Wotton-under-Edge

infobox UK place
country = England
latitude= 51.6379
longitude= -2.3490
official_name= Wotton-under-Edge
population= 5400 (2001 Census estimate)
shire_district= Stroud
shire_county = Gloucestershire
post_town = WOTTON-UNDER-EDGE
postcode_district = GL12
postcode_area= GL
dial_code= 01453
region= South West England
os_grid_reference = ST758933
constituency_westminster= Cotswold

Wotton-under-Edge (pronounced [ˈwʊtən] ) is a market town within the Stroud district 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, located near the southern end of the Cotswolds.

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.(Archives Hub, 2005) Other historic buildings nearby include the outstanding Tudor houses of Newark Park and Owlpen Manor.

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.

More recently Wotton has encouraged a thriving arts scene, deriving from the 'Under The Edge Arts Centre' which has seen the creation of the 'Groove Project', a youth music group who have become regulars on the local music scene.

In 2002, following the closure of the local Cinema, a group of volunteers got together and raised funds for a refurbishment to become one of the first (if not "the" first all-digital Cinemas in the UK. It re-opened in 2005 as a 100 seat modern facility inside an old stable yard, once part of the Crown Inn which closed in 1911. Films were first shown in the old Banqueting Hall of the Inn and moved to the stable yard some years later, due to the popularity of films. The Wotton Electric Picture House (the original name) is now a thriving venue run by volunteers and showing more films each week than almost any other single screen cinema in the UK. The group of enthusiasts are now looking to raising funds to make films locally, intending to involve all age groups in the production of films.

These iniatives follow on from Wotton under Edges long held Do-it-Yourself approach. In the 1950s local people built their own Town Swimming Pool which still thrives today, also run by volunteers. In the 1970s the pool was converted to Solar heating by yet more local volunteers long before it became "fashionable". In addition the OK Footpath from Wotton to KLB School was financed by local fundraisers allowing local children to walk off-road to school. There are many other examples that can be found with over 120 local organisations to join...Wotton is a good place to visit...let alone live!

Government

The ward of Wotton-Under-Edge is a ward of Stroud Borough Council. As of September 2007 the ward had three elected councilors: John Gowers (Conservative), Christopher Routledge (Conservative), and Paul Smith (Liberal Democrat)

Famous residents

*Sir Isaac Pitman, inventor of Pitman shorthand, lived in the town. He moved 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. A housing estate built in the early 1970s was named in his honour, Pitman Place.
*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.
* Edward Jenner went to school here.
*The poet, essayist and translator Charles Tomlinson lives at Ozleworth.
*The poet U.A. Fanthorpe lives in Wotton under Edge.
*The archaeologist Mark Horton lives in Wotton Under Edge.

Line note references

* [http://www.archiveshub.ac.uk/news/02101502.html Archives Hub profile: Kingswood Abbey]
* [http://www.luminatechnologies.org/luminaaw2.html C. Michael Hogan and Amy Gregory, "History and Architecture of Calcot Manor", Lumina Technologies, Calcot Manor, July 5, 2006]

Getting to Wotton

Buses to Wotton include the 40 and 504 from Stroud, 310 and 309 from Bristol and Dursley, 686 from Kingswood, Bristol, 627 from Yate and 201 from Thornbury and Gloucester.

Further reading

* E.S. Lindley. "Wotton under Edge: Men and Affairs of a Cotswold Wool Town".

External links

* [http://wotton-under-edge.com/ Wotton-under-Edge town council]
* [http://www.wottonheritage.com/ Wotton Heritage]
* [http://wotton-under-edge.org/ Wotton-under-Edge.org]
* [http://www.wottoneph.co.uk/ Wotton Electric Picture House(Cinema circa 1913-refurb 2005)]