| Sherborne | |
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Sherborne
Sherborne shown within Gloucestershire |
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| OS grid reference | SP1614 |
|---|---|
| Parish | Sherborne |
| District | Cotswold |
| Shire county | Gloucestershire |
| Region | South West |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | Cheltenham |
| Postcode district | GL54 |
| Dialling code | 01451 |
| Police | Gloucestershire |
| Fire | Gloucestershire |
| Ambulance | Great Western |
| EU Parliament | South West England |
| List of places: UK • England • Gloucestershire | |
Sherborne is a village and civil parish almost 3.5 miles (5.6 km) east of Northleach in Gloucestershire. Sherborne is a linear village, extending more than a mile along the valley of Sherborne Brook, a tributary of the River Windrush.
The place-name 'Sherborne' is first attested in the Domesday Book of 1086, where it is spelt 'Scireburne', and means 'bright stream'.[1] This is a reference to Sherborne Brook.
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Coenwulf of Mercia, who reigned from AD 796 to 821, is credited with giving the manor of Sherborne to Winchcombe Abbey.[2] The Domesday Book records that the abbey held Sherborne in 1086.[2] Edward I stayed in Sherborne in 1382.[2] In 1539 the abbey was suppressed in the Dissolution of the Monasteries and the Crown took its lands.
Sherborne had a parish church by 1175, when it was listed amongst the property of Winchcombe Abbey.[2] The original church building no longer exists, but a 19th-century cottage at the east end of the village incorporates two Norman doorways and other details[3] said to have been recovered from an orchard at the same end of the village.[2]
The present Church of England parish church of Saint Mary Magdalene is in the centre of the village. Its bell-tower and spire were built late in the 13th or early in the 14th century.[4] The church is next to Sherborne House, which was built for Thomas Dutton after he bought the manor of Sherborne in 1551.[5] Elizabeth I stayed at the house in 1592.[2] John Dutton had the house re-faced in 1651-53,[6] and James Dutton, 1st Baron Sherborne had alterations made to the church between 1743 and 1776, including the addition of a Doric portico.[2] In 1850-59 John Baron Dutton, 2nd Baron Sherborne had the medieval nave and aisle of the church demolished to allow more light into Sherborne House, and had a new nave and sanctuary built further north.[2][5] The church contains numerous ornate monuments to members of the Dutton family.[2][5] The tower has a ring of six bells.[7] The oldest is medieval; three more were cast in 1653 and the remaining two are 18th-century.[2]
In 1624-40 John Dutton acquired land 2 miles (3.2 km) southwest of the village to create a deer park.[2] He had The Lodge built as a viewing stand to watch deer being coursed by greyhounds.[6] In 1898 it was extended for Susan, Lady Sherborne and converted into a house.[8] The National Trust now owns The Lodge and Sherborne Estate.[9] Sherborne House is privately owned and not open to the public.
In 1086 the village had four watermills on Sherborne Brook.[2] By the end of the 19th century only Duckleston Mill, at the west end of the village, remained, and it was disused.[2] In 1961 it was still standing but had been converted into a farmhouse.[2]
The Astronomer Royal James Bradley was born in Sherborne[2] in 1693.
More than half of the parish was farmed under an open field system until 1777, when the common lands were enclosed.[2]
The farmhouse at Stone Farm at the east end of Sherborne village was designed by Richard Pace and built in 1818.[3]
The 2nd Baron Sherborne established two schools for boys in 1824.[2] They were merged in 1862, and a schoolhouse was built for them in 1868.[2] By 1906 it had been enlarged to take 165 pupils, but by 1938 attendance had fallen to 80.[2] By 1961 it was a junior school.[2] It is now a Church of England primary school.[10]
Until the 1880s Sherborne was noted as a centre of Morris dancing.[2]
Sherborne still has a Post Office.