back containing stonemullioned windows with hoodmoulds is apparently of the 17th century. The buildings include a stone dovecot on sloping ground with buttresses at the lower angles, a gabled roof, and a small cupola.

It has been suggested that Southam was part of the grant by Offa to the church of Cleeve and passed with Cleeve to the Bishop of Worcester, (fn. 186) and also that the 'Sutham' in which St. Oswald, Archbishop of York and Bishop of Worcester, granted land to his brother Athelstan, was Southam in Bishop's Cleeve. (fn. 187) In 1086 Durand of Gloucester held 6 hides in Southam as part of the Bishop of Worcester's manor of Cleeve. Southam, including the 4 hides in Sapperton which Durand also held, (fn. 188) passed with other lands held by Durand to Miles, Earl of Hereford (d. 1143), son of Walter of Gloucester, son of Durand's elder brother, Roger de Pîtres. Miles's four sons died childless, and after 1165 Southam was divided between two of his three sons-in-law, Humphrey de Bohun, husband of Margaret and ancestor of the Earls of Hereford, and Herbert FitzHerbert, husband of Lucy. (fn. 189)

The Bohuns' manor of SOUTHAM descended with the earldom of Hereford; (fn. 190) the earls held it of the Bishop of Worcester and owed suit at Cleeve court. (fn. 191) It was forfeited to the Crown some time before 1265, but in that year it was restored to Humphrey de Bohun, and it passed to his grandson, another Humphrey, (fn. 192) and thence to his heirs. (fn. 193) In 1346 Oliver de Bohun was said to hold the ½ knight's fee in Southam which the Earl of Hereford once held, (fn. 194) but Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford (d. 1361), held Southam manor at his death. (fn. 195) Although Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford (d. 1373), made an unlicensed exchange of Southam, (fn. 196) after his death his wife Joan held a knight's fee there of the Bishop of Worcester. (fn. 197) The manor later passed to the Crown through Humphrey's daughter and coheir, Mary, wife of Henry IV. (fn. 198)

In 1422 Henry VI assigned the manor to his mother as part of her dower. (fn. 199) Successive lessees had possession during the 15th and 16th centuries. (fn. 200) The Crown granted the manor to Peter Vanlore and William Blake in 1604, (fn. 201) but in 1607 granted it to Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury. (fn. 202) In 1609 the earl sold Southam manor to Richard de la Bere (d. 1636), who already owned Southam House and other property in Southam. (fn. 203) Richard's heir was his father's nephew, Kynard de la Bere. (fn. 204) Kynard's son Kynard died in 1656, and the manor passed to his son John, and then to John's son Kynard (d. 1734). Kynard was succeeded by William Baghot, the son of his sister Anne and her husband William (d. 1724). The younger William assumed the additional surname of de la Bere and died in 1764. (fn. 205) His son Thomas Baghot-De la Bere (d. 1821) was succeeded by his two sisters, Grace Webb and Sarah BaghotDe la Bere, (fn. 206) and they in 1829 by their cousin Thomas Edwards, (fn. 207) who sold the estate in 1833 to Edward Law, Earl of Ellenborough. (fn. 208) At Lord Ellenborough's death in 1871 the estate was settled on Edward Richmond (d. 1891), and from him passed to the wife of Col. Edward Noblett. (fn. 209) Although the estate was sold and dispersed in 1922, (fn. 210) Mrs. Noblett held the nominal lordship of the manor at her death c. 1958, and it afterwards passed to Mrs. Costa and to Mrs. Costa's executors. (fn. 211)

A manor-house of Southam manor, including farm buildings and a dovecot, was leased with the demesne land in the 15th century. (fn. 212) In the late 15th century or early 16th the lessee, Thomas Goodman, allowed the house to fall into disrepair and removed stones from it to build Southam House. (fn. 213) The old house, west of the village on the north side of Southam Lane, (fn. 214) was the one later called Pigeon House Farm, and afterwards the Pigeon House. That house incorporates parts of a medieval stone building, which was probably L-shaped, comprising a hall with a two-story solar wing at its south end projecting towards the east. At the junction are two original pointed doorways and a newel stair of solid wooden treads. There are various other medieval openings, which may not be in their original positions. To the west of the hall a taller and partly timber-framed two-story wing of two bays was added c. 1600. It has a massive stone chimney at its east end. Service additions were made at the north end of the house in the 18th century. In 1924 the house was drastically altered and restored by T. E. Whitaker, who added a new south porch. Near the house is a large barn of 7 bays, its trusses consisting of raised base crucks supporting arch-braced collars. The roof has double purlins and two tiers of curved wind-braces. The base walls and the gable-ends are of stone. A lean-to at the east end incorporates two pointed stone doorways, a small 14th-century window, and a stone chute, all of which may have been brought from elsewhere. In 1964 the barn was restored, for social uses, by the owner of the house, Mr. E. M. Eager, with the help of a grant from the Historic Buildings Council. (fn. 215)

Thomas Goodman, the Crown's lessee of Southam manor, (fn. 216) also had a freehold estate in Southam in the late 15th century. (fn. 217) He is thought to have begun building Southam House c. 1500, (fn. 218) but the house was completed by Sir John Huddleston, who is usually said to have been its builder and died in 1547. Either Huddleston or his father, also John (d. 1513), steward of Sudeley Castle, bought Goodman's estate, which descended to the second John's daughter, Eleanor, later wife of Kynard de la Bere. Their son was the Richard de la Bere (d. 1636) (fn. 219) who in 1609 had bought Southam manor. Southam House afterwards descended with the manor, (fn. 220) and was the residence of the de la Beres and of Lord Ellenborough. (fn. 221) After Lord Ellenborough's death it was usually occupied by lessees; (fn. 222) in 1947 it became a girls' private boarding and day school, called the Oriel School. (fn. 223)

The oldest parts of Southam House were built in the early 16th century. The buildings enclose a small rectangular courtyard and are mostly of stone, but some of the walls facing on the courtyard are built of close-studded timber-framing. The great hall forms the western side of the house; it was formerly an open hall, lit by two tall windows of four lights with Tudor arched heads, and at least one of the arch-braced roof-trusses survives in an upper room. The entrance in the early 18th century and in the 1790's was through a two-story porch, but the later entrance at the north end of the hall, giving access to a passage beneath a gallery, may represent the original arrangement. In the early 18th century what appears to have been a free-standing kitchen survived immediately north of the hall. Across the south end of the hall is a gabled solar wing with a two-story oriel window. The wing running south from the solar wing and the cross-wing at its southern end may have been built in the later 17th century rather than as part of the original house. The oak panelling in the lower rooms there and in the solar wing is of the later 17th century, as is also the massive staircase in the angle between the solar wing and the hall. To the same period the ceiling of the great hall is perhaps attributable. There appears to have been little change to the house during the 18th century, but after his return from India in 1844 Lord Ellenborough began a ruthless remodelling of the house that included building a supposedly Indian tower on the north side and a massive keep with Norman detail on the east. Nevertheless, a large part of the early 16th-century house survives. (fn. 224)

The second and smaller part of the estate of Miles, Earl of Hereford, having passed to Herbert FitzHerbert, the husband of Miles's daughter Lucy, (fn. 225) was held by Lucy as a widow in 1208. (fn. 226) Both then and throughout the Middle Ages the Bishop of Worcester's overlordship of the FitzHerbert fee was recorded. From Herbert's son Peter (fn. 227) the estate passed to Reynold son of Peter, who died in 1286 as lord of the manor of SOUTHAM, (fn. 228) otherwise called FEEHERBERTS COURT. (fn. 229) Reynold's son and heir John was succeeded by his son Herbert, who settled the manor on his younger son, Reynold, with the consent of his elder son, Matthew; Matthew nevertheless tried to gain possession of the manor after Reynold's death (fn. 230) in 1348. Reynold's heirs were his two infant daughters, Margaret and Elizabeth, (fn. 231) and it may have been through one of them that the manor passed to Thomas Foxcote, who granted it to William Stokes, John Elree, and Robert Taylor. When Stokes died in 1427 Elree was already dead and Stokes's heir was his son John. (fn. 232) By 1500 Thomas Dinely held Southam manor, and at his death in 1502 left as his heir his daughter Elizabeth, then a minor. (fn. 233) In 1517 the manor was granted to George Barrett and his wife, the same Elizabeth. (fn. 234) Elizabeth later married Sir John Baker, Chancellor of the Exchequer, who was dealing with the manor in 1528, and again in 1546 in association with Edward Barrett. (fn. 235) Sir John died in 1558, having devised the manor to his younger son John. (fn. 236) The younger John died in 1606 holding both Southam manor and the manors of Stoke Orchard in Tewkesbury hundred and of Uckington. (fn. 237) The manor thereafter passed through the same ownership as Uckington to Richard Rogers (d. 1757), (fn. 238) who was succeeded at Southam and Stoke Orchard by his elder son, the Revd. Richard Rogers. The last died in 1780 and was succeeded by his three daughters, Anne, who married the Revd. Charles Coxwell, Hester (d. 1848, unmarried), and Mary (d. 1819, unmarried). (fn. 239) Southam appears to have been assigned as Anne's share, for in 1833 Coxwell sold it to Lord Ellenborough, (fn. 240) who already owned the other part of Southam. Thereafter the two parts descended together.

The FitzHerbert manor in 1286 included a chief house with farm buildings and a garden, (fn. 241) and in 1631 there was a manor-house with a dovecot. (fn. 242) It was presumably the house standing on the north side of Southam Lane that was later called Manor Farm and was marked as Baker's house on a late 16th-century map. (fn. 243) The house has the date 1631 and the initials F.B. and A.B., and the whole house is apparently of the same period. It is L-shaped, of two stories with attics. The front is of stone ashlar with a Cotswold stone roof and two gables. There is a continuous dripmould at first-floor level, and the chimney stacks have moulded stone capitals. The north wing and the north side of the main block are timber-framed with decorative quadrant struts in the panels. All the rooms have original stone fireplaces, and there are contemporary panelled doors and an oak staircase with heavy balusters.

