Daylesford, Gloucestershire

Daylesford
St Peters Church
OS grid reference	SP243259
Civil parish	Adlestrop
District	Cotswold
Shire county	Gloucestershire
Region	South West
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	MORETON-IN-MARSH
Postcode district	GL56
Dialling code	01451
Police	Gloucestershire
Fire	Gloucestershire
Ambulance	South Western
UK Parliament	Cotswold

Daylesford is a small village in Gloucestershire, England, on the border with Oxfordshire. It is situated off the A436 near Stow-on-the-Wold and five miles west of Chipping Norton. The village is on the north bank of the small River Evenlode. The landscape falls within the Cotswold Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, so designated in 1966.

In the medieval period the manor was held by the Hastings family. Until 1931 Daylesford was a detached part of Worcestershire, but in that year it was transferred to Gloucestershire. It was a separate civil parish until 1935, when it was absorbed into the civil parish of Adlestrop.

Daylesford House

In 1788 it was acquired by Warren Hastings, Governor-General of India, a descendant of its medieval owners. In the following years, he remodelled the mansion, Daylesford House, to the designs of Samuel Pepys Cockerell, with magnificent classical and Indian decoration (a style later developed successfully at Sezincote House nearby). The gardens were landscaped by John Davenport.

Warren Hastings also rebuilt the Norman Church of St Peter in 1816, where he was buried two years later. The church was again rebuilt to the designs of J.L. Pearson in 1859-63.

In the 20th century, the house and estate has been the property of Viscount Rothermere, who restored the house with the help of the interior decorator John Fowler, and Baron Heinrich Thyssen. It is currently the Gloucestershire home of Sir Anthony and Lady Bamford, major shareholders in the J. C. Bamford excavator company.

The lakeside gardens with wooded walks and unusual trees and shrubs are open to the public in the summer months. There is a popular farm shop on the estate, which sells organic food under the Daylesford Organic brand.

References

• Nicholas Mander, Country Houses of the Cotswolds (Aurum Press, 2008)

External links

• 'Parishes: Daylesford', A History of the County of Worcester: volume 3 (1913) British History Online
• "Harvest Festival in the Countryside". Jasper Conran.