Adlestrop

Adlestrop (formerly Titlestrop or Edestrop) is a village and civil parish in the English county of Gloucestershire. It is known as Tedestrop in the Domesday Book.

The civil parish also includes the village of Daylesford. In the 2001 census the parish had a population of 153.[1]

Contents

Location

This small Gloucestershire village deep in the heart of the Cotswolds is renowned for its surrounding countryside and fine walks. Situated off the main A436 Stow-on-the-Wold road it is an isolated community, with the village post office being the main source of shopping and communication.

Edward Thomas poem

Adlestrop was immortalised by Edward Thomas's poem "Adlestrop" which was first published in 1917. The poem describes an uneventful journey Thomas took on 24 June 1914 on an Oxford to Worcester express. The train made an unscheduled stop at Adlestrop station. He did not alight from the train, but describes a moment of calm pause in which he hears "all the birds of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire". The railway station closed in 1966; however, the local bus shelter contains a bench that was originally on the platform. A plaque on the bench quotes Thomas’s original poem.

Other

Novelist Jane Austen visited Adelstrop House, formerly the rectory, at least three times between 1794 and 1806 when the occupant was Rev. Thomas Leigh, cousin of Jane Austen's mother. She is thought to have drawn inspiration from the village and its surroundings for her novel Mansfield Park.[2]

Adlestrop's cricket club plays in Adlestrop Park.[3] The village has a thriving Post Office and shop near the church.

Church bells

The five bells of the church of St. Mary were last all rung together in about 1975. The bells lay unrung completely until 2007, when two local couples wishing to marry asked for bells to be rung at their weddings. The bells are:

The Adelstrop bells are hung in the traditional English fashion. As well as the cracked tenor bell, however, the bell-frame is time expired and suffers from dry rot and woodworm infestation, and the remaining uncracked bells may be rung only very cautiously. The bells are officially listed as "unringable". An appeal, to re-hang the bells and make them fully ringable once more, has been launched.[4]

References

  1. ^ ONS Census 2001
  2. ^ Adlestrop, Gloucestershire at astoft2.co.uk
  3. ^ Adlestrop Cricket Club
  4. ^ "St Mary Magdalene, Adelstrop - The Bells", church pamphlet, undated, R.Price (Chairman of Bells Committee)

Further reading

External links