| Tutshill | |
The ruined watchtower at Tutshill |
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Tutshill
Tutshill shown within Gloucestershire |
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| OS grid reference | ST539946 |
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| District | Forest of Dean |
| Shire county | Gloucestershire |
| Region | South West |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | CHEPSTOW |
| Postcode district | NP16 |
| Dialling code | 01291 |
| Police | Gloucestershire |
| Fire | Gloucestershire |
| Ambulance | Great Western |
| EU Parliament | South West England |
| List of places: UK • England • Gloucestershire | |
Tutshill is a small village within the parish of Tidenham in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, England. It is located on the eastern bank of the River Wye, which forms the boundary with Wales at this point and which separates the village from the town of Chepstow. The village of Woodcroft adjoins Tutshill to the north, and across the A48 road to the south is the village of Sedbury.
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The name derives from the ruined "tut", a local term for watchtower, on top of the hill overlooking the Wye and its ancient crossing point at Castleford. and also having a distant view of the River Severn and estuary. The tower is of uncertain date, and has been suggested as either an Anglo-Norman watchtower linked to Chepstow Castle, or a later windmill.
After the town of Chepstow developed and a bridge was built over the Wye, the main road between England and Monmouthshire followed the steep hill directly up the river bank, now a footpath, between the bridge and Tutshill, until a new road looping around Castleford Hill was opened in 1808.[1] This road carried traffic between the two counties until a new bridge was built at Chepstow in 1988, whereupon Tutshill was bypassed.
The village was the childhood home, from the age of nine in 1974, of the author J. K. Rowling. She attended Tutshill Church of England Primary School before moving on at the age of eleven to the nearby Wyedean School in Sedbury. Her childhood home, Church Cottage, a mid-19th century Gothic-style Grade II listed buiding designed by the architect Henry Woodyer, was put up for sale in 2011.[2][3]
The character Severus Snape in the Harry Potter books was partly based on Sylvia Morgan, a teacher at her primary school,[4] and on one of her teachers at Wyedean School, John Nettleship.[5] In the book Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, a passage is set in the Forest of Dean, where Harry, Hermione and Ron are camping and discover the Sword of Gryffindor where it has been hidden by Snape. Tutshill is also the home of a fictional professional Quidditch team operating within the Harry Potter universe. The Tutshill Tornados are one of thirteen fictional Quidditch teams that play in the professional Quidditch League of Britain and Ireland that was established in 1674. The team players wear sky-blue robes emblazoned with a double “T” in dark blue on the chest and back. In the early 20th century the fictional team set a British and Irish record by winning the League Cup five times in a row.[6]