Oldbury-on-the-Hill is a small village and former

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

, England, ninety-three miles west of

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

and less than north of the village of Didmarton.

History

Oldbury-on-the-Hill has been inhabited since prehistoric times, and Nan Tow's Tump, a round barrow beside the

A46 road The A46 is a major A road in England. It starts east of Bath, Somerset and ends in Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire, but it does not form a continuous route. Large portions of the old road have been lost, bypassed, or replaced by motorway developmen ...

, is a

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...

earthwork and archaeological site. The tree-grown barrow is about thirty metres in diameter and three metres high. The name refers to Nan Tow, said to have been a local

witch Witchcraft traditionally means the use of magic or supernatural powers to harm others. A practitioner is a witch. In medieval and early modern Europe, where the term originated, accused witches were usually women who were believed to have us ...

who was buried upright in the barrow. The parishes of Oldbury-on-the-Hill and Didmarton were together surrounded on all sides by the parish of

Hawkesbury Hawkesbury or Hawksbury may refer to: People *Baron Hawkesbury, or Charles Jenkinson, 1st Earl of Liverpool (1727-1808), English statesman Places ;Geography *Hawkesbury Island, an island in British Columbia, Canada * Hawkesbury Island, Queensland ...

and the county boundary with

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

, which is taken to suggest that they were anciently part of Hawkesbury.Barrow, Julia, & Brooks, Nicholas, ''St Wulfstan and His World'' (Ashgate Publishing, 2005, )
pp. 158-159
online at books.google.co.uk (accessed 13 April 2008) The

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...

of 1086 calls the village Aldeberie. Before 1066, it was held by Eadric, Sheriff of Wiltshire, and in 1086 by

Ernulf de Hesdin Ernulf de Hesdin (died 1097), also transcribed as ''Arnulf'' and ''Ernulphe'', was a French knight who took part in the Norman conquest of England and became a major landholder under William the Conqueror and William Rufus, featuring prominent ...

. A document of 972 gives the name as Ealdanbyri, meaning 'old fortification'. A possible derivation from the name of St Arilda has also been suggested. In 1342, the

tithe A tithe (; from Old English: ''teogoþa'' "tenth") is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a contribution to a religious organization or compulsory tax to government. Today, tithes are normally voluntary and paid in cash or cheques or more ...

of hay and other lesser tithes in Didmarton and Oldbury-on-the-Hill belonging to Badminton church were assessed at £4 13s. 4d. Together with neighbouring Didmarton, the parish was subject to

enclosure Enclosure or Inclosure is a term, used in English landownership, that refers to the appropriation of "waste" or " common land" enclosing it and by doing so depriving commoners of their rights of access and privilege. Agreements to enclose land ...

in 1829. Benjamin Clarke's ''British Gazetteer'' (1852) says: According to ''The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland'' (1868): On 25 March 1883, Oldbury-on-the-Hill was incorporated into the civil parish of Didmarton, the two having shared a

Rector Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to: Style or title *Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations *Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...

since 1735.

Parish records

Parish register A parish register in an ecclesiastical parish is a handwritten volume, normally kept in the parish church in which certain details of religious ceremonies marking major events such as baptisms (together with the dates and names of the parents), ma ...

s for Oldbury-on-the-Hill survive from as early as 1568, and all surviving records for the period 1568 to 1978 are deposited at the Gloucester Record Office. Monumental inscriptions from St Arilda's churchyard include the names Alcock, Baker, Bayliss, Chappell, Clark, Cockram, Dale, Fry, Gunter, Hatherell, Hatherle, Holborow, Holobrow, Long, Pirtt, Rice, Thompson, Toghill, Verrinder, Walker, Watts, Webb, White, and Yorke.

Parish church

The earliest record so far found of a church at Oldbury-on-the-Hill occurs in 1273, when there is a mention of a ‘free chapel’ there. In 1291, the Rector of Great Badminton had a portion of 8s. and 6d. in the chapel of Oldbury. The oldest part of the present medieval parish church of Oldbury is estimated to date from the 14th century.Verey, D., ''The Buildings of England: Gloucestershire: The Cotswolds'' (London, Penguin Books, 1974) p. 351 The church shares its ancient dedication to St Arilda with the church of

Oldbury-on-Severn Oldbury-on-Severn is a small village near the mouth of the River Severn in the South Gloucestershire district of the county of Gloucestershire in the west of England. The parish, which includes the village of Cowhill had a population at the 2011 ...

, some away. St Arilda was a Gloucestershire virgin and

martyr A martyr (, ''mártys'', "witness", or , ''marturia'', stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an externa ...

who lived at an uncertain time before the Norman conquest of England at Kington, near Thornbury, which is now in the parish of Oldbury-on-Severn. Her feast day is 20 July.St Arilda of Oldbury on Severn, Gloucestershire
at bath.ac.uk (accessed 13 April 2008) St Arilda's at Oldbury-on-the-Hill has been declared redundant, so is no longer used for regular worship.

Notes

External links

at genuki.org.uk

page at rootsweb.ancestry.com, with photograph of St Arilda's Church, Oldbury-on-the-Hill

at wishful-thinking.org.uk
Oldbury-on-the-Hill location map
from google.co.uk/maps

at geodaisy.com (includes current weather report and weather forecast for next ten days)

at genuki.org.uk {{authority control Villages in Gloucestershire Cotswold District