Editing Deerhurst

{{Short description|Village in Gloucestershire, England}}
{{other uses}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2015}}
{{Use British English|date=March 2015}}
{{infobox UK place
|official_name= Deerhurst
|static_image_name= Deerhurst Church and Priory Farm - geograph.org.uk - 1732942.jpg
|static_image_caption= St Mary's Church and Priory Farmhouse
|coordinates= {{coord|51.96|-2.19|display=inline,title}}
|os_grid_reference= SO869295
|population= 906
|population_ref= ([[United Kingdom Census 2011|2011 Census]]) (parish, including [[Apperley]] and Deerhurst Walton)
|shire_district= [[Tewkesbury (borough)|Tewkesbury]]
|shire_county= [[Gloucestershire]]
|region= South West England
|country= England
|constituency_westminster= [[Tewkesbury (UK Parliament constituency)|Tewkesbury]]
|post_town= Gloucester
|postcode_district = GL19
|postcode_area= GL
|dial_code= 01452
|website= [http://www.apperley-deerhurst.co.uk/ Apperley and Deerhurst]
}}

'''Deerhurst''' is a village and [[civil parish]] in [[Gloucestershire]], England, about {{convert|2|mi|0}} southwest of [[Tewkesbury]]. The village is on the east bank of the [[River Severn]]. The parish includes the village of [[Apperley]] and the hamlet of Deerhurst Walton. The [[United Kingdom Census 2011|2011 Census]] recorded the parish's population as 906,<ref>{{cite web |url= https://neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadKeyFigures.do?a=7&b=11122652&c=GL19+4BZ&d=16&e=62&g=6428250&i=1001x1003x1032x1004&m=0&r=0&s=1427897327831&enc=1 |title=Deerhurst |work=[[Neighbourhood Statistics]] |publisher=[[Office for National Statistics]] |access-date= 1 April 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402112852/https://neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadKeyFigures.do?a=7&b=11122652&c=GL19+4BZ&d=16&e=62&g=6428250&i=1001x1003x1032x1004&m=0&r=0&s=1427897327831&enc=1 |archive-date=2 April 2015 |df=dmy}}</ref> the majority of whom live in Apperley.

The [[Toponymy|place-name]] is derived from [[Old English]] and means "deer-wood". It was spelt ''Deorhyrst'' in AD 804, ''Dorhirst'' in about 1050 and ''Derherste'' in the [[Domesday Book]] in 1086.{{sfn|Ekwall|1960|loc=Apperley|p=140}}

==Geography==
The parish has an area of about {{convert|3137|acre}}, bounded by the Severn to the west, the [[A38 road]] to the east and [[Coombe Hill Canal]] to the south.{{sfn|Elrington|1968|pp=34–49}}

The parish is low-lying and much of it is repeatedly flooded. After serious flooding in 1947 several cottages were abandoned and demolished.{{sfn|Elrington|1968|pp=34–49}} Deerhurst was inundated again by the [[2007 United Kingdom floods|floods of 2007]].<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.floodingblog.blogspot.com |title=Flooding Blog |date=26 August 2012 }}</ref>

==Priory and parish church==
{{Main|St Mary's Priory Church, Deerhurst}}
By AD 804 there was a [[Order of Saint Benedict|Benedictine]] monastery at Deerhurst, which also held the [[Manorialism|manor]]. In about 1060 King [[Edward the Confessor]] divided the manor. He granted the monastery, with one [[Hide (unit)|hide]] of land, to the [[Basilica of St Denis|Abbey of St Denis]] in France,{{sfn|Page|1907|pp=103–105}} making it an [[alien priory]]. But the larger part of the land, assessed at five hides, he granted to [[Westminster Abbey]].{{sfn|Elrington|1968|pp=34–49}}

Deerhurst Priory ceased to be an alien house in 1443 and [[the Crown]] granted it to [[Tewkesbury Abbey]] in 1467. Both the abbey and the priory were [[Dissolution of the Monasteries|dissolved in 1540]].{{sfn|Page|1907|pp=103–105}}

The [[St Mary's Priory Church, Deerhurst|priory church of St Mary]], built in the 8th, 9th and 10th centuries AD, survives as Deerhurst's [[Church of England parish church]]. It has been described as "an [[Anglo-Saxon architecture|Anglo-Saxon]] monument of the first order"{{sfn|Verey|1970|p=16}} and is a [[Listed building#Categories of listed building|Grade I listed building]].<ref>{{NHLE |num=1151998 |desc=The Church of St Mary |grade=I |accessdate=11 April 2018}}</ref>

[[File:Priory Farm, Deerhurst, Glos - geograph.org.uk - 1397059.jpg|thumb|Priory Farmhouse]]
Part of another building of the priory survives in Priory Farmhouse, which adjoins the church. In its cellar is an 11th- or 12th-century column, but most of the core of the building seems to be 14th-century{{sfn|Verey|1970|p=169}} and later. After the dissolution in 1540 the building was converted into a farmhouse. It is a Grade I listed building.<ref>{{NHLE |num=1088700 |desc=The Priory Farmhouse |grade=I |accessdate=11 April 2018}}</ref>

==Odda's Chapel and Abbot's Court==
{{Main|Odda's Chapel}}
[[File:Odda chapel Deerhurst.jpg|thumb|Odda's Chapel and Abbot's Court]]
[[Odda of Deerhurst]] founded [[Odda's Chapel]] in 1056 as a [[chantry]] for his brother Ælfric, who had died in 1053.{{sfn|Verey|1970|p=170}} [[Chantry#Abolition of Chantries Acts, 1545 and 1547|Chantries were abolished]] in the 16th century and the chapel ceased to be used for worship.