The land which later formed the hamlet of Brockhampton was included in Offa's grant to the church of Cleeve; (fn. 244) Brockhampton, not mentioned by name in 1086, was among the Bishop of Worcester's estates in 1299 (fn. 245) and up to the mid-14th century. (fn. 246) In 1208 the estates of the Earl of Hereford and Lucy FitzHerbert in Southam included land in Brockhampton, (fn. 247) and the greater part of the hamlet appears to have belonged to the FitzHerbert manor of Southam. A supposed manor of BROCKHAMPTON was in 1534 conveyed by Thomas Littleton to John Dinely and others; (fn. 248) Dinely may have been related to Thomas Dinely, lord of the FitzHerbert manor of Southam. That manor included land in Brockhampton in the 17th and 18th centuries, and was sometimes called the manor of Southam and Brockhampton. (fn. 249) About 70 a. in Brockhampton were given to Magdalen College, Oxford, in the late 15th century. The college sold the estate, which in 1842 was 73 a., in 1874. (fn. 250)

Part of Stoke Orchard appears to have been included in the grant to the church of Cleeve by Offa, (fn. 251) and in the 10th century St. Oswald, Bishop of Worcester, gave 6 hides in Stoke to his thegn Eadmar. (fn. 252) In 1086 the bishop's manor of Cleeve included 7 hides in Stoke that were held by Bernard and Raynald, who withheld the service due for their land. (fn. 253) In 1208 the bishop's estate in Stoke was held of him by the king, and John Archer held it of the king by the serjeanty of providing a bowman. (fn. 254) The estate thus came to be called the manor of STOKE ARCHER, (fn. 255) later modified to STOKE ORCHARD. In 1280 the bishop first claimed that Nicholas Archer held the manor of him and then admitted that Nicholas held of the king in chief. (fn. 256) In 1284 Nicholas held the manor in chief, (fn. 257) and he died in 1309 leaving as his heir his son Edmund. (fn. 258) Edmund was succeeded in 1314 by his son Geoffrey, (fn. 259) who at his death in 1350 was said to have half the manor of Stoke Orchard. Geoffrey's daughter and heir Joan married Sir Thomas Berkeley of Coberley, (fn. 260) and in 1365, after her husband's death, she had the issues of the whole manor. (fn. 261) Joan married secondly William of Whittington, and after her death in 1369 the manor passed to her son, Thomas Berkeley of Coberley. (fn. 262) On Thomas's death in 1405 his heirs were his two daughters, Margaret, wife of Nicholas Matson, and Alice, wife of Thomas Bridges. (fn. 263) Nicholas survived his wife and died in 1435, when her half of the manor passed to their son Robert. (fn. 264) Robert died in 1458, and his heir was Giles Bridges, son of Thomas and Alice, (fn. 265) who already had Alice's share of the manor. Giles died in 1467, and the manor passed to his son Thomas, (fn. 266) whose son Sir Giles (fn. 267) held the manor jointly with his wife, Isabel, and died before her in 1511. Sir Giles's son John, (fn. 268) created Lord Chandos (d. 1557), was followed in turn by his son Edmund, Lord Chandos (fn. 269) (d. 1572), and by Edmund's son Giles, Lord Chandos. (fn. 270) That Giles died in 1594, and his heirs were his two daughters Elizabeth, wife of Sir John Kennedy, and Katherine, wife of Francis Russell, Earl of Bedford. (fn. 271) In 1612 John Kennedy and others sold the manor to Richard Baker, (fn. 272) who already owned the manor in Tewkesbury hundred that comprised the other part of Stoke Orchard.

The part of Stoke in Tewkesbury hundred belonged to that hundred because it was subject to the great thegn Brictric, from whom Hermer and Alwin held 2¾ hides in Stoke in 1066. In 1086 Bernard held the land as part of the king's manor of Tewkesbury, (fn. 273) with which the lordship descended. (fn. 274) In 1220 the Earl of Gloucester had 3 plough-teams in Stoke, (fn. 275) and the manor of STOKE ORCHARD or DOWNING (fn. 276) remained one of the demesne manors of his successors. (fn. 277) In 1487 Anne, Countess of Warwick, granted it to the Crown, (fn. 278) and in 1546 the Crown granted it to John Hall. (fn. 279) Hall died in 1548 leaving as heir his son Francis, a minor, (fn. 280) who in 1561 sold the manor to John Baker (fn. 281) (d. 1606), lord of the FitzHerbert manor in Southam. (fn. 282) After Richard Baker, John's son, had bought the Bridges family's manor of Stoke Orchard in 1612, (fn. 283) both manors of Stoke Orchard, which were usually treated as a single manor but sometimes distinguished as Downing and Stoke Orchard, (fn. 284) passed, with Southam manor, through the same ownership as Uckington manor until 1757, belonging in turn to the Baynings and Rogerses. (fn. 285) Like Southam, Stoke Orchard passed to the Revd. Richard Rogers (d. 1780) and then to his three daughters; (fn. 286) in 1822, while two of them were still living, Edward Rogers Coxwell Rogers, the son of the daughter Anne by her husband Charles Coxwell, owned Stoke Orchard. (fn. 287) On his death in 1843 the estate passed to his brother Richard Rogers Coxwell, (fn. 288) who from 1850 used the surname Coxwell Rogers and died in 1895. (fn. 289) Although the estate was for sale in 1887, (fn. 290) in 1897 it was still held by the trustees of Richard Rogers Coxwell Rogers. By 1919 it had been bought by T. E. Whitaker who still owned part of it in 1935, (fn. 291) but it was later broken up and sold. The estate offered for sale in 1887 included the manor of Stoke Orchard or Downing, but it is unlikely that any manorial rights survived after inclosure in 1840.

The two manors of Stoke Orchard in the Middle Ages had each a chief house, (fn. 292) and in 1631 two houses were described as manor-houses, one called Downing Farm, and the other simply the manorhouse. (fn. 293) Later only Downing Farm, known as Manor Farm in 1964, was called a manor-house. It stands outside Stoke Orchard village on the road to Tredington; it retains some timber-framed walls, two massive stone chimney-stacks, a high rubble plinth, and some stone-mullioned windows, but has been largely rebuilt in brick. In 1825 it was described as a good brick farm-house with a slate roof. (fn. 294) A brick barn has a stone inscribed 'R. R. Coxwell 1844'. The house and 155 a. were bought in 1920 by G. H. Groves, whose son, Mr. H. K. Groves, was the owner in 1964. (fn. 295) The location or identity of the other manor-house is not known.

Although Woodmancote was evidently included in Offa's grant, (fn. 296) it was not mentioned by name as part of Cleeve manor in 1086. (fn. 297) In 1299, however, the Bishop of Worcester had land there, (fn. 298) and it seems likely that Woodmancote formed part of Bishop's Cleeve manor. (fn. 299) In 1608 Peter Vanlore was said to be lord of WOODMANCOTE. (fn. 300) In 1657 a chief house and land in Woodmancote were conveyed by Richard Shewell to Charles Cocks of Bishop's Cleeve, who settled them on his son Thomas Cocks in 1667. Thomas died in 1682 and his estate passed to his brothers John and Peter. John Cocks died in 1729 and the estate passed to his son James (d. 1782), then to James's nephew Thomas Hyett (d. 1792), (fn. 301) and then to Walter Lawrence of Sevenhampton. (fn. 302) In 1842 the estate was owned by Lawrence Walter Lawrence, (fn. 303) and the Lawrence family continued to own it until c. 1920 when it was bought by T. J. Organ, whose family had been the lessees from the mid-19th century. Organ's son, Mr. T. G. Organ, was the owner in 1964. (fn. 304)

Although it is unlikely that there was ever a manor of Woodmancote, the farm-house associated with the estate became known as Manor House, (fn. 305) or Manor Hall, Farm. It is a large rubble farm-house, built c. 1600 with alterations in the mid-17th century, of two stories with attics and a Cotswold stone roof, and two gables with verges and ball finials. It is L-shaped on plan, with a small staircase wing in the angle, and contains a panelled room of c. 1665. Some of the stone-mullioned windows have arched lights, and there is one medieval window, apparently re-used, with three narrow cusped lights. A partly timber-framed outbuilding incorporates a dovecot.

The rectory estate, comprising 85 a. in 1589, was sometimes referred to as a manor. (fn. 306)

The estate called HAYMES took its name from a family recorded in connexion with Southam in the late 13th century. (fn. 307) In 1362 Richard Hayme died holding a small estate in Woodmancote of the Earl of Hereford by service of 1/10 knight's fee. His heir was his daughter Joan, (fn. 308) who claimed possession of her inheritance on coming of age in 1375. (fn. 309) In 1393 Joan, widow of Richard Hayme, had lands in Gloucestershire, but where they lay was not stated. (fn. 310) Three yardlands in the parish, held of the Bishop of Worcester c. 1401, had once been held by Odo of Dumbleton and earlier by Adam Hayme. (fn. 311) In 1500 John Loringe died holding the estate called Haymes as of the king's manor of Southam. The land, mainly in Southam hamlet, had apparently been held by John's father Thomas, and passed to his son, another John. (fn. 312) In 1578 William Loringe died holding Haymes, and his son Thomas (fn. 313) likewise in 1631. Thomas's son Thomas died between 1645 and 1650, and his son Thomas (fn. 314) in 1675 settled lands in Cleeve, Southam, and Woodmancote. Thomas was killed at Cirencester in 1688 in support of James II, (fn. 315) and in 1689 his son Charles Loringe sold Haymes to Thomas Gooding. In 1707 Gooding settled Haymes on William Strachan on his marriage with Margaret, Gooding's daughter, (fn. 316) and the estate then descended until the 19th century with Bishop's Cleeve manor. (fn. 317) In 1964 the owner of Haymes was Mr. P. R. B. Deakin.

