Dyrham is a village and parish in

South Gloucestershire South Gloucestershire is a unitary authority area in the ceremonial county of Gloucestershire, South West England. Towns in the area include Yate, Chipping Sodbury, Thornbury, Filton, Patchway and Bradley Stoke, the latter three forming par ...

, England.

Location and communications

Dyrham is at lat. 51° 29' north, long. 2° 22' west (). It lies at an altitude of 100 metres above sea level. It is near the

A46 trunk road A46 may refer to: Roads: * A46 road, a long distance A road between Bath and Cleethorpes, in England * Bundesautobahn 46, a motorway in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany * A46 autoroute, a motorway in France Other: * Aero A.46 The Aero A.46 was ...

, about north of

Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

and a little south of the

M4 motorway The M4, originally the London-South Wales Motorway, is a motorway in the United Kingdom running from west London to southwest Wales. The English section to the Severn Bridge was constructed between 1961 and 1971; the Welsh element was largely ...

. The

Cotswold Way The Cotswold Way is a long-distance footpath, running along the Cotswold Edge escarpment of the Cotswold Hills in England. It was officially inaugurated as a National Trail on 24 May 2007 and several new rights of way have been created. H ...

long-distance footpath runs through the village.

Administration

Dyrham is administered by the

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of Parish (administrative division), administrative parish used for Local government in England, local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below district ...

of Dyrham & Hinton and by the

unitary authority A unitary authority is a local authority responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are usually performed by a higher level of sub-national government or the national governme ...

. The population of this parish was 296 at the 2011 census.

History

Dyrham is thought to have been the site of the important Battle of Deorham fought in AD 577 between the West Saxons under Ceawlin and Cuthwine, and the

Britons British people or Britons, also known colloquially as Brits, are the citizens of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the British Overseas Territories, and the Crown dependencies.: British nationality law governs m ...

of the

West Country The West Country (occasionally Westcountry) is a loosely defined area of South West England, usually taken to include all, some, or parts of the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset, Bristol, and, less commonly, Wiltshire, Glouce ...

. The outcome of the battle was a decisive win for the West Saxons, allowing them to colonise three important cities, Glevum (

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east of t ...

), Corinium (

Cirencester Cirencester (, ; see below for more variations) is a market town in Gloucestershire, England, west of London. Cirencester lies on the River Churn, a tributary of the River Thames, and is the largest town in the Cotswolds. It is the home of ...

) and

Aquae Sulis Aquae Sulis (Latin for ''Waters of Sulis'') was a small town in the Roman province of Britannia. Today it is the English city of Bath, Somerset. The Antonine Itinerary register of Roman roads lists the town as ''Aquis Sulis.'' Ptolemy record ...

(

). 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 manusc ...

of 1086 records the

tenant-in-chief In medieval and early modern Europe, the term ''tenant-in-chief'' (or ''vassal-in-chief'') denoted a person who held his lands under various forms of feudal land tenure directly from the king or territorial prince to whom he did homage, as opp ...

of Dyrham as William FitzWido who held seven

hides __NOTOC__ Hide or hides may refer to: Common uses * Hide (skin), the cured skin of an animal * Bird hide, a structure for observing birds and other wildlife without causing disturbance * Gamekeeper's hide or hunting hide or hunting blind, a stru ...

in Dyrham, formerly the land of Aluric. The manor passed to the Norman magnate Wynebald de Ballon, and then via the Newmarch family to the Russell family, notably being held by

John Russell John Russell may refer to: Arts and entertainment * John Russell (English painter) (1745–1806), English painter * John Russell (Australian painter) (1858–1930), Australian painter * John Russell (screenwriter) (1885–1956), author and scree ...

(died c.1224) and William Russell (1257–1311). By the 15th century the manor had passed into the Denys family, the most notable holder being William Denys (1470–1533). After the family accumulated debts in the 16th century, the manor was sold to the Wynter family and then the Blathwayte family, who built the present mansion known as Dyrham Park, which is said to incorporate some of the structure of the earlier manor house.

Nearby features

*Dyrham Park. At the edge of the village is Dyrham Park, a spectacular mansion in of parkland built between 1691 and 1702 for William Blathwayt ( William III's Secretary of State and at War)Visit Bristol - Dyrham Park
/ref> and now owned by the

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

. Dyrham Park was used as the set for the 1993 Merchant Ivory film '' The Remains of the Day'' and also for a BBC production of

Dracula ''Dracula'' is a novel by Bram Stoker, published in 1897. As an epistolary novel, the narrative is related through letters, diary entries, and newspaper articles. It has no single protagonist, but opens with solicitor Jonathan Harker taki ...

. *Dyrham Wood. A woodland named Dyrham Wood lies about a mile to the south of the village. *Lower Ledge Farm, south of the village, is where the new Farbio GTS sports car was made.

References

External links

{{South Gloucestershire Villages in South Gloucestershire District