Early in the 17th century a timber-framed house, Abbot's Court, was built next to it as the manor house for the Westminster Abbey's estate.{{sfn|Elrington|1968|pp=34–49}} The former chapel was converted into the service wing of the house.<ref>{{NHLE |num=1088697 |desc=Abbot's Court |grade=II |accessdate=11 April 2018}}</ref> The chapel is a [[Grade I listed building]].<ref>{{NHLE |num=1304997 |desc=Odda's Chapel |grade=I |accessdate=11 April 2018}}</ref>

==Deerhurst Manor==
After dissolving the priory in 1540, the Crown leased its manor to a George Throckmorton. It remained with his heirs until 1604, when a Thomas Throckmorton sold it to Thomas Cassey of Wightfield Manor near Apperley.{{sfn|Elrington|1968|pp=34–49}}

In 1615 the Cassey sold the manor to [[Thomas Coventry, 1st Baron Coventry|Thomas Coventry]], who in 1628 was created [[Earl of Coventry#Barons Coventry (1628)|Baron Coventry]]. In 1697 the [[Thomas Coventry, 1st Earl of Coventry|5th Baron Coventry]] was created [[Earl of Coventry]] and at the [[subsidiary title]] "[[Viscount]] Deerhurst" was created for his [[heir apparent]].{{sfn|Elrington|1968|pp=34–49}}

In 1964 trustees for the [[George William Coventry, 11th Earl of Coventry|11th Earl of Coventry]] still held an estate of {{convert|294|acre}} at Deerhurst. The Coventry family has never lived at Deerhurst: its seat is at [[Croome Court]] in [[Worcestershire]].{{sfn|Elrington|1968|pp=34–49}}

==School==
[[File:Formerly Deerhurst School - geograph.org.uk - 987317.jpg|thumb|Former National School]]
A [[National school (England and Wales)|National School]] was built in Deerhurst in 1856.{{sfn|Verey|1970|p=171}} Apperley had its own school until 1923, when it was closed and its pupils were transferred to Deerhurst. By 1964 it was a primary school, and children over the age of 11 attended secondary schools in Tewkesbury.{{sfn|Elrington|1968|pp=34–49}} The school has since moved to Apperley,<ref>[https://www.deerhurst.gloucs.sch.uk/ Deerhurst and Apperley C of E Primary School]</ref> and the building in Deerhurst has been converted into two private houses.

==Legend==
There is a local legend that a [[dragon]] once ravaged the area, until a man called John Smith killed it with an axe.{{sfn|Elrington|1968|pp=34–49}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
*{{cite book|last=Ekwall|first=Eilert|author-link=Eilert Ekwall|title=The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place Names|year=1960|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-869103-7}}
*{{cite book |editor-last=Elrington |editor-first=CR |editor-link=Christopher Elrington |year=1968 |chapter=Deerhurst |title=A History of the County of Gloucester |volume=VIII |series=[[Victoria County History]] |place=London |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] for the [[Institute of Historical Research]] |isbn=978-0197227244 |pages=34–49 |url= http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/glos/vol8/pp34-49 }}
*{{cite book |editor-last=Page |editor-first=William |editor-link=William Page (historian) |year=1907 |chapter=The Priory of Deerhurst |title=A History of the County of Gloucester |volume=II |series=[[Victoria County History]] |place=Westminster |publisher=[[Archibald Constable]] & Co |isbn=978-0712905558 |pages=103–105 |url= http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/glos/vol2/pp103-105 }}
*{{cite book |last=Rahtz |first=Philip |author-link=Philip Rahtz |year=2001 |title=Deerhurst Above and Below Ground |publisher=Friends of Deerhurst Church |isbn=0-9521199-5-1}}
*{{cite book |last=Verey |first=David |year=1970 |title=Gloucestershire: The Vale and the Forest of Dean |series=[[Pevsner Architectural Guides#Buildings of England|The Buildings of England]] |volume=2 |place=Harmondsworth |publisher=[[Penguin Books]] |pages=166–171 }}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Deerhurst}}
*[http://www.apperley-deerhurst.co.uk/ Apperley and Deerhurst]
*{{cite web |url= http://englishbuildings.blogspot.com/2009/01/deerhurst-gloucestershire.html |last=Wilkinson |first=Philip |work=English Buildings |title=Deerhurst, Gloucestershire – Lost and Found |date=6 January 2009 |publisher=Blogspot}}
*{{cite web |url= http://englishbuildings.blogspot.com/2009/01/deerhurst-gloucestershire_09.html |last=Wilkinson |first=Philip |work=English Buildings |title=Deerhurst, Gloucestershire – Saxon Severnside |date=9 January 2009 |publisher=Blogspot}}

{{Severn from Bewdley to Gloucester}}

{{authority control}}

[[Category:Civil parishes in Gloucestershire]]
[[Category:Populated places on the River Severn]]
[[Category:Borough of Tewkesbury]]
[[Category:Villages in Gloucestershire]]
[[Category:Scheduled monuments in Gloucestershire]]