By the 16th century the Loringe family's estates included the house called Haymes, standing between Southam and Woodmancote, below the Cleeve Hill road. (fn. 318) Haymes is a square house rebuilt in the mid18th century, of red brick with a stone parapet and dressings, and a hipped roof of Cotswold stone. The house was enlarged in the 20th century.

It may have been the part of Cockbury in Bishop's Cleeve that in 1492 was held by Edward, Viscount Lisle, at his death, and in 1504 by his son, John, Viscount Lisle. In 1492 the estate, of 100 a., was said to be held of the Abbot of Hailes, but in 1504 of the Earl of Warwick. (fn. 319) The owner of Stoke Orchard manor in 1771 held an estate called Cockbury, mainly in Winchcombe, but including c. 20 a. in Woodmancote, (fn. 320) and it was still owned with Stoke Orchard manor in 1867. (fn. 321) A farm-house called Stony Cockbury, probably built in the 16th or early 17th century, is a two-storied house in the Cotswold tradition. It was later much enlarged and called Cockbury Court.

Walter of Gloucester gave part of the tithes of Southam to the church of St. Owen, Gloucester, (fn. 322) which was soon afterwards given to Llanthony Priory, and in 1199 the canons of Llanthony had confirmation of a grant of land in Southam from Margaret de Bohun. (fn. 323) In 1539 the priory's land in Southam was part of its manor of Prestbury. (fn. 324) The tithes were granted in 1563 to Edward Darbyshire and John Beer, who conveyed them in the same year to Edward Walwyn. Walwyn's grandson John, son of Edmund Walwyn, owned them at his death in 1628. John's brother and heir William sold them in 1630–1 to John Ellis, whose son Guy was the owner in 1668. (fn. 325) Another John Ellis sold them to Kynard de la Bere, the owner of Southam manor, in 1723. (fn. 326) The tithes of Southam and Brockhampton, said to belong to Thomas Edwards, were commuted for a corn-rent in 1842. (fn. 327)

The priory of Pinley (Warws.) held a house and land in Gotherington of the Bishop of Worcester in 1299; (fn. 328) the ownership of the estate has not been traced later than 1536. (fn. 329) Rent in Woodmancote was granted to St. Bartholomew's Hospital, Gloucester, in the 13th century, (fn. 330) but no later evidence of it has been found. A house and land in Woodmancote held in chief in 1436 by Joan, late wife of Edmund Toky, whose heir was her grandson Thomas Toky, (fn. 331) and tenements and land there held in 1604 by William Bannister of the Dean and Chapter of Westminster (fn. 332) have not been traced at other dates.

Economic History.

The parish was predominantly pastoral and agricultural until the 20th century.

Agriculture. The whole of the Bishop of Worcester's manor of Cleeve comprised 30 hides in 1086. The demesne estate had 3 ploughs, with 8 servi, and directly connected with it were 16 villani and 35 bordars having 16 ploughs between them, and the estates of the priest and a radknight, each of 1 hide with 2 ploughs. The estates of the bishop's under-tenants in the outlying hamlets amounted to 23 hides — 7 at Stoke Orchard, 6 each at Southam and Gotherington, and 4 at Sapperton — and of those the 16 hides at Southam, Gotherington and Sapperton supported 8 demesne ploughs and 13 peasants' ploughs shared among 22 villani and 7 bordars. (fn. 333) The figures suggest the possibility that each villanus had half a plough-land and each bordar a quarter. The part of Stoke Orchard in Tewkesbury hundred amounted to 2¾ hides and included a demesne estate with 1 plough. Like the bishop's manor, the estate had fallen in value since 1066. (fn. 334)

The bishop's demesne estate had grown larger by the late 13th century: in 1291 it comprised 4 plough-lands, (fn. 335) and in 1299 it included 390 a. of arable, 53 a. of meadow, 40½ a. of several pasture, and a wood. (fn. 336) In the late 12th century 13 bordars worked on the demesne one day each week, and two at harvest time, and in addition to 6 ploughmen working on Mondays there were 2 woodwards, a pigman, and a shepherd. (fn. 337) In 1299 there were 4 ploughs and 36 oxen on the demesne, and 4 ploughmen in 1303. About 64 a. were ploughed by labourservice in 1299, (fn. 338) and ploughing services were exacted in 1372, when some works were remitted. In 1372 65 a. were sown with wheat, 99 a. with pulse, and 6 a. with oats. (fn. 339) The number of demesne sheep increased at the end of the 13th century from 700 to 1,000. (fn. 340) In the 14th or 15th century Wontley field became a demesne pasture. (fn. 341)

The demesne of the FitzHerberts' manor of Southam was 113 a. in 1286; it had 8 oxen and was ploughed by labour-service. (fn. 342) The other manor of Southam had 6 oxen in 1486, when 48 a. were sown with barley and 24 a. with wheat. (fn. 343) Some customary works were still being done on the demesne in 1581. (fn. 344) The Archer manor of Stoke Orchard had 240 a. in demesne in 1309. (fn. 345) The manor of Stoke Orchard in Tewkesbury hundred was said to be one plough-land in 1307 (fn. 346) and two in 1314; (fn. 347) in 1349 it was 120 a. (fn. 348) Ploughing and harrowing there were done by labour-service in 1307. (fn. 349) The demesne of Gotherington manor amounted to two plough-lands in 1291 and 1310. (fn. 350)

Part of the demesne of Bishop's Cleeve manor was leased in 1372, (fn. 351) and by 1437 a lessee had apparently the whole demesne. (fn. 352) The demesne of the Bohuns' manor of Southam was leased by the late 15th century, (fn. 353) that of the Tewkesbury hundred manor of Stoke Orchard by 1487, (fn. 354) and that of Gotherington by 1535. (fn. 355)

The number of lesser freeholds appears to have grown in the later 12th century, and during the 13th century it continued to grow, partly through the enfranchisement of land formerly held in villeinage, and partly through the fragmentation of holdings. Of 38 tenants of land in Cleeve, Woodmancote, and Gotherington in 1299, 16 held fractions of a former single holding. Three tenants held freely what had been villein land. Two further free tenants were recorded in 1299 in Gotherington, and 17 in Southam, Woodmancote, and Brockhampton; 5 small estates in Gotherington and Brockhampton were probably freehold. (fn. 356) The Tewkesbury hundred manor of Stoke Orchard had 5 free tenants in 1307, (fn. 357) and half of the Archer manor had 6 free tenants in 1350. (fn. 358) There may have been a decrease in the number of free holdings in the bishop's manor during the 15th century: in 1437 and 1486 10 were mentioned. (fn. 359) A rent-roll of the time of Edward IV records 8 free tenants in Cleeve, 3 in Woodmancote, and 7 in Gotherington, but it is apparently not complete. (fn. 360)

Most of the freeholds in 1299 were small, some of only a few acres, but the largest was of one hide. (fn. 361) In the 15th century the largest freeholds were in Gotherington, where there were two of a hide each; the largest in Woodmancote was 3 yardlands, and in Cleeve 1 yardland. (fn. 362)

In the early 12th century ½ hide in Gotherington was held by the service of a radknight, though by 1166 it formed part of an estate held as a knight's fee, and c. 1182 an estate in Woodmancote was held for the same service. Two other free tenants at that time owed the service of carrying the bishop's messages and protecting the bishop's men going to the king's army. About 1299 the larger freehold estates were held for various services of a similar nature, some of which had been commuted. Tenants of smaller freeholds owed bedrips and ploughing services. (fn. 363) Bedrips and ploughing were still owed by some free tenants in the 15th century, (fn. 364) but all other services seem to have been commuted. Heriots and relief were paid by some free tenants of Bishop's Cleeve manor in the 15th century. (fn. 365)

About 1182, 17 people were recorded in Bishop's Cleeve holding customary estates; the tenants of a few other small estates were probably also customary tenants, and there were in addition 13 bordars. At the same date there were 15 customary tenants in Woodmancote, and 6 people holding land in Wontley were presumably customary tenants. (fn. 366) In 1286 9½ yardlands in the FitzHerbert manor of Southam were customary, and there were also two mondaymen with land. (fn. 367) The number of customary tenants recorded in 1299 was 32 in Bishop's Cleeve, 29 in Woodmancote, and 8 in Wontley; in addition, several cottars and bondmen were not enumerated. (fn. 368) The Tewkesbury hundred manor of Stoke Orchard had 9 customary tenants in the early 14th century, (fn. 369) and the Archer manor had 6 in 1350. (fn. 370) There may have been an increase in the number of tenants in Bishop's Cleeve in the 14th century, for 55 were recorded in 1372, (fn. 371) but this may have included Woodmancote also. In the later 15th century Bishop's Cleeve and Woodmancote had respectively 22 and 23 customary tenants. (fn. 372) Customary tenants in the Crown's manor of Southam in 1486 held 8²/3 yardlands, three tofts, and two cottages. (fn. 373) Five of the tenants in Bishop's Cleeve c. 1182 held ½ yardland, and of the others, whose estates were not specified, 4 were cottars. In Woodmancote at the same time there were 9 yardlanders, 1 half-yardlander, and 5 with only a few acres each. (fn. 374) At the end of the 13th century there were 6 yardlanders, 11 half-yardlanders, and 15 cottars in Bishop's Cleeve. Customary estates were smaller in Woodmancote where there were 14 cottars, and 15 mondaymen with 3 a. each. The 8 customars of Wontley had ½ yardland each. (fn. 375) In Stoke Orchard in 1307 there were 1 yardlander, 1 cottar, and 7 tenants with 6 a. each. (fn. 376) In 1372 more than half the customary holdings in Bishop's Cleeve were 6 a., and the rest were a yardland, ½ yardland, or a mondayman's holding of, apparently, 3 a. (fn. 377) In the late 15th century 6 a. was still the most common unit of the customary holdings in Bishop's Cleeve and Woodmancote, and only a small proportion of tenants had a yardland or ½ yardland. Several tenants of 6 a. had also small amounts of land called forelet land. (fn. 378)

