Oldbury-on-the-Hill is a village in the civil parish of Didmarton, in the Cotswold district, in Gloucestershire, England, ninety-three miles west of London and less than north of the village of Didmarton.Oldbury on the Hill page at abstuk.co.uk, including location map (accessed 13 April 2008)

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.ST8089: Nan Tow's Tump, near to Oldbury on the Hill, Gloucestershire, Great Britain at www.geograph.org.uk (accessed 13 April 2008)History of the Cotswolds at thecotswoldgateway.co.uk (accessed 13 April 2008) The tree-grown barrow is about thirty metres in diameter and three metres high.NEOLITHIC-EBA EXCURSION number 7 at stonehenge-avebury.net (accessed 13 April 2008)O'Neil, Helen, & and Grinsell, Leslie, Gloucestershire barrows in Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society (1960) The name refers to Nan Tow, said to have been a local witch who was buried upright in the barrow.The Cotswolds - Neolithic, Bronze and Iron Age Sites at digital-brilliance.com (accessed 13 April 2008)Nan Tow's Tump - Round Barrow(s) in England in Gloucestershire at megalithic. info (The Megalithic Portal) (accessed 13 April 2008)'The Exeter Riddling Rhymes' 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 Dukes of Beaufort had her buried upright as a punishment for her wickedness."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."

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.Barrow, Julia, & Brooks, Nicholas, St Wulfstan and His World (Ashgate Publishing, 2005, ) pp. 158-159 online at books.google.co.uk (accessed 13 April 2008)

The Domesday Book of 1086 calls the village Aldeberie.Place name: Oldbury on the Hill, Gloucestershire Folio: 169r Great Domesday Book abstract at nationalarchives.gov.uk (accessed 13 April 2008) Before 1066, it was held by Eadric, Sheriff of Wiltshire, and in 1086 by Ernulf de Hesdin. 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, , ) 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 ).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.)Didmarton and Oldbury on the Hill enclosure at nationalarchives.gov.uk (accessed 13 April 2008)

Benjamin Clarke's British Gazetteer (1852) says:Clarke, Benjamin, The British Gazetteer, Political, Commercial, Ecclesiastical, and Historical, Volume III, L-Z, (London, H. G Collins, 1852) page 333 online at books.google.co.uk (accessed 13 April 2008)

According to The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868):Hamilton, N. E. S. (ed.), The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (London, J. S. Virtue, 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.Didmarton: A ramble through history (Didmarton Parish Council, 2000)

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.Oldbury-on-the-Hill parish online at nationalarchives.gov.uk (accessed 13 April 2008)Oldbury-on-the-Hill, Gloucestershire, UK, Marriages 1568-1751 online at glosgen.co.uk (accessed 13 April 2008)Oldbury-on-the-Hill, Gloucestershire, UK, Marriages 1754-1812 online at glosgen.co.uk (accessed 13 April 2008)

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.Some Memorial Inscriptions - Oldbury on the Hill, Gloucestershire, St Arilda's Churchyard online at wishful-thinking.org.uk (accessed 13 April 2008)

Parish church

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.Phillimore, W. P. W. ‘’et al.’’ Inquisitiones Post Mortem for Gloucestershire’’, vol. IV (British Record Society Index Library, 1903) pp. 73-74 In 1291, the Rector of Great Badminton had a portion of 8s. and 6d. in the chapel of Oldbury. The oldest part of the present medieval parish church of Oldbury is estimated to date from the 14th century.Verey, D., The Buildings of England: Gloucestershire: The Cotswolds (London, Penguin Books, 1974) p. 351

The church shares its ancient dedication to St Arilda with the church of Oldbury-on-Severn, some 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 of Oldbury on Severn, Gloucestershire at bath.ac.uk (accessed 13 April 2008)

St Arilda's at Oldbury-on-the-Hill has been declared redundant, so is no longer used for regular worship.

Notes

External links

Oldbury-on-the-Hill at genuki.org.uk Photograph of St Arilda's Church, Oldbury-on-the-Hill at wishful-thinking.org.uk Oldbury-on-the-Hill location map from google.co.uk/maps Gloucestershire census returns 1801-1901 at genuki.org.uk