Frocester

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Coordinates: 51°43′N 2°19′W / 51.72°N 2.31°W / 51.72; -2.31
Frocester

Village centre
Frocester

 Frocester shown within Gloucestershire
OS grid reference SO7803
Civil parish Frocester
District Stroud
Shire county Gloucestershire
Region South West
Country England
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Post town Stonehouse
Postcode district GL10
Dialling code 01453
Police Gloucestershire
Fire Gloucestershire
Ambulance Great Western
EU Parliament South West England
UK Parliament Stroud
List of places
UK
England
Gloucestershire

Frocester (/ˈfrɒstər/ FROS-tər)[1] is a village and civil parish in Stroud District, Gloucestershire, England. It lies below the Cotswold escarpment, 10 miles south of Gloucester and 4 miles west of Stroud. In the 2001 census the parish had a population of 194.[2]

Frocester was the site of a Roman settlement, on a Roman road which ran from Cirencester to Arlingham. The remains of a Roman villa have been excavated in the grounds of Frocester Court,[3] and another near the remains of St Peters Church.[4] The name of the village, first recorded in the Domesday Book as Frowecestre, means "Roman town on the Frome",[5] although the River Frome is just beyond the present northern boundary of the parish.

In 1726 the line of the Roman road became a turnpike road, and formed part of the coaching route between Gloucester and Bath. Use of the road declined in the 19th century, and it is now a minor road.

Between 1844 and 1961, Frocester had a railway station on the Bristol and Gloucester Railway, later the Midland Railway.

For the past 33 years, Frocester has been the site of the Frocester Beer Festival, organised by the Dursley Lions as a fund-raising event. Usually over 100 beers, from all over the British Isles, are offered at this popular event.[6]

Frocester Court

Frocester Court is a Grade II* listed building within the village.[7] Once much larger, it was vastly reduced in size in the mid 19th century.[8] The Victorian rebuilding of the house and its precincts hid many medieval features which remain in situ. Parts of the house predate the Reformation, while other parts date from the 15th century. The grounds have a late medieval dovecote and a 14th-century tithe barn.[9]

References

  1. BBC Pronouncing Dictionary of British Names (1983), Oxford University Press ISBN 0-19-212976-7
  2. ONS 2001 census
  3. English Heritage Pastscape: Frocester Court Roman Villa
  4. English Heritage Pastscape: St Peters Church
  5. Mills, A.D. and Room, A. A Dictionary of British Place-Names Oxford University Press
  6. Dursley Lions website
  7. "Frocester Court, Frocester". britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/. Retrieved 21 August 2013. 
  8. David Verey & Alan Brooks. Gloucestershire 2:The Vale and the Forest of Dean. Yale University Press. New Haven and London. 2002. ISBN 0-300-09733-6.
  9. English Heritage Pastscape: Frocester Court

External links

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