About 1182 most of the customary tenants owed both labour-services and rent. (fn. 379) The tenants of Southam manor in 1286 owed 5 days' work every week, and extra work for sowing the demesne. (fn. 380) The yardlanders c. 1299 owed weekly labourservices, bedrips, ploughing service called grassearth, and special services such as cutting and carrying faggots and brewing at the lord's visits. When all the services were performed 8s. rent was remitted. The half-yardlanders owed half the service. The cottars in Bishop's Cleeve seem to have owed as much service as the yardlanders, but only 3s. of their rent was remitted. Those in Woodmancote owed slightly fewer services. The mondaymen were remitted 12d. rent when they did full services; and if they acted as reapers, woodwards, or gardeners they paid no rent or service. The services and rents of two tenants who acted as beadle and smith were remitted. All other tenants owed rents as well as services, and could not brew, sell animals, or marry their children without licence. It was said c. 1299 that there were other cottars, whose lands were not recorded, who owed only one bedrip, and bond tenants who owed two days' lifting hay. (fn. 381) The yardlander in Stoke Orchard in 1307 owed 138 days' work each year, and the other tenants in proportion to the size of their estates; all owed rent in kind. (fn. 382) The tenants of Bishop's Cleeve owed works in 1372; by the late 15th century most, though not all, of the works had been remitted. (fn. 383) Customary tenants paid heriots, except apparently for forelet land, and widows had freebench. (fn. 384)

There were at least two fields in Bishop's Cleeve c. 1182, and the arable land in the parish was increasing at that time as assarted land was absorbed into the existing fields. (fn. 385) To some extent the hamlets of Bishop's Cleeve, Southam, Woodmancote, and Brockhampton shared the same open fields. (fn. 386) In the 13th century there were three fields that belonged to Southam and Woodmancote jointly. (fn. 387) At inclosure in 1847 it was said that the boundaries between those hamlets were uncertain, (fn. 388) and the lands of the tenants of the several manors apparently lay scattered in the fields of the four hamlets. By the 16th century Southam and Woodmancote had a three-course rotation of wheat, barley, and fallow. Two fields, Homefield and Middlefield, belonged to both hamlets and each had apparently its own third field, Westfield in Southam and Wickmore field in Woodmancote. (fn. 389) One of the Southam manors, however, included land in four other fields. (fn. 390) About 1600 the landholders of Woodmancote agreed to divide their fields into four, (fn. 391) and there was a four-course rotation there in 1795. (fn. 392) The tenants of Southam agreed c. 1701 to an exchange of land to consolidate estates; (fn. 393) some inclosure may have resulted, but the open fields remained and in 1731 a three-course rotation was still followed. (fn. 394) Brockhampton seems to have shared the open fields of Southam, though the field called Brockhampton field may have belonged exclusively to that hamlet. (fn. 395) The inclosure of Wontley field, which enabled the field to be converted to demesne pasture and reflected the end of the small agricultural settlement there, had been effected by 1487. (fn. 396) Bishop's Cleeve manor included land in at least five open fields in the 18th century: Austen field and Horsecast field lay west of the village, Dean field, and Cleeve field north-west, and Newers field east of the village. Three of those fields belonged to Southam also. (fn. 397) A single award of 1847 effected the inclosure of the fields of the four hamlets of Bishop's Cleeve, Southam, Brockhampton, and Woodmancote. (fn. 398)

Gotherington and Stoke Orchard had each its own set of open fields. The fields of Gotherington were mentioned in the 13th century. (fn. 399) Six fields were recorded by name in the 16th century and 9 in 1768, though the names may represent furlongs rather than fields. (fn. 400) The fields were bounded by hedges or fences in the 17th century. (fn. 401) Only two fields were mentioned at inclosure in 1808, Dean field south-west of the village and Clayhill field on the north-west. (fn. 402) In Stoke Orchard in 1337 twofifths of the demesne arable lay fallow; (fn. 403) there were 4 fields in 1631 and 6 in 1751. Elmend and Furzen fields north of the village were 126 a. and 123 a. respectively, Balladine or Banady field, on the east, was 84 a., and Loudlow field on the south-east was 103 a. (fn. 404) By 1631 a part of Loudlow field had been inclosed to give the rector a piece of land in place of tithes. (fn. 405) In the early 19th century a four-course rotation was followed, and included a fallow. (fn. 406)

In all the hamlets the fields were divided into furlongs; (fn. 407) within the furlongs the lands or selions were usually c. ¼ a. in Stoke Orchard, and c. ½ a. in at least one of the fields of Southam. (fn. 408) In Southam in the 18th century merestones divided the selions from each other. (fn. 409)

The largest area of common pasture in the parish was Cleeve Hill, which was used by the tenants of Bishop's Cleeve, Southam, and Woodmancote. (fn. 410) In the 16th century the landholders of those hamlets were allowed to pasture two sheep for each acre that they had lying fallow. (fn. 411) The tenants of Southam also had common of pasture in Wontley. (fn. 412) The fallow fields in most of the hamlets were also used for pasturing sheep: in Stoke Orchard in the early 17th century the stint was 4 sheep to 20 lands; in Southam the sheep in the open fields were not stinted until the mid-18th century. (fn. 413) The tenants of Gotherington had 20 a. of common pasture on Hernhill, pasture for sheep on Nottingham Hill, and 40 a. called the Furzen as pasture for all beasts. (fn. 414) In the 16th century the tenants of Gotherington had a high proportion of sheep and other beasts, and some tenants could keep any number. (fn. 415) In both Gotherington and Woodmancote there were closes of land that were common at certain times. (fn. 416) Apart from common pasture there was several pasture beside the Tirle brook in Gotherington and in leys in the fields of Gotherington and Stoke Orchard. Up to a third of the open field land of Stoke Orchard was permanent grass-land in 1631. (fn. 417)

Two small meadows, one in Stoke Orchard, were mentioned in 1086, (fn. 418) but the parish does not seem to have ever had a large area of meadow. In 1545 there was lot meadow for Bishop's Cleeve hamlet called Broadmead and Cleeve meadow. (fn. 419) Gotherington also had lot meadow in Broadmead, and three other meadows. (fn. 420) Stoke Orchard had lot meadow in Stoke Moor, in the south-west corner of the hamlet, and elsewhere. (fn. 421) In the 14th century 40 a. of the demesne arable of the Stoke Orchard manor in Tewkesbury hundred was common meadow when fallow. (fn. 422) Southam had six meadows in 1631. (fn. 423)

In addition to the usual crops, minor placenames in the parish suggest the growing in the Middle Ages of hemp, flax, and vines, (fn. 424) and many estates later included orchards. (fn. 425) Tobacco was grown in the parish in the 1630's. (fn. 426) In 1803 it was said that about half the parish was meadow and pasture. (fn. 427) In 1839, however, Stoke Orchard had 708 a. of arable and 567 a. of meadow and pasture; in 1842 the remainder of the parish had 2,946 a. of arable and 1,473 a. of meadow and pasture. (fn. 428)

In the 16th century Gotherington, Southam, and Stoke Orchard continued to contain a small number of freeholds and a larger number of copyhold or customary tenements. In Gotherington manor there were 3 freeholders and 22 customary tenants in 1540, (fn. 429) and in 1557 4 free tenants, 8 tenants at will, and 21 customary tenants. (fn. 430) The Crown's manor of Southam in 1581 had 5 free tenants and 12 customary tenants. (fn. 431) The manor of Stoke Orchard in Tewkesbury hundred in 1584 had 11 customary tenants and one leaseholder. (fn. 432) No evidence has been found of the tenures of the other manors at this period, but in 1608 Bishop's Cleeve hamlet had 7 yeomen and 23 husbandmen. (fn. 433) In the 17th century the number of copyholds declined. In Stoke Orchard and Downing manors in 1631, when there were 11 tenants of former demesne land and 3 tenants at will, there were only 7 copyholders. The smaller manor of Southam in 1631 had 2 tenants of former demesne and 8 customary tenants. (fn. 434) At the same time there were 6 tenants on the Haymes estate in Southam. (fn. 435) The number of copyholders in Gotherington had decreased to 14 by 1652, when there were also seven leaseholders. (fn. 436) By the early 18th century leasehold was the most common form of tenure in Stoke Orchard, while Southam still had a majority of copyholders. (fn. 437)

In Southam in 1581 free tenants had large estates, and in Stoke Orchard the tenants of the demesne held between 50 a. and 100 a. each. (fn. 438) Copyholds in Southam, Stoke Orchard, and Gotherington were usually one or two yardlands, with some of only a few acres. The yardland was c. 32 a. in the Crown's manor of Southam in 1581, and c. 23 a. in the other hamlets. (fn. 439) The tenants of former demesne in Stoke Orchard owed relief and heriots; they held for three lives or 99 years. (fn. 440) The copyholders in Bishop's Cleeve, Gotherington, Stoke Orchard, and Southam paid as heriots usually the best beast, (fn. 441) though by the late 17th century cash was paid in Gotherington. (fn. 442) Some of the copyholders in Southam owed labourservices in 1581. (fn. 443) Copyholds in Bishop's Cleeve were for one life, but preference was given to a relation of the deceased tenant; (fn. 444) in the other manors copyholds were usually for one, two, or three lives. (fn. 445) Widows had freebench. Customary tenants were not allowed to sub-let without licence. (fn. 446)

Copyhold tenure persisted in the parish during the 18th century and early 19th, (fn. 447) but most of the larger holdings were leasehold or freehold.

