Owlpen
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  Map sources for Owlpen at grid reference ST799984
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Owlpen is a small village and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England, set in a picturesque valley in the Cotswold hills. It is about one mile east of Uley, and three miles east of Dursley. The Owlpen valley is set around the settlement like an amphitheatre of wooded hills open to the west. The landscape is designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The population of the parish in 2004 was 32 (est.), the smallest in Gloucestershire. The Tudor Grade I listed manor house of the Mander family is the celebrated feature of the village.
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[edit] History
There are many signs of early settlement in the area. Round barrows and standing stones can be seen within a short walk of the manor house. Uley Bury, a mile to the west, is an impressive multi-vallate, scarp-edge hill-fort of the middle iron age (300 B.C.), commanding spectacular views over the Severn Vale. Hetty Pegler's Tump is a well-preserved middle neolithic chambered long barrow of the Cotswold-Severn group (2,900-2,400 B.C.). The West Hill Romano-British temple site was excavated 1977-9, with a shrine to the titular god Mercury.
Owlpen (pronounced locally "Ole-pen") derives its name, it is thought, from the Saxon thegn, Olla, who first set up his pen, or enclosure, by the springs that rise under the foundations of the manor, about the ninth century.
There are records of the de Olepenne family (who must have named themselves after the place) settled at Owlpen by 1174. They were local landowners, benefactors to abbeys and hospitals, and henchmen to their feudal overlords, the Berkeleys of Berkeley Castle, whose wills and charters they regularly attest.
In 1464 the male line failed after twelve generations of Olpennes and the manor and lands passed to the Daunt family on the marriage of Margery de Olepenne to John Daunt of Wotton-under-Edge. The Daunts were clothiers who had been settled in Wotton since the 14th century. They later acquired land in Munster, Ireland, where by 1595 they had their principal estate at Gortigrenane Castle, near Carrigaline in County Cork.
[edit] Nineteenth century
In the nineteenth century, the fortunes of the manor suffered after the Stoughton family inherited in 1815. They built a new mansion c. 1848, called Owlpen House, a mile to the east of the original settlement, to the Italianate designs of Samuel Sanders Teulon. It was demolished in 1955-6, though outbuildings including the gas works, lodges and stable block remain.
Today the most obvious 19th Century addition is the Church of the Holy Cross which stands just above the manor house. Of medieval origins, it was restored by James Piers St Aubyn in 1876, with a richly-textured interior of mosaic and opus sectile tiles designed by Charles Hardgrave and made by James Powell & Sons of the Whitefriars Glassworks, encaustic floor tiles by William Godwin & Son of Lugwardine, and stained glass windows, some also by Powells. It has been described as ‘the most elaborate Victorian interior in the Cotswolds’ (David Verey, Cotswold Churches).
[edit] Owlpen Manor
Today Owlpen is widely known as the site of one of the finest early manor houses in England. The manor house as it stands, of medieval origins, was largely built and rebuilt by Daunt family, between 1464 and 1616. Since then it has hardly been touched except for small improvements early in the eighteenth century, when the east wing of the house, and the gardens, church and Grist Mill, were reordered by Thomas Daunt IV 1719-1726.
By the end of the 19th century the old manor had become celebrated as an icon of the Arts and Crafts movement. It lay in its remote valley as a Sleeping Beauty which had not been inhabited for nearly a hundred years, a picturesque ruin much decayed, overrun with ivy, and dwarfed by enormous yews. There was concern for its survival and the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings recommended that it should be vested in the National Trust, which however had no funds available for its repair.
Finally, in 1924-25, the Owlpen estate was sold, by auction, for the first time in nearly a thousand years. The future of the manor house was assured when it was acquired and sensitively repaired by Norman Jewson, a distinguished Cotswold Arts and Crafts architect who had worked with Ernest Gimson and the brothers Sidney and Ernest Barnsley (who was his father-in-law) in Sapperton. He has described how he saved the ancient house from ruin in 1925–6 in his classic memoir, By Chance I did Rove (1951, twice reprinted).
[edit] Owlpen today
Owlpen Manor is the home of Sir Nicholas and Lady (Karin) Mander, who since 1974 have carefully repaired the manor house and outbuildings, with the cottages and estate, giving them a new and integrated life for the conditions of today. They have re-created the formal Stuart gardens in sympathy with the manor house and added representative family and Cotswold Arts and Crafts collections. The manor contains a unique series of painted cloth wall-hangings dated about 1700, illustrating the life of Joseph, as well as numerous historic features, including Tudor wall paintings and panelling. The Mander family gave Wightwick Manor to the National Trust in 1937. Sir Nicholas Mander succeeded as the fourth Mander baronet of The Mount in 2006.
The manor house and gardens are a popular attraction which has been open to the public since 1966. Currently they are open on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays from 1 May to 30 September, 2pm to 5pm.
The Owlpen Estate consists of permanent pasture and meadowland fringed by beech woods surrounding Owlpen Manor, and traditional farm buildings and cottages.
The historic cottages of the estate, including a Grist Mill (1728), Court House (1620s), and Tithe Barn (c. 1450) are available for holiday accommodation.
There is also an atmospheric restaurant in the medieval cyder house.
[edit] Quotes
- "The loveliest place in England" — Fodor's Britain Guide, 2002
- "The epitome of the English village" — HRH The Prince of Wales, A Vision of Britain, 1989
- "Owlpen in Gloucestershire —ah! What a dream is there!" — Vita Sackville-West
[edit] References
- Nicholas Mander, Owlpen Manor, Gloucestershire: a short history and guide (with bibliography) (Owlpen Press, current edition 2006) ISBN 0-9546056-1
- Norman Jewson, By Chance I did Rove (Cirencester, 1951, 1973; Barnsley 1986)
- Hugh E. Pagan, Owlpen Manor (1966, reprinted 1975)
- The Rev. John Daunt, Some Account of the Family of Daunt (Newcastle, 1881; Scarborough, 1899)
