Redmarley D'Abitot

Redmarley D'Abitot is a civil parish and village in the Forest of Dean district, Gloucestershire, South West England. In addition to the village of Redmarley, the civil parish also includes the settlements of Lowbands, Haw Cross, Playley Green, Kings Green and Durbridge.^[2] At the 2001 census the parish had a population of 705.^[1]

Although now in Gloucestershire, Redmarley was in Worcestershire until 1931.^[3]

The name Redmarley comes from 'woodland clearing with a reedy pond', from the Old English words hrëod and lëah.^[4] An alternative cod-derivation has been suggested as from the local red heavy clay or marl.^[5] The difficulty with this explanation is that the word marl entered the language many centuries later. D'Abitot is thought to come from Urse d'Abetot, who was Sheriff of Worcestershire and who held the manor in 1086.^[6]

Sometimes a circumflex is placed on the 'o' of d'Abitot, but this usage has been criticised. As Eric Warde says: "It is to be regretted that the Gloucestershire County Council placed a circumflex in the signs on the A417. This is emphatically incorrect, both historically and linguistically, Abitot is a word of (Germanic) Anglo-Saxon origin."^[7]

In 1886, at the time of her engagement to the composer Edward Elgar, Alice Roberts was living with her widowed mother Julia, at Hazeldine House in Redmarley.

Distances from Redmarley

• 3 miles north of Newent
• 5 miles south of Ledbury
• 10 miles north west of Gloucester
• 16 miles south-east of Hereford

References

1. ^ ^{a b} "Redmarley D'abitot CP (Parish)". Neighbourhood Statistics. Office for National Statistics. 2001. http://neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadTableView.do?a=7&b=794863&c=redmarley&d=16&e=15&g=448233&i=1001x1003x1004&m=0&r=1&s=1284296038509&enc=1&dsFamilyId=779. Retrieved 12 September 2010. 
2. ^ Welcome to Redmarley D'Abitot
3. ^ Youngs, Frederic A, Jr. (1979). Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England, Vol.I: Southern England. London: Royal Historical Society. p. 184. ISBN 0901050679. 
4. ^ Mills, A. D. (1991): A Dictionary of English Place-Names, Oxford University Press.
5. ^ Redmarley D'Abitot at genuki.com
6. ^ Domesday Book
7. ^ Warde, Eric (2007): Prosperity to this Parish, A History of Redmarley D'Abitot

External links

Media related to [//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Redmarley_D%27Abitot Redmarley D'Abitot] at Wikimedia Commons

• Redmarley D'Abitot village website
• "A History of the County of Worcester: volume 3" at british-history.ac.uk
• Redmarley D'Abitot at genuki.com
• "Redmarley D'Abitot, Worcestershire, Parish Register Transcripts" transcribed and generously provided by William Good