By 1751 Stoke Orchard comprised four large farms, ranging from 141 a. to 386 a., and a few small holdings. (fn. 448) Gotherington in 1768 included one farm of 272 a., three over 100 a., and 19 small holdings. (fn. 449) Most of the land in Stoke Orchard was concentrated in three farms of over 300 a. each in 1822; (fn. 450) in 1839 two farms were over 300 a., one was 222 a., and three others were over 100 a. (fn. 451) The rest of the parish in 1842 included two estates of over 300 a., two over 200 a., 10 over 100 a., and 7 between 50 a. and 100 a., in addition to a large number of small holdings. (fn. 452)

The open fields of Gotherington were inclosed in 1808. The greater part of the land allotted went to H.A.B. Craven, who received 633 a., and the rector's allotment was 286 a. Of 38 other allotments the two largest were between 50 a. and 100 a., and 13 people received allotments of a few perches for their rights of common. (fn. 453) The open fields of Stoke Orchard, together with Stoke Moor, were inclosed in 1840. Only five people received allotments: Edward Coxwell Rogers received 616 a., one landowner received 59 a., and the others only a few acres each. (fn. 454) The fields of Bishop's Cleeve, Southam, Brockhampton, and Woodmancote were inclosed by a single inclosure award in 1847. The Earl of Ellenborough received an allotment of 247 a. for his land in Southam, and the rector one of 209 a. Three other landowners received allotments of more than 100 a., four received between 50 a. and 100 a., and 10 between 10 a. and 50 a.; and 111 had smaller allotments. (fn. 455)

In the later 19th century Stoke Orchard had four large farms of 395 a., 313 a., 287 a., and 162 a. respectively. (fn. 456) The number of farms there rose to 7 in the early 20th century, and in 1919 two were of over 150 a. In the rest of the ancient parish 43 farms were recorded in 1870, of which 15 were in Gotherington, and in 1935 there were 9 farms of over 150 a. (fn. 457) In 1964 there were some 20 substantial farms in the whole parish (including 4 in Stoke Orchard) and a number of smaller holdings.

In 1901 the greater part of the parish was meadow and pasture: 5,098 a. compared with 1,939 a. of arable. (fn. 458) In 1935 also the parish was largely permanent grass-land, with small areas of arable, particularly in Stoke Orchard and Southam, and orchards near the villages. (fn. 459) In 1964 farming was mixed, and comprised cereals, dairying, beef-cattle, and sheep in fairly even proportions.

Mills. A mill in Bishop's Cleeve was mentioned in 1086. (fn. 460) In 1299 the Bishop of Worcester's manor contained a watermill and a windmill, both held at farm, (fn. 461) but in the late 15th century they were said to be worth nothing. (fn. 462) The windmill may have been the one in Southam, which gave its name to one of the open fields. (fn. 463) It was disused by 1884 although the buildings were still standing. (fn. 464) In 1959 a millstone marked the site of the mill to the north of Southam village. (fn. 465) A house on the south side of Church Street in Bishop's Cleeve village was called the Old Mill in 1964, though no evidence has been found of an ancient mill on the site. Next to the house is the agricultural feed mill of W. J. Oldacre Ltd.: it started as a steam mill in 1885, was destroyed by fire in 1931 and rebuilt, and in 1964 was electrically powered and electronically controlled, employing a staff of c. 40. (fn. 466)

In Gotherington the Abbot of Tewkesbury's estate included a mill in 1291; (fn. 467) a miller was recorded there in 1413 and 1514, (fn. 468) but no later reference to a mill there has been found. A cornmill and a fulling mill recorded in 1649 (fn. 469) may have been in Woodmancote, where there were two mills in 1842. Both stood east of the village and south of the road to Cleeve Hill, and the higher one was called Upper Mill. (fn. 470) By 1964 they had long been disused.

In Stoke Orchard the Earl of Gloucester's manor had a water-mill, described as an old one in 1314; (fn. 471) a millward was among the taxpayers of Stoke Orchard in 1327. (fn. 472) In the 18th century the mill was part of the manor of Stoke Orchard and Downing, (fn. 473) and in 1839 it belonged to Richard Hone, a member of the family to which the manor was leased. (fn. 474) A steam engine was put in the mill shortly before 1841, and in that year Richard Hone died from being caught in the machinery. (fn. 475) The mill was offered for sale, as a mill, in 1919. (fn. 476) The mill building, by 1964 long disused, is of brick, dated 1784. It is attached to a timber-framed farm-house of the 17th century with a dovecot dated 1741. A windmill south of Stoke Orchard village in 1811 (fn. 477) has not been traced after 1824. (fn. 478)

Industry and trade. Records of non-agricultural occupations in the parish before the late 19th century are not numerous. A quarry was mentioned in the 8th century, (fn. 479) and the Abbot of Winchcombe had a quarry on Cleeve Hill in the 16th century. (fn. 480) Several quarries there and on Nottingham Hill remained active until the early 20th century, and there were 14 quarries in use in 1902. (fn. 481) Only one quarry remained in use after the Second World War. Smiths are recorded in the parish from the 12th century until the early 20th century. (fn. 482) A few personal names occurring in the Middle Ages suggest trades or occupations: chapman and mercator in 1299, mercer, fisher, cook, and chapman in 1327. (fn. 483)

In 1608 the male population of the whole parish included 8 carpenters and joiners, and an apprentice, 6 tailors, 5 shoemakers, 4 smiths and 2 apprentices, 4 weavers, and a turner, a tiler, a glover, and a butcher. Most of those tradesmen lived in Bishop's Cleeve village, where were 4 of the shoemakers, 3 of the tailors, and the 2 smiths with apprentices, or in Gotherington, where were 3 tailors and 4 carpenters. Three of the weavers lived in Woodmancote. (fn. 484)

Two glovers were recorded in Bishop's Cleeve in 1729, a wheelwright in Gotherington in 1800, (fn. 485) and a tailor and a butcher in Stoke Orchard in 1804. (fn. 486) In 1801 only a small part of the population in any of the hamlets was occupied in trade or industry, but in Bishop's Cleeve and Gotherington in 1831 trade and industry supported nearly half as many families as agriculture. (fn. 487) From the late 19th century Bishop's Cleeve and Gotherington each had a number of retail tradesmen and craftsmen, while the other hamlets had only a few. (fn. 488) In the 20th century, with the growing regional influence of Cheltenham and the establishment of factories and offices in the parish, the occupational pattern of the population changed entirely. After 1939 Smith's factory (fn. 489) became the largest employer, especially for the inhabitants of Bishop's Cleeve village. Southam in particular became a residential area for professional people working outside the parish, and in each of the hamlets lived a number of people who worked in offices and factories in and around Cheltenham. (fn. 490)

Local Government.

The hundredal character and jurisdiction of Bishop's Cleeve manor are discussed above. (fn. 491) Court rolls of Gotherington manor survive for several years in the period 1545– 1701; the court, at which a tithingman and a constable, and in the later years a hayward, were elected, dealt mainly with tenures and the regulation of the open fields. (fn. 492) The manor court of Southam, rolls of which survive, with gaps, for the period 1649–1710, for 1769–70 in draft, (fn. 493) and for 1574– 1823 in 19th-century extracts, seems to have dealt almost exclusively with tenures, though in 1749 the election of a constable was recorded. (fn. 494) Court rolls with view of frankpledge survive for Stoke Orchard and Downing manors separately for 1619–63, 1667– 1701, and 1707–8, (fn. 495) and there are extracts for Stoke Orchard and Downing manor, 1721–1855, concerned with the open fields, copyhold tenures, and the election of a constable. (fn. 496) In 1716 there were separate constables for Bishop's Cleeve, Woodmancote, Southam, and Gotherington, and two for Stoke Orchard. (fn. 497)

In 1548 there were two churchwardens for Stoke Orchard, in addition to those for Bishop's Cleeve. (fn. 498) From 1613 to c. 1700 there were said to have been four churchwardens in all, including one for Stoke Orchard. (fn. 499) The churchwardens' accounts that survive for the period 1718–1850 include separate accounts for the four hamlets of Cleeve, Gotherington, Woodmancote, and Southam and Brockhampton, and those hamlets in the earlier years shared between them four churchwardens; the accounts include also a separate account by the chapelwarden for Stoke Orchard. By the mid-19th century there were two churchwardens for Bishop's Cleeve and one for each of the other hamlets, including Stoke Orchard. (fn. 500)

From 1683 the hamlets were rated separately for poor relief, and each had its own overseers. (fn. 501) Overseers' accounts survive for Gotherington from 1745, for Southam from 1791, and for Woodmancote from 1809. (fn. 502) In 1783 an agreement was made for housing the poor of Bishop's Cleeve hamlet and Woodmancote in Winchcombe workhouse, (fn. 503) but by 1803 Bishop's Cleeve had its own workhouse. Although in 1803 there were only 8 inhabitants of the workhouse, and all were from Bishop's Cleeve hamlet, (fn. 504) in 1813 indoor relief was given to 100 paupers, from all of the hamlets. (fn. 505) The establishment of the workhouse may have been responsible for the fall in the cost of relieving the poor in each of the hamlets between 1784 and 1796 and for the comparatively gentle increase overall in the cost during the late 18th and early 19th century. Very few people received regular outdoor relief, and not many received occasional relief, in the period 1812–15. (fn. 506)

In 1835 Stoke Orchard became part of the Tewkesbury Union, and the rest of the ancient parish part of the Winchcombe Union in 1836. (fn. 507) All were transferred to the Cheltenham Rural District in 1935. (fn. 508) In 1964 Bishop's Cleeve, Woodmancote, Southam, Gotherington, and Stoke Orchard had each a parish council.

