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Uley

Coordinates: 51°41′02″N 2°18′19″W / 51.68396°N 2.30515°W / 51.68396; -2.30515
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Not to be confused with Ulley.

Uley
Uley is located in Gloucestershire
Uley
Uley
Location within Gloucestershire
Population1,151 (2011)[1]
OS grid referenceST790984
District
Shire county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townDursley
Postcode districtGL11
Dialling code01453
PoliceGloucestershire
FireGloucestershire
AmbulanceSouth Western
UK Parliament
List of places
UK
England
Gloucestershire
51°41′02″N 2°18′19″W / 51.68396°N 2.30515°W / 51.68396; -2.30515

Uley /ˈjuːli/ is a village and civil parish in the county of Gloucestershire, England.[2] The parish includes the hamlets of Elcombe and Shadwell and Bencombe, all to the south of the village of Uley, and the hamlet of Crawley to the north. The village is situated in a wooded valley in the Cotswold escarpment, on the B4066 road between Dursley and Stroud.

In 2011 the population of the civil parish was 1,151, but was much greater during the early years of the industrial revolution, when the village was renowned for producing blue cloth. The placename (recorded as Euuelege in the Domesday Book) probably signifies 'clearing in a yew wood'.

History

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Uley, with Uley Bury rising behind it, as seen from Bencombe

The Romans built a temple at West Hill, near Uley, on the site of an earlier prehistoric shrine. Following the laying of a water main pipe there in 1976, many discoveries were made including numerous Roman writing tablets [3] or lead curse tablets from the temple area. These writing tablets appear often to relate to theft, and here the mention of animals and farm implements is a regular theme. There is an ongoing, online project to catalogue all those found at West Hill.[4] Other remains from this temple, including a fine stone head of Mercury, can now be seen in the British Museum.[5] There were significant Roman villas nearby at Frocester, Kingscote, and Woodchester, and there is a little-known Roman villa beneath Cam Peak on the road into Dursley.

St Giles's Church near the village green was designed by the 19th-century architect Samuel Sanders Teulon. His building replaced an earlier church dating back to Norman times, which had in its turn replaced a Saxon church. The nearby church of the Holy Cross at Owlpen also has Saxon origins: the church there was rebuilt in 1828 by Samuel Manning and enlarged and decorated in 1876 by James Piers St Aubyn. There were also non-conformist chapels at South St and Whitecourt until the early 1970s.

The village was once famous for its large number of pubs (around 14), lately reduced to a single hostelry (The Old Crown). Until the 1970s there was also a butcher's shop and a petrol station, these were subsequently replaced by antique shops and occasional restaurants, and now only a small village shop remains.

St Giles' church and the Old Crown pub, from the village green

The area surrounding Whitecourt appears to have some considerable historical significance, with long associations to the Osborne family and a possible Roman road transecting from Kingscote to the East via Bencombe, crossing the Ewelme brook close to the previous mill buildings opposite Stouts hill and then transiting what is now Lampern View before exiting west towards Cam/Coaley;[6] elements clearly visible just uphill of Bencombe (as the road veers 90 degrees to the north) and to the West opposite the entrance to Angeston Grainge/Nursery (where it enters the wood as a paved and walled causeway.

The increased mechanisation of agriculture in the area (arable on top of the escarpment, sheep on it and cattle in the valleys) led to a gradual decline during the inter-war periods and this led to the construction of three local authority housing estates - South Street, Lampern View and Raglan Way. However, increased mobility following the construction of the M4 and the Severn Bridge in the mid-1960s, together with an influx of skilled/managerial/professional workers following the establishment of such facilities as the Berkeley power station, led to a steady gentrification of the village, witnessed by the construction of substantial detached homes, for example at Court Gardens, South Street and Green Close.

During the 1920s, Miss Edna Cunningham, brought a baby gorilla to Uley who she named John Daniel.[7] He had been bought by her brother from a London department store. The gorilla was raised as a normal child by Miss Cunningham and he played with the village children. However, when John Daniel grew too large, Cunningham sold him to an American who told her he was to be homed in a special reserve in Florida.[7] Instead he was sold to the Barnum & Bailey Circus to be exhibited at Madison Square Gardens in New York. John Daniel became extremely depressed. When Miss Cunningham heard he was gravely ill, she travelled to America but he died of pneumonia before she arrived.[7] His body was stuffed, which remains on display at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.[8]

Economy

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Uley Brewery was established in the 1980s, in a Grade II listed building that had been part of the 1833 Price Brewery which closed at the end of the 19th century. Its range of ales includes Old Spot Prize Ale, a 5% abv old ale, and Uley Bitter, a 4% abv cask bitter.[9]

Amenities and surrounding locality

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The following amenities and attractions are available in and around the village:

