Oldbury-on-the-Hill

History

Oldbury-on-the-Hill has been inhabited since prehistoric times, and Nan Tow's Tump, a round barrow beside the A46 road, is a Bronze Age 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 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 and the county boundary with Wiltshire, which is taken to suggest that they were anciently part of Hawkesbury.

The Domesday Book of 1086 calls the village Aldeberie. Before 1066, it was held by Eadric, Sheriff of Wiltshire, and in 1086 by Ernulf de Hesdin. A possible derivation from the name of St Arilda has also been suggested.

In 1342, the tithe 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 by the Didmarton and Oldbury-on-the-Hill Inclosure Act 1829 (10 Geo. 4. c. 4 Pr.).AN ACT for inclosing Lands in the Manors and Parishes of Didmarton and Oldbury-on-the-Hill (HMSO, 1829, 10 Geo. 4. c. 4, 18pp.)

Benjamin Clarke's British Gazetteer (1852) says:

According to The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868):

In 1881 the civil parish had a population of 386. On 25 March 1883 the parish was incorporated into the parish of Didmarton, the two having shared a Rector since 1735.

Parish records

Parish registers 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

Main article: St Arild's Church, Oldbury-on-the-Hill

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 church shares its ancient dedication to St Arilda with the church of Oldbury-on-Severn, some 20 mi away. St Arilda was a Gloucestershire virgin and martyr 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's at Oldbury-on-the-Hill has been declared redundant, so is no longer used for regular worship.

Notes

References

1. [http://abstuk.co.uk/uk/oldbury-on-the-hill Oldbury on the Hill]{{Dead link. (July 2025)
2. [https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/343047 ST8089: Nan Tow's Tump, near to Oldbury on the Hill, Gloucestershire, Great Britain] at www.geograph.org.uk (accessed 13 April 2008)
3. [http://thecotswoldgateway.co.uk/history.htm History of the Cotswolds] at thecotswoldgateway.co.uk (accessed 13 April 2008)
4. [https://www.stonehenge-avebury.net/tours/MegSocWALK.07.StroudAreaGlosMegSites.htm NEOLITHIC-EBA EXCURSION number 7] at stonehenge-avebury.net (accessed 13 April 2008)
5. O'Neil, Helen, & and Grinsell, Leslie, ''Gloucestershire barrows'' in ''Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society'' (1960)
6. [http://www.digital-brilliance.com/hyperg/history/iron_age.htm The Cotswolds - Neolithic, Bronze and Iron Age Sites] at digital-brilliance.com (accessed 13 April 2008)
7. [http://www.megalithic.info/article.php?sid=2069685175 Nan Tow's Tump - Round Barrow(s) in England in Gloucestershire] at megalithic. info (The Megalithic Portal) (accessed 13 April 2008)
8. [http://www.ralphhoyte.net/poems/exeter_riddling_rhymes.html 'The Exeter Riddling Rhymes'] {{Webarchive. link. (24 July 2011 at ralphhoyte.net (accessed 19 April 2008): "Nan Tow's Tump a barrow at Didmarton, south of Stroud. Legend has it that the barrow is unusually high (9ft) rather than long because it was Nan Tow’s, a local witch’s, house and one of the [[Duke of Beaufort). Dukes of Beaufort]] had her buried upright as a punishment for her wickedness."
9. [https://www.countrycottagesonline.com/Self-catering_Country_Cottages_Holiday_Accommodation_in_Gloucestershire.htm Country Cottages Online] at countrycottagesonline.com (accessed 19 April 2008): "Nan Tow a local witch is believed to be buried in a large Bronze Age round barrow on the A46 near Birdlip and Crickley Hills."
10. Barrow, Julia, & Brooks, Nicholas, ''St Wulfstan and His World'' (Ashgate Publishing, 2005, {{ISBN
11. [http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline/details-result.asp?Edoc_Id=7577470&queryType=1&resultcount=13048 Place name: Oldbury on the Hill, Gloucestershire Folio: 169r Great Domesday Book] abstract at nationalarchives.gov.uk (accessed 13 April 2008)
12. A document of 972 gives the name as Ealdanbyri, meaning 'old fortification'.Mills, A. D., ''Oxford Dictionary of British Place Names'' (Oxford University Press, 2003, {{ISBN. 978-0-19-852758-9, {{ISBN. 0-19-852758-6)
13. [http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/nra/searches/subjectView.asp?ID=O13604 Didmarton and Oldbury on the Hill enclosure] at nationalarchives.gov.uk (accessed 13 April 2008)
14. Clarke, Benjamin, ''The British Gazetteer, Political, Commercial, Ecclesiastical, and Historical'', Volume III, L-Z, (London, H. G Collins, 1852) [https://books.google.com/books?id=V84HAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA333 page 333] online at books.google.co.uk (accessed 13 April 2008)
15. Hamilton, N. E. S. (ed.), ''The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland'' (London, J. S. Virtue, 1868)
16. "Population statistics Oldbury on the Hill CP/AP through time". [[A Vision of Britain through Time]].
17. ''Didmarton: A ramble through history'' (Didmarton Parish Council, 2000)
18. "Tetbury Registration District". UKBMD.
19. [http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/nra/searches/subjectView.asp?ID=O123562 Oldbury-on-the-Hill parish] online at nationalarchives.gov.uk (accessed 13 April 2008)
20. [http://www.glosgen.co.uk/oldburyonhillmar.htm Oldbury-on-the-Hill, Gloucestershire, UK, Marriages 1568-1751] {{Webarchive. link. (5 May 2008 online at glosgen.co.uk (accessed 13 April 2008))
21. [http://www.glosgen.co.uk/oldburydidmar.htm Oldbury-on-the-Hill, Gloucestershire, UK, Marriages 1754-1812] {{Webarchive. link. (5 May 2008 online at glosgen.co.uk (accessed 13 April 2008))
22. [http://www.wishful-thinking.org.uk/genuki/GLS/OldburyontheHill/MIs.html Some Memorial Inscriptions - Oldbury on the Hill, Gloucestershire, St Arilda's Churchyard] {{Webarchive. link. (25 June 2007 online at wishful-thinking.org.uk (accessed 13 April 2008))
23. [[William Phillimore Watts Phillimore. Phillimore, W. P. W.]] ‘’et al.’’ Inquisitiones Post Mortem for Gloucestershire’’, vol. IV (British Record Society Index Library, 1903) pp. 73-74
24. [http://people.bath.ac.uk/liskmj/living-spring/sourcearchive/ns5/ns5jb1.htm St Arilda of Oldbury on Severn, Gloucestershire] {{Webarchive. link. (20 May 2011 at bath.ac.uk (accessed 13 April 2008))