Churches.

The monastery to which Offa granted the greater part of the parish between 768 and 779 (fn. 509) was presumably a small collegiate community at Cleeve, perhaps already serving the surrounding area that was later to form the large parish of Bishop's Cleeve. Only one priest was recorded at Cleeve in 1086, (fn. 510) and although it has been suggested that the church, built mainly in the early 12th century, has the form of a collegiate church, it is unlikely that the community survived so long. The existing church is more likely to have been first built or rebuilt as a parish church after the Bishop of Worcester had acquired Cleeve. Before 1279 the bishop made Cleeve church prebendal in his college of Westbury-on-Trym; (fn. 511) in 1289 the Prior and Convent of Worcester complained to the pope that this had been done against their wishes, and deprived them of their right to institute rectors of Cleeve during a vacancy of the see. (fn. 512) The association of Cleeve church with Westbury is not recorded after 1289, and may have been intermittent before then. In 1284 Edward I had asked the pope to appropriate Cleeve church to the bishop's table to compensate him for his losses in the Welsh wars, (fn. 513) and in 1291 the pope made such an appropriation. (fn. 514) For a time the parish was served by a vicar (fn. 515) but the arrangement was evidently short-lived, for by the early 14th century there was once again a rector. Apparently as a result of the appropriation of 1291 a dispute arose between the bishop and Peter of Leicester, who claimed to be Rector of Cleeve and seems to have been deprived by the bishop. In 1293 the bishop was found to be contumacious and the church was placed under an interdict. Peter of Leicester was restored to the rectory, (fn. 516) and was succeeded by other rectors. (fn. 517)

By the mid-16th century the rector enjoyed a limited peculiar jurisdiction, (fn. 518) and up to the 19th century Bishop's Cleeve was exempt from the archdeacon's visitation though not from the bishop's triennial visitation. (fn. 519) Although no medieval reference to the peculiar has been found, it presumably resulted from the bishop's close connexion with the church and parish. In the 18th century the rectors were said to exercise archidiaconal jurisdiction, (fn. 520) and records survive of their probate jurisdiction in the period 1611–1796. (fn. 521)

In the Middle Ages there were chapels of ease at Gotherington, Southam, and Stoke Orchard. A chapel and chantry at Gotherington were recorded in 1359, when there was a dispute about them between the Rector of Cleeve and Tewkesbury Abbey. (fn. 522) No later reference has been found, but local tradition places the site of a chapel near Manor Farm. The chapels at Stoke Orchard and Southam are discussed below. (fn. 523) In 1658 the Commonwealth government diminished the size of the parish by transferring Stoke Orchard to Tredington parish, (fn. 524) but this arrangement was short-lived. In 1933 Gotherington, where Sunday services had been held in a church room since the early years of the century, (fn. 525) was transferred to the parish of Woolstone. (fn. 526) In 1937 Stoke Orchard became part of the united benefice of Tredington with Stoke Orchard and Hardwicke. (fn. 527)

The advowson of Bishop's Cleeve belonged to the Bishop of Worcester until c. 1549, when it passed to the Crown. (fn. 528) It was granted in 1579 to Sir Christopher Hatton, (fn. 529) who conveyed it in 1608 to Sir Edward Coke, Chief Justice of the King's Bench, (fn. 530) in whose family it descended (fn. 531) until 1754 when Thomas Coke, Earl of Leicester, sold it to David Reid. (fn. 532) The advowson was held in trust for Elizabeth Reid, a minor, in 1789, (fn. 533) and by 1803 was owned by the rector, Samuel Pickering. (fn. 534) In 1815 Robert Lawrence Townsend was instituted on his own petition as patron, and William Lawrence Townsend, presented in 1830 by William Holliday, (fn. 535) was patron in 1870. Mrs. Bagnall of Cheltenham was patron in 1879, and her trustees up to 1910. The advowson was afterwards held by Miss M. A. Hemming (fn. 536) until 1950, when it passed to the Diocesan Board of Patronage. (fn. 537)

In 1291 the church of Cleeve was valued at £40, of which the vicar's portion was £10. (fn. 538) The clear value was £84 6s. 8d. in 1535, arising from 103 a. of land, from rents of lands and tenements, from the whole tithes except a portion of the tithes of Southam and Gotherington, and from a small pension paid by the Abbot of Tewkesbury for the demesne tithes of Gotherington. (fn. 539) The value of the rectory was said to be £500 in 1650, (fn. 540) £600 in the mid-18th century, (fn. 541) and c. £1,600 in the mid-19th. (fn. 542)

The house that had been the bishop's manorhouse was held by Thomas Cocks as lessee from 1559 to 1601; Cocks's son Peter, who was rector 1593– 1612, abandoned the former rectory house, which had fallen out of repair, and from his time onward the former manor-house was used as a parsonage. (fn. 543) It was extensively altered in 1667 (fn. 544) when William Nicolson, Bishop of Gloucester, was rector, (fn. 545) but it retained the basic plan and some of the fabric of the medieval stone house comprising an open hall and two cross-wings. At the south end of the hall three arched openings, presumably those from the screens passage to the service wing, survive from the 13th century, and there is a fourth, similar opening in the same wall. At the north end, from what was the solar cross-wing, an arched doorway to the outside is visible at first floor level. The house apparently had a chapel in the 14th century. The 17th-century alterations included the rebuilding of the east front with the addition of a porch and the division of the hall into two stories. A staircase was built behind the hall. (fn. 546) A north wing containing a servants' hall was said to be out of repair and useless in 1711, and its demolition was recommended; (fn. 547) it may have survived from before the alterations of 1667. Further alterations, made in the late 18th century (fn. 548) by Samuel Pickering, rector 1770–1815, (fn. 549) were mainly to the windows. The painting of the whole of a large upper room in the north wing with scenes depicting Steanbridge, in Painswick, is thought to have been done when Robert Lawrence Townsend was rector, 1815–30. (fn. 550) Part of the house was pulled down c. 1920, and part was divided off in 1947 to form a separate house. (fn. 551)

The rectory estate, described as a manor in 1608, (fn. 552) had at least 10 tenants in 1327. (fn. 553) In 1589 the glebe land comprised 86 a. and another 2 yardlands apparently held by customary tenants. (fn. 554) In 1808 the rectory estate included 91 a., two copyhold estates, some cottages, and quit-rents from seven tenants. (fn. 555) At the inclosure of Gotherington in 1808 the rector received 287 a. for tithes. (fn. 556) The tithes of Stoke Orchard were commuted for a corn-rent in 1839, and those of Bishop's Cleeve in 1842. (fn. 557) The rector received 1 a. for glebe in Stoke Orchard at inclosure in 1840, (fn. 558) and 146 a. at the inclosure of Bishop's Cleeve in 1842. (fn. 559) Most of the glebe land was sold in the early 20th century; in 1964 c. 30 a. remained, of which part was let as allotments. (fn. 560)

During the Middle Ages there were at times frequent changes of rector, partly because the living was a rich one which attracted rising men who soon moved on to higher office. For the same reason the rectors were probably often absentees. The rector in 1273 was Walter Scammel, then treasurer of Salisbury cathedral, (fn. 561) who resigned the rectory on becoming Bishop of Salisbury in 1284. (fn. 562) In 1320 the rector was said to be incapable of maintaining such a large parish, and he was replaced by Robert de Valognes, Precentor of York. (fn. 563) Nicholas Cobham, a relation of the Bishop of Worcester, became rector in 1327, (fn. 564) and in 1374 John Brian, brother of a former bishop and a noted pluralist, was presented. (fn. 565) In 1403 Nicholas Bubwith, then a canon of York, disputed the living with John Bremor, canon of Chichester, (fn. 566) and in 1406 Bubwith resigned the rectory of Cleeve, which he held with three other benefices, on becoming Bishop of London. (fn. 567) John Bromsgrove, rector from 1415, (fn. 568) was also a pluralist, and in 1422, when he was over 70, he was allowed to reside in one of his benefices and provide curates for the others. (fn. 569) He was excommunicated in 1426 for contumacy. (fn. 570) In 1437 Edward Prentice retained the rectory of Cleeve on becoming Archdeacon of Essex. (fn. 571) Richard Ewen, rector from 1447, was described as a preacher and theologian. He was a pluralist, and in 1451 was licensed to put the rectory to farm. (fn. 572) John Claymond, rector 1507–37, was President successively of Magdalen College and Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and a noted pluralist. One of the scholarships that he founded at Brasenose College was for parishioners of Bishop's Cleeve. (fn. 573)

In 1532 the clergy serving the parish included a curate, a stipendiary priest, and a chaplain. (fn. 574) The chaplain may have been to serve the chapel at Southam, for in 1540 the rector, who had let the whole rectory estate on a lease, (fn. 575) provided a curate and a stipendiary priest while the lord of Southam manor provided another stipendiary. (fn. 576) John Parkhurst, later Bishop of Norwich, became rector in 1548, (fn. 577) and in 1551, when he was described as 'insigniter doctus', his two curates were found to be satisfactory. (fn. 578) Parkhurst left England during Mary's reign; one of his successors as rector, Seth Holland, died in prison c. 1560 having refused to accept the religious changes of Elizabeth's reign, (fn. 579) and Parkhurst was re-instituted and was rector until 1563. (fn. 580) Of the next three rectors, all of them graduates, Thomas Turner held the living from 1564 to 1593, when he was succeeded by Peter Cocks, mentioned above. During that period he provided at least one curate, and usually two. Timothy Gate was rector from 1612 to 1650 or later, but the parish was served by a curate for at least part of that time. (fn. 581) One of the curates, Thomas Wynell, is said to have been ejected before 1650, (fn. 582) in which year he was described as a 'preaching minister, though a man ejected by the committee'. (fn. 583)