  • North of the village is a Neolithic burial mound known as Hetty Pegler's Tump[10] or Uley Long Barrow.
  • The Prema Arts Centre,[11] founded in the 1970s, is located in a former Baptist Chapel in the village and offers educational courses in the arts and crafts, musical evenings, workshops, cultural events and evening classes in many subjects.
  • Uley CofE VC primary school has around 100 pupils. Uley Primary School[12] can be found in Woodstock Terrace. The school was rated 'good' by Ofsted and 'outstanding' by SIAS, both in 2012.[13]
  • A Reading Room (Library) burned down in the mid-1960s and has not been replaced.
  • An ancient Iron Age hill fort called Uley Bury[14] lies just above the village. The Cotswold Way,[15] a popular trail path, runs close by.
  • Downham Hill lies just to the west. It is also known as 'Smallpox Hill' because of the smallpox isolation facility that stood on the top of the hill many years ago. It is believed to be among the oldest isolation hospitals in England. Masonry from the buildings remains visible at the site. Near the hilltop are remnants of a tower-like dwelling constructed in 1346 during the reign of Edward III. Area to the north of the hill was used for rabbit breeding during the middle ages.[16][17]
  • To the east is Owlpen Manor,[18] a Tudor manor house connected with the Arts and Crafts movement, mainly built from the mid-fifteenth to early seventeenth centuries, but dating back to Saxon times. It was repaired by Norman Jewson in 1925–26, after one hundred years of neglect. Today it is a home of the Mander family.
  • Stouts Hill, a neo-Gothic country house just outside the village, was the birthplace of the Gloucestershire historian Samuel Rudder and of the distinguished Persian scholar Edward Granville Browne. Built for the Gyde family, from the 1770s it was a seat of the Lloyd-Baker family, who in the 20th century let the house as a preparatory school. It included amongst its alumni Mark Phillips, Stephen Fry and Rik Mayall, but closed down in 1979.[19][20]

People

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  • Brigadier Mike Dauncey lived in the village until his death in August 2017.[21]
  • Richard Clyburn invented an early adjustable spanner.[22]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Parish population 2011". Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 29 March 2015.
  2. ^ "Uley village website". Archived from the original on 6 January 2008. Retrieved 6 December 2007.
  3. ^ "Roman writing tablets in Uley". Archived from the original on 28 August 2011. Retrieved 2 December 2006.
  4. ^ "West Hill Project". Archived from the original on 9 March 2005. Retrieved 2 December 2006.
  5. ^ "British Museum Collection". Archived from the original on 22 December 2017. Retrieved 15 June 2017.
  6. ^ "Uley Pages 121-123 Ancient and Historical Monuments in the County of Gloucester Iron Age and Romano-British Monuments in the Gloucestershire Cotswolds". British History Online. Her Majesty's Stationery Office. Archived from the original on 16 March 2017. Retrieved 10 August 2020.
  7. ^ a b c "The Gorilla Who Was Brought up as a Boy in an English Village". www.medium.com. 5 February 2021. Archived from the original on 10 February 2021. Retrieved 10 February 2021.
  8. ^ "John Daniel info". Archived from the original on 19 July 2011. Retrieved 9 May 2009.
  9. ^ "Uley". ratebeer.com. Archived from the original on 18 September 2009. Retrieved 13 July 2009.
  10. ^ "Hetty Pegler's Tump". Archived from the original on 8 September 2005. Retrieved 21 August 2005.
  11. ^ "Prema Arts Centre". Archived from the original on 7 January 2020. Retrieved 10 August 2020.
  12. ^ "Uley Primary School website". Archived from the original on 8 January 2010. Retrieved 10 May 2009.
  13. ^ "Documents and Reports". Uleyprimary.co.uk. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 29 March 2015.
  14. ^ "Uley Bury". Archived from the original on 5 May 2005. Retrieved 21 August 2005.
  15. ^ "Cotswold Way". Archived from the original on 31 August 2005. Retrieved 27 August 2005.
  16. ^ "The Three Hills" (PDF). Strolling in the Stroud District. Archived (PDF) from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 29 March 2015.
  17. ^ "Defra, UK - Rural Affairs". Cwr.naturalengland.org.uk. 3 December 2007. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 29 March 2015.
  18. ^ "Owlpen Manor". Archived from the original on 15 June 2006. Retrieved 11 June 2006.
  19. ^ Leake, Natasha (29 March 2023). "Escape to the country with this £6 million Georgian Gothic style home in the heart of the Cotswolds". Tatler.
  20. ^ Delicto (12 May 2018). "Gloucestershire - Stouts Hill". House and Heritage.
  21. ^ "Brigadier Mike Dauncey". The Times. Archived from the original on 31 August 2017. Retrieved 10 August 2020.
  22. ^ Parkes, Josiah (1845). Murray, John (ed.). "Report on the exhibition of implements". The Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England. XVIII: 388.

Bibliography

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  • Ann Woodward and Peter Leach, The Uley Shrines: Excavation of a ritual complex on West Hill, Uley 1977-79 (1993), English Heritage, ISBN 1-85074-303-7
  • Alan Saville, Uley Bury and Norbury Hillforts (1983), Western Archaeological Trust, ISBN 0-904918-20-3
  • Ed. Alan Bebbington, A History of Uley, Gloucestershire (2003), The Uley Society, ISBN 0-9544525-0-X
  • Eilert Ekwall, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-names 4th edition. Oxford University Press, 1960, ISBN 0-19-869103-3

Further reading

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  • Lloyd-Baker, M. [May] Ruth. (n.d.) The Story of Uley. Dursley: Gazette Office.
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