Wotton-under-Edge
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Wotton-under-Edge is an attractive market town located near the southern end of the Cotswolds in the county of Gloucestershire, England. The Cotswold Way long-distance footpath passes through the town. It is about five miles from junction 14 of the M5 motorway.
Wotton is home to the engineering company Renishaw plc, whose business is about a mile from the town centre, on a tributary of the Little Avon River.
The town has no railway station, though the former station at Charfield, on the Birmingham-Bristol main line is about one mile away, and has recently been considered for re-opening.
History
The Church is St Mary's, a Mercian church established around 940 AD.One mile SW of Wotton-under-Edge, in 1116 Kingswood Abbey was established. All that now remains is a 16th Century Cistercian gatehouse.
The Katharine Lady Berkeley's Grammar School was built in 1384 and is still a school; (the present modern building is situated a little out of the town, about half-way to the small village of Kingswood) and is now a large comprehensive named Katharine Lady Berkeley's School.
Wotton was traditionally associated with the wool trade it is a common misconception that the name Wotton derives from "Wool Town". In fact the first recorded appearance of the town as such is to be found in a Saxon Royal Charter of King Edmund of Wessex, who in A.D.940 leased four hides of land in WUDETUN to the theign Edrick. The name Wudetun means the enclosure, homestead or village (tun) in or near the wood (wude). The "Edge" refers to the limestone escarpment of the 'Cotswold Edge', which includes the hills of Wotton Hill and Tor Hill that flank the town.
Overlooking the town on the top of Wotton Hill are a collection of trees planted in the 19th century to commemorate the Battle of Waterloo. These are situated on the site that housed one of the early warning beacons used to warn England of the approach of the Spanish Armada in 1588.
Famous sons
- A famous past resident is Sir Isaac Pitman, who invented phonography. He moved to the town in 1836, into Orchard Street, a small side road off Long Street where there is a plaque on the house where he lived. He moved to Bath in 1839. Most of his development of shorthand was done in Wotton.
- Sir Matthew Hale was born in Wotton-under-Edge, and went on to be a remarkable corruption-free Lord Chief Justice (1671-1676).
- Charles Blagden MD, FRS (1748–1820) discovered the role of perspiration in thermoregulation and formulated the law of how salt affects the freezing point of water.
- A famous current resident is poet Charles Tomlinson who lives at Ozleworth.
Further reading
- E.S. Lindley. Wotton under Edge: Men and Affairs of a Cotswold Wool Town.
External links
- [Wotton-under-Edge town council]
- [Wotton Heritage]
- [Wotton-under-Edge.org]
- [Katharine Lady Berkeley's School website]
| Following the Cotswold Way | |
|---|---|
| Towards Bath | Towards Chipping Campden |
| 20km (12 miles) to Old Sodbury | 11km (7 miles) to Dursley |
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