Chalford
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  Map sources for Chalford at grid reference SO898028
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Chalford is a small village in the Frome Valley of the Cotswolds in England. It is about 8 km upstream (4 miles east) from Stroud. At this point the valley is also called the Golden Valley. The parish covers 2 square miles of this Cotswold countryside. Notable residents include James Bradley, the third Astronomer Royal, who died in Chalford in 1762, and the 19th-century sculptor John Thomas. The artist Damien Hirst has a studio in the village.
[edit] History
The remains, and known sites, of many barrows indicate that the plateau area of Chalford Hill, France Lynch and Bussage has been an area of continuous settlement for probably at least 5,000 years. Stone Age flints have been found in the area as well as the remains of a Roman Villa. Several of the place names in the area are also Saxon or Danish in origin.
The name Chalford may be derived from Calf(Way) Ford, or possibly from the Saxon cealj or Chalk and the Norman Ford and both possibilities have the same meaning. Chalford Hill is a reasonable recent title for the western end of the hill: Its original name was Chalford Lynch. Lynch from the Anglo-Saxon hline means a cultivated terrace following the contours of a hill. France is much more difficult to explain. Some say it is derived from Frams-eye (island) or –ea(stream) from the Fram (Frome) river in the valley, thence, perhaps via ‘Francey’ to ‘France’. Others say it is derived from the 17th century Huguenot refugees who settled here to make woollen cloth and silk.
Chalford was one of the centres for the manufacture of broadcloth and its wealthy clothiers built many of the houses on the hill.
