Miserden is a village and

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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

Stroud District Stroud District is a local government district in Gloucestershire, England. The district is named after its largest town of Stroud. The council is based at Ebley Mill in the district of Cainscross, west of central Stroud. The district also ...

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( , ; abbreviated Glos.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire ...

, England, north east of

Stroud Stroud is a market town and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England. It is the main town in Stroud District. The town's population was 13,500 in 2021. Sited below the western escarpment of the Cotswold Hills, at the meeting point of the ...

. The parish includes Whiteway Colony and the hamlets of Sudgrove and The Camp. In the 2001 census the parish had a population of 420, increasing to 449 at the 2011 census. The village lies in the

Cotswolds The Cotswolds ( ) is a region of central South West England, along a range of rolling hills that rise from the meadows of the upper River Thames to an escarpment above the Severn Valley and the Vale of Evesham. The area is defined by the bedroc ...

at an elevation of over above the valley of the River Frome. Until the Middle Ages, Miserden was known as Greenhampstead, and was mentioned by that name in 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 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

. The name Miserden derives from ''Musardera'', "Musard's manor" - Musard was the name of the family which held the manor at the time of the Domesday Book. Robert Musard built Miserden Castle in the 12th century.

In fiction

The battle and siege scenes in '' Brother Cadfael's Penance'' by Ellis Peters (a pen name of

Edith Pargeter Edith Mary Pargeter (28 September 1913 – 14 October 1995), also known by her pen name Ellis Peters, was an English author of works in many categories, especially history and historical fiction, and was also honoured for her translations of ...

) are set in the castle built by the Musard family, given the name of "La Musarderie" in the novel. The story is set in the 12th century, in December 1145 as

the Anarchy The Anarchy was a civil war in England and Duchy of Normandy, Normandy between 1138 and 1153, which resulted in a widespread breakdown in law and order. The conflict was a war of succession precipitated by the accidental death of William Adel ...

reaches stalemate. The book includes a map of Greenhamsted, the castle and nearby

Winstone Winstone is a village and civil parish in the English county of Gloucestershire. The population taken at the 2011 census was 270. Winstone forms part of the Cotswold District. The Anglican Church of St Bartholomew was built in the 11th cen ...

, and the road that leads either to Gloucester or the other way, to Cirencester, to an Augustinian monastery.

Church

The

Church of England parish church A parish church in the Church of England is the church which acts as the religious centre for the people within each Church of England parish (the smallest and most basic Church of England administrative unit; since the 19th century sometimes ...

, dedicated to St Andrew, is of

Saxon The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...

origin, though one leading authority has commented severely that "most of its archaeological interest was destroyed in the drastic nineteenth-century restoration". However, the same authority concedes that "the

sanctuary A sanctuary, in its original meaning, is a sacred space, sacred place, such as a shrine, protected by ecclesiastical immunity. By the use of such places as a haven, by extension the term has come to be used for any place of safety. This seconda ...

is beautiful" and also praises the monuments in the church to Sir William Sandys (d.1640) and William Kingston (d.1614). The church is a

Grade II* listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

. Miserden War Memorial is opposite the church. The memorial was designed by the renowned architect

Sir Edwin Lutyens Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens ( ; 29 March 1869 – 1 January 1944) was an English architect known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era. He designed many English country houses, war memorials ...

and is a grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

House and gardens

The original house was constructed in the 1620s with a large garden laid out at around the same time. A large area of glass houses was added in the early part of the 20th century, now used to house a Nursery and Cafe for visitors. Further additions and reshaping of the garden were done by

Edwin Lutyens Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens ( ; 29 March 1869 – 1 January 1944) was an English architect known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era. He designed many English country houses, war memorials ...

, who contributed the five-bay Tuscan loggia. The gardens are today open to the public.

References

External links

{{authority control Villages in Gloucestershire Stroud District Civil parishes in Gloucestershire