The Church of St. Michael and All Angels, Bishop's Cleeve

In and after the late 17th century the rectors often lived in the parsonage, employing assistant curates. William Nicolson, Bishop of Gloucester, became rector in 1665. (fn. 584) James Uvedale, son of the horticulturist Robert Uvedale, was rector 1709–32. (fn. 585) Samuel Pickering was rector for 45 years, from 1770 to 1815. (fn. 586) William Lawrence Townsend, rector from 1830 to 1883, was for most of that time living outside the parish because of ill-health. (fn. 587) In 1871 the people of Cleeve protested against Ritualistic innovations by the curate. (fn. 588) In the 20th century the parish was served by a resident rector and curate, and in addition to services in the parish church there were regular services at Southam chapel and at St. Peter's mission church, a small building of stone and roughcast brick on Cleeve Hill that was opened in 1907. (fn. 589)

The church of ST. MICHAEL AND ALL ANGELS (fn. 590) comprises aisled nave, chancel, north and south transepts, south chapel, central tower, and two-storied south porch. The church was either built or almost completely rebuilt in the late 12th century, and much of the 12th-century work, for which the church is remarkable, survived in 1964. It has often been said that the church has the form of a conventual church, divided into two parts by a rood screen, with choir, transepts, and the base of the tower for the convent, and the nave and aisles for the parishioners. (fn. 591) It is more likely, however, that the 12th-century church merely followed the layout of the church of a convent that had long since ceased to exist, (fn. 592) but even that is far from certain. In the 14th century the aisles were widened and the chancel was rebuilt, and in 1700 the central tower was rebuilt.

The 12th-century nave was of six bays with narrow north and south aisles, the roof lines of which are visible at their east ends. Alternate columns of the nave arcades, with scalloped and fluted capitals, were retained when the others were removed, perhaps at the time of rebuilding the tower, so that the arches were extended to twice the original span. Externally the main outline of the west end of the nave survives from the 12th century, with two stairturrets crowned by pyramidal stone roofs, the northern turret being supported by a later buttress. The west doorway is richly ornamented, the two outer orders with zig-zag, and all three orders supported on shafts. The hood-mould, embossed with lilies, has dragon stops. The west end of the south aisle retains a 12th-century window. The interior of the south porch is considered to be a particularly striking example of late 12th-century work. (fn. 593) Its quadripartite vault has zig-zag ribs springing from angle shafts with carved capitals, and the interlaced arcading of the walls is supported on detached shafts with similar capitals. The inner doorway is similar in treatment to the west doorway, and has a hood-mould formed by two dragons with their tails intertwined. The porch has an upper story and a corbel-table of carved grotesques. The north and south transepts, flanking the tower, retain their 12th-century archways, with enriched heads, leading to the aisles, their flat external buttresses, and parts of their external string-course. East and west windows in each transept, and a west doorway in the north transept, were blocked apparently in the 14th century, but the west window of the north transept was re-opened in the late 19th century. The north transept, less altered than the south, has a stair-vice of uncertain date in the north-east angle.

In 1301 money given for the repair of the chancel led to a dispute between the bishop and the incumbent; (fn. 594) it was perhaps soon afterwards that the chancel was rebuilt on a wider plan and with its axis slightly north of that of the nave. It is a lofty structure with a trussed rafter roof and three tall windows in each of its side walls. The 5-light east window, with restored geometrical tracery, and the priest's door in the south wall have ball-flower ornament externally; a continuous course carved with plain balls runs below the eaves. At about the same time the north transept was given a new north window and the south transept was partly rebuilt. The north aisle was extended northwards, and its windows and battlements are of the 14th century. The church was extended to the south c. 1310 (fn. 595) by the addition of a chapel between the south transept and the porch, opening to the aisle by a 14thcentury arcade which is a little north of the line of the former south wall of the church. At the east end of the chapel is a piscina with two drains. Also in the 14th century the west window of the nave was replaced, and the west end of the south aisle embattled. The trussed rafter roof of the nave may be of the same period.

In the 15th or early 16th century the windows of the south chapel were replaced, and the upper story of the south porch was enlarged and given fanvaulting. In the early 17th century the original west gallery was replaced by a heavy, elaborately carved wooden gallery which remained in use in 1964. The roof of the north aisle was replaced in 1671. In 1696 the tower collapsed; (fn. 596) it was rebuilt in 1700, (fn. 597) the lower part having Norman, the upper part late Gothic, characteristics. By the late 19th century the church was in a bad state of repair, (fn. 598) and the foundations and much of the fabric of the building were discovered to be unsound. Restorations were carried out in 1886, 1896, and 1900. An altar was put in the north aisle, and the aisle and nave roofs were renewed. (fn. 599) The rebuilding was mainly a careful restoration, (fn. 600) and included re-opening a 12th-century window in the north transept and replacing tracery in the east window.

In 1542 there were, in addition to the high altar, altars to St. Catherine, St. Nicholas, All Saints, and the Virgin Mary. (fn. 601) Thirteen acres called lampland in 1553 were said to have endowed the altars, (fn. 602) and c. 1700 the church was said to have had lights dedicated to the above-named saints and a Lady chapel, all with their own wardens and endowed with land. (fn. 603) It is said that the main altar in the church, in front of the rood-screen, was called the altar of the Holy Cross. The east wall of the north transept has marks of the original altar stone and of the altar steps, and two stone slabs let into the floor of the nave and used as gravestones dated 1568 and 1577 are thought to be altar stones. The altar in the south chapel, sometimes called the de la Bere chapel, is hidden (fn. 604) by an elaborately carved and canopied alabaster monument with effigies of Richard de la Bere (d. 1636) and his wife Margaret. The monument was repaired in 1803 by Thomas Baghot-De la Bere. No original inscription remains. Next to the monument is the freestone effigy of a lady of c. 1500. On the south side of the south transept is the freestone effigy of a knight of c. 1270, in a later cusped recess decorated with ball flowers. (fn. 605) There is no good foundation for the tradition that identifies the knight with Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester. An effigy of one of the Huddleston family, said c. 1700 to have been brought from Southam chapel, a brass of 1375 mentioned in the early 19th century, a tombstone with a 14th-century inscription to John Loringe, and several 16th- and 17th-century inscriptions recorded in the 18th and 19th centuries (fn. 606) did not survive in 1964. Traces of wall paintings of the 13th and 14th centuries and later could be seen, including a painting of St. Christopher in the north aisle, (fn. 607) but most of the paintings were covered with whitewash. In the 19th century the upper story of the porch was used as a schoolroom, (fn. 608) and instructional paintings on the walls were partly visible in 1964.

A few fragments of ancient painted glass survived in the windows. (fn. 609) The octagonal font is of the late 16th century, (fn. 610) and there are some 16th-century pews at the west end of the nave. Of the six bells in the tower one is undated and the others are of 1695, 1700, 1740, 1758, and 1854; there are also two blank bells in the gable-turret. (fn. 611) The 2 a. held by the churchwardens in 1842 (fn. 612) was presumably the land given for the maintenance of the bells, which produced a small income in 1964. (fn. 613) An organ was installed in the west gallery in 1859, (fn. 614) and replaced by a new organ installed in the north transept in 1896. (fn. 615) The church contains an ancient dugout chest. Gifts to the church of a gilt chalice in 1419 and of a silver cup in 1515 are recorded, (fn. 616) but in 1964 the only plate earlier than the 19th century was a chalice, paten-cover, and alms-plate of the 17th century. The parish registers begin in 1563 and are virtually complete.

Stoke Orchard had its own church or chapel by the 12th century, as is clear from architectural evidence. The earliest known documentary evidence of the chapel is of 1269, when Nicholas Archer and the people of Stoke Orchard were given permission to hear mass and receive the sacrament there because of the distance from the parish church. (fn. 617) Edward Despenser received similar permission for the other manor of Stoke Orchard in 1362. (fn. 618) Stoke Orchard presumably had its own chaplain in the Middle Ages as in the 16th century, when the chaplain was paid a stipend out of the issues of the Tewkesbury hundred manor. (fn. 619) In 1563, when the churchwardens complained that there was no minister, it was said that the Rector of Bishop's Cleeve should provide one. (fn. 620) It became the usual practice for the rector to provide a chaplain, who often served also as curate of Bishop's Cleeve, (fn. 621) until Stoke Orchard was severed from the mother church and united with Tredington.

In 1551 the chaplain of Stoke Orchard was found to be satisfactory. (fn. 622) In the mid-18th century there were only morning services at the chapel, (fn. 623) and in 1851 there were alternate morning and evening services. (fn. 624) In 1964 services were held every Sunday.

