EARLIEST
TIMES (back to top)
There is much local evidence of the habitation of the hills
around Shurdington by Stone Age Man. The great number of camps
on the spurs of the Cotswolds, overlooking the Severn, between
Stroud and Cheltenham, must have served some special purpose,
possibly for defence against danger from the river, or perhaps
raids from beyond the river. Whatever the danger, it appears
to have lasted into Roman times, and may account for their
great camp at Dowdeswell. Stone Age man had his home on all
the notable hill-tops in the vicinity, including Cleeve,
Leckhampton, Birdlip, Cranham, Painswick and Churchdown, with
a burial ground on the top of Shurdingtion Hill amongst other
places, with linking trackways such as the Green Street of
Brockworth and the Greenway of our
own neighbourhood. (back to top)
EARLY
HISTORY (back to
top)
In the far-off days, when Britain was densely forested, and
large areas were covered by swamps and marshes, the ancient
tribes that lived here made good use of higher ground, and
the tracks or ways that they trod were later used by the
Romans, developed and continued, becoming a remarkable
network, linking the great towns built by these enterprising
invaders.
There is much local evidence of the
habitations of our hills by these early tribes, the Ancient
Britons; the camps, the burial-places and the communicating
tracks.
When the Saxon tribes eventually defeated
the Romano-British forces, groups of men, or even
individuals, settled in places already to be found, or
created new settlements. These settlements which may have
been single farmsteads or villages were called tuns, hams or
worths, and by prefixing either a personal name, or a
descriptive name, place-names were created, and so much did
these names become part of our old English language, that
the subsequent Norman invasion, in many cases had little or
no influence on them, and indeed they remain to this day. So
it is with Shurdington, and our neighbouring parishes.
The foundations of our English Society
were laid in these early days, with the growth of the
village and local election procedures, with the addition of
the manorial system, and the 'grading' of men relative to
their degree of freedom and ownership.
In the absence of great Revolutions in
England, life as we find it, is the logical development from
life as it was, and in an English village, this whole
fascinating story can be traced.
FIRST
CENTURY A.D. and on... (back
to top)
During the first century AD, Roman settlements were over-run
and Roman armies defeated by invading Angles and Saxons from
Northern Europe, but not before the Christian religion had
been introduced. Central England became part of the Kingdom
of Mercia. These invaders tended to form small settlements
of their own rather than take over the Roman towns. By the
time the Danish invaders arrived, the earlier tribes had
managed to create a system of government, based on local
agreement, and a system of justice, based on local courts,
and a form of monarchy, with King Alfred crowned at
Winchester, as the best known of our early Kings.
An English nationality began to emerge.
Most of our English villages were established and named at
this time, Shurdington amongst them, and while authorities
differ as to the significance of the first part of the name,
the ending 'ton’ or ‘tun’, certainly meant a farmstead or
dwelling. Shurdington was established as a parish and manor,
in the Hundred of Cheltenham, by the time of the Norman
Invasion in the 11th century. Great Shurdington and Little
Shurdington were quite separate then, Little Shurdington
being in the Parish of Badgeworth, which Parish was of much
greater significance and population until comparatively
recently. Many village churches and most cathedrals were
founded during the Saxon times but Shurdington church was
founded before Norman times.
The Norman invasion was the last great
invasion of this land and with it came a strong influence in
languages, building and a system of Government, which became
more central with local officers appointed by the Crown. The
Norman Manorial system of local government was not as
democratic as the earlier system, which it replaced. With
the Norman Kings came great changes in land ownership based
on rewards for support of the Monarch. Shurdington features
in the Doomsday Book as of having no great value.
During the 400 years of the Dark and
Middle Ages, there would have been little change in the
appearance of things in Great Shurdington. Farming would
have been operating on the 3-field system, the craft of the
weaver would probably be as important as the work of the
farmer. Ownership of the Manor would have changed families
from time to time, the simple Norman church would have been
enlarged and improved. Except for possible changes in
ownership, the effects of the court intrigue which vitally
affected places like Gloucester and Warwick, would have had
little influence here.
In the 17th Century, we began to have
records of the names of the significant families that lived
in Shurdington and Little Shurdington. A Gwinnet family from
Wales and a Lawrence family with holdings in other parts of
the country lived here, the first family presumably in the
manor house, and the other at Greenway - then called simply
Shurdington. There was some intermarriage; eventually we
hear nothing more of the manor house but only of the
Greenway, where members of the Lawrence family continued to
live for many generations.
In this century, the influence of the
church would have been increasingly felt and the paying of
tithes to the church would have affected landowners.
Charitable trusts were set up, and parishes were obliged to
support their poor. The earliest local trusts dated to this
time.
Life in the 17th and 18th Centuries would
seem to have been relatively undisturbed. Farming developed
on the strip system and the invention of new methods of
farming, being tried out in other parts of the country,
including the enclosure of lands, had no influence here.
Local prosperity and misery depended on the vagaries of the
weather and people were concerned only with local needs.
But the end of the l8th Century saw the
development of the Industrial Revolution, and the sudden
growth of town populations with the need to feed the people
in them. Faced with the problem of finding cheap food for
the workers at the new machines, the Governments of the day,
sensing perhaps that future voting strength lay more with
the new industrial employers than with the dwindling
land-owning aristocracy, supported the Repeal of Corn Laws
which supported home growers and brought grain and meat from
the newly-developing Empire countries. The affect on British
farming was disastrous and Shurdington, in common with most
parishes, had a very high proportion of inhabitants
dependent on the Poor Rate, and sent people to the Union
Workhouse.
The most significant change during this
period was the construction of the new turnpike road on the
Shurdington road in 1820. Gradually along this road, houses
were built.
Near businesses for instance, doubtless to
serve the growing population of Cheltenham; there were
blacksmiths, wheelwrights and coach painters, an undertaker,
a button-maker, a laundress, a boot mender,
market-gardeners, brewery of perry and cider, fruit growers,
with a few grander houses built purely for grander living.
By 1846, it was felt at last that land
enclosure would be an asset to local farming and an award
was made in that year. Train services had been established
by this time, which made the sale of fruit possible to
places as far as Manchester.
ORIGINS
OF THE NAME (back
to top)
The origin of the name Shurdington is obscure, but
may derive from the Saxon meaning "the farm of the sons of
Scirheard". The village is mentioned in the Doomsday
Book, as being "in the Hundred of Chintinham (Cheltenham),
but having no great value." So we can be sure the
village has pre-Norman roots.
William Caxton, the first
printer in England, began work in 1476. But another
couple of centuries passed before there was any semblance of
standard spelling. Consequently, Shurdington - like
every other settlement in the country - appeared in a
variety of written forms, as this selection from The
place names of Gloucestershire - Book 3, published by
the English Place Names Society illustrates.
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