The church of ST. JAMES (fn. 625) is a small building comprising nave and chancel with a bellcot over the chancel arch, built of stone with roughcast facing, and a stone-tiled roof. It was built in the late 12th century, and the nave is mainly of that date. Two south and two north windows, and one in the west gable-end of the nave, are deeply-splayed, narrow, 12th-century openings, all the same size. The north and south entrances are also of the same date. The south door is plain, square-headed with a semicircular label, and the north entrance is roundheaded. The chancel arch has 12th-century imposts and attached shafts. The arch itself was replaced in the 13th century. The windows of the chancel were replaced in the 15th century, when also the bellcot was built and buttresses were added. The arcaded cylindrical font is 12th-century, and there are piscinas in the chancel and the nave. The pewing is 16th-century or earlier, and the pulpit and altarrails are of the 17th century. The nave roof was renewed in 1723. (fn. 626)

The church is remarkable for a series of wall paintings, which had been whitewashed, on the walls of the nave. They were noted in 1928, (fn. 627) and in 1949 the work of uncovering the paintings and restoring the church was undertaken. The work, which included re-roofing, was completed in 1957. The earliest set of paintings is of the late 12th century and depicts, in 28 or 29 scenes, the life of St. James of Compostella. (fn. 628) The plate at Stoke Orchard includes a chalice of 1618. (fn. 629)

The chapel at Southam, built close to the manorhouse in the 12th century, (fn. 630) was probably a proprietary chapel of the lord of the manor, served by a chaplain paid by him. In the mid-16th century one of the stipendiary curates in the parish, paid by Sir John Huddleston, (fn. 631) presumably served Southam. In 1648 Kynard de la Bere disputed the duty of providing a minister for the chapel with the owner of the tithes of Southam, who, it was decided, should be responsible for providing the chaplain. (fn. 632) In 1665 the chapel was being used as a barn; it was then said to have a chancel and an ancient pulpit, and to have been used by the lord of the manor and his tenants because of the distance from Cleeve church. (fn. 633) Although the chapel was said c. 1700 to have been demolished, (fn. 634) it continued in fact to be used as a barn until 1862, when Lord Ellenborough restored it to use as a private chapel. (fn. 635) Weekly services were held there for the hamlet of Southam, but it remained a private chapel until 1946, when it was given to Bishop's Cleeve church as a chapel of ease. (fn. 636) Two services were held each Sunday in 1964.

The church of the ASCENSION, Southam, a small building comprising nave, chancel, and south vestry, is of stone with a stone tiled roof. The form of the chapel (apart from the vestry) and some of the masonry remain from the 12th century, including the imposts to the doorway and the north window of the chancel. Three stalls incorporate 16th- or 17thcentury carving, and there are two Flemish paintings of St. Veronica. (fn. 637) The chapel was largely rebuilt at the 19th-century restoration, and most of its furnishings are of that date. The 15th-century south window of the chancel is said to have come from Hailes Abbey. (fn. 638) The chapel contains monuments to Lord Ellenborough and members of his family, and portrait busts of Lord Ellenborough and his first wife, Octavia (d. 1819). (fn. 639)

Nonconformity.

There was a Friends' meeting at Stoke Orchard by 1654, (fn. 640) and in 1678 George Fox held meetings there. (fn. 641) By 1701 the Friends had a meeting-house (fn. 642) that was described as a poor thatched house, together with a burial ground, in Stoke Orchard. There was apparently only one Quaker living in Stoke Orchard in 1735, and the congregation came almost entirely from other places. (fn. 643) In 1755 the house was said to have been used exclusively for Quaker meetings for some years. The meetings had presumably ceased by 1785 when the house was let to a tenant. (fn. 644)

A Congregational meeting in Bishop's Cleeve met in 1672 in the house of Joshua Head, who was licensed to teach there. (fn. 645) The 37 nonconformists recorded in 1676 (fn. 646) were perhaps mainly Congregational. Another house was being used by nonconformists in 1689. (fn. 647) The 15 'Anabaptists' recorded c. 1735 (fn. 648) may have been Congregationalists. A chapel for the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion was built in 1825 in Woodmancote, where nonconformist meetings were held in 1811 and 1822. (fn. 649) In 1851 the chapel had afternoon and evening services and a congregation of c. 50. (fn. 650) A new chapel was built in 1854, (fn. 651) a small stone building in the middle of the village which remained a chapel of the Connexion in 1964. Another chapel belonging to the Connexion was built in Gotherington in 1833, where in 1822 there was a nonconformist meeting; (fn. 652) in 1851, when two services a Sunday were held, in addition to a Sunday school, the congregation was c. 50. (fn. 653) The chapel was said to be Independent in 1870 (fn. 654) and Baptist in 1884, (fn. 655) and there may have been a change in use resulting from the opening of a Connexion chapel in Bishop's Cleeve village. In 1964, however, the chapel at Gotherington still belonged to the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion. The chapel in Cleeve village, where a nonconformist meeting was recorded in 1841, (fn. 656) was built in 1844, had a congregation of c. 60 in 1851, (fn. 657) and was closed in or before 1911, (fn. 658) and became a private house called St. Anne's. In Stoke Orchard a small red brick Congregational chapel, on the road to Bishop's Cleeve, was built in 1865 (fn. 659) and closed in or after 1939. (fn. 660)

A Methodist meeting in Gotherington was registered in 1809. (fn. 661) In Bishop's Cleeve village there was a Methodist chapel by 1884 (fn. 662) which had closed by 1939; (fn. 663) in 1964 the building was used by the Women's Institute. A Methodist church was built in reconstituted stone on the Cleeve estate in 1959, (fn. 664) where an undenominational church was being built in 1964. A non-denominational church was built on Cleeve Hill in 1901, (fn. 665) and it remained in use in 1964. A Presbyterian church to the south-east of Cleeve village near Woodmancote existed by 1883 (fn. 666) but closed in 1939 or later. (fn. 667)

Roman Catholic services were held in 1964 in the village hall in Bishop's Cleeve, and a site had been bought for building a church. (fn. 668)

Schools.

In 1818 Bishop's Cleeve parish had one Sunday school, with 150 children. (fn. 669) Two day schools with 50 fee-paying boys and girls, and a Sunday school with 60 boys and girls supported by subscription, existed in 1833. (fn. 670) In 1846 a National school was built, a small stone building near the church, with a master's house. The school was supported partly by subscription, and had 69 children at the day school and 46 more on Sundays. (fn. 671) There was a certificated mistress by 1858, when the number of children was 80. (fn. 672) In 1874 a school board was formed for Bishop's Cleeve village and Woodmancote, (fn. 673) and took over the buildings of the National school. In 1889 there were mixed and infant departments with respective attendances of 85 and 36. The buildings were enlarged in 1905 (fn. 674) and the attendance had risen to 141 and 41 by 1906. The numbers remained about the same until the Second World War (fn. 675) when they increased rapidly, and in 1964 the school had c. 700 infants and juniors. (fn. 676) The school had been greatly enlarged mainly by singlestory pre-fabricated buildings. A separate infant school was being built in 1964 for c. 350 children.

A day school in Gotherington, opened in 1829, had 18 boys and 4 girls in 1833, and a Sunday school opened in 1823 had 15 boys and 20 girls. The day school was supported by the parents, and the Sunday school by a Nonconformist congregation. (fn. 677) A school board for Gotherington was formed in 1875, (fn. 678) and a new school building was opened in 1881, a small stone building with a house attached at the turning to Bishop's Cleeve. The school had a certificated master in 1881. (fn. 679) It was divided into mixed and infant departments, with respective attendances of 67 and 11 in 1908. By 1936 it was a junior mixed and infant school, (fn. 680) the older children going to Tewkesbury, Cheltenham, or Bishop's Cleeve. In 1964 there were c. 100 children.

Stoke Orchard in 1833 had a day school with 8 fee-paying children and a Sunday school supported by the chaplain with 19 boys and 13 girls supported by the minister. (fn. 681) A National school was built in 1844, with a teacher's house. It was supported by endowment, subscription, and school pence, and there were 46 children in 1846. The teacher was uncertificated in 1876. (fn. 682) A school board for Stoke Orchard and Tredington was formed in 1877, (fn. 683) and built a new school in 1880 (fn. 684) just beyond the boundary with Tredington. The former National school became a private house.

An infant school for Southam and Brockhampton, supported wholly by Lord Ellenborough, was opened in 1831 and had 25 boys and girls in 1833. (fn. 685) A school board for Southam was formed in 1875, (fn. 686) and held a school in a small timber-framed house in the road which became known as School Lane. (fn. 687) In 1908 attendance was 36; the school closed in 1916, (fn. 688) and the building became a private house.

Woodmancote had four day schools in 1833 run at the parents' expense, with 37 boys and 16 girls. (fn. 689) There is no record of a school later, and in 1874 Woodmancote was included in the area of the Bishop's Cleeve school board. (fn. 690)

Bishop's Cleeve Secondary Modern School was built in 1956, a large brick building near the Cleeve estate. The number of pupils in 1964 was c. 500, drawn from the five hamlets of Bishop's Cleeve ancient parish and from the surrounding parishes. (fn. 691)

Charities.

Before 1705 Mary Cassel gave £5 for two poor widows of Bishop's Cleeve hamlet. (fn. 692) In 1826 the income from Widows' Acre, the land in Southam purchased with the money, was £2 (fn. 693) and by 1851 it had risen to £7 10s. (fn. 694) In 1964 the income, under £5, was distributed by the rector. (fn. 695)

Before 1842, when the charity was the subject of a suit in Chancery, Mary Stratton gave £1,000, the income to be distributed in cash to four people of Bishop's Cleeve, three of Woodmancote, and three of Gotherington. The distribution of the income, £26 in 1863, (fn. 696) was regulated by a Scheme of 1895. In 1964 the annual income for each hamlet was under £10. (fn. 697)

Arthur Frederick Griffiths, by will dated 1908, gave £300 for the poor of the whole parish. The income in 1964 was nearly £8, distributed in coal. The Provident Medical Dispensing Club was founded in 1894 to provide coal for the poor of Bishop's Cleeve, and £27 from it was distributed in coal by the rector in 1964. Thomas Baghot-De la Bere by will (d. 1821), gave £50 for the poor of Southam and Prestbury, which produced an income of £3 in 1964, distributed by the rector in cash. (fn. 698)

Footnotes