Elberton | |
---|---|
St John's Church in Elberton | |
Location within Gloucestershire | |
Population | 99 (2011 census) [1] |
OS grid reference | ST600886 |
Civil parish | |
Unitary authority | |
Ceremonial county | |
Region | |
Country | England |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | Bristol |
Postcode district | BS35 |
Dialling code | 01454 |
Police | Avon and Somerset |
Fire | Avon |
Ambulance | South Western |
UK Parliament | |
Elberton is a small village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Aust, in the South Gloucestershire district, in the ceremonial county of Gloucestershire, England. In 1931 the parish had a population of 137. [2]
The village is located near the River Severn and the Severn Bridge, and is situated on the main road between the villages of Aust and Alveston. The nearest town is Thornbury and the nearest city is Bristol. Neighbouring villages also include Olveston and Littleton-upon-Severn.
Elberton is mostly a farming community, with a church, a village hall, and a garage.
The name Elberton means the farmstead of a man called Æthelbeorht. [3] The name dates back to at least 1086, when the village was listed in the Domesday Book. [4] On 1 April 1935, the parish was abolished and merged with Aust. [5]
The earthworks of an Iron Age defended settlement, Elberton Camp, can be found in the Vineyards Brake woodland overlooking the village. [6]
In 1654, in the wake of the English Civil War, the influential early Quaker preachers John Audland and John Camm held a meeting in the village of "1000 people". [7] : 81 [8] [9] Elberton and neighbouring villages remained home to many Quaker families, such as the Goldney family who from 1674 owned Elberton Manor over multiple generations. [10] The family later sold the manor to the Sturge family, who were also Quakers. [11]
Later generations of the Sturge family included the leading abolitionists Joseph Sturge (1793-1859) and Sophia Sturge (1795-1845) who were both born in the village. [12] [13] Joseph Sturge purchased a sugar plantation in Montserrat and renamed it Elberton, hoping to demonstrate the commercial viability of a plantation built on free waged-labour, as opposed to slave labour. [14] [15] [16] [Note 1]
On the edge of the village lies the former Harn Hill quarry, which has since been filled in as a landfill site. The expansion of the quarry in 1960s saw the demolition of a number of buildings, including the old vicarage. The landfill now serves as a source for biogas generation, producing 2.6MW for the national grid. [17] [18]
From 1799 to 1802 the Welsh antiquarian Edward Davies was curate to the village. [19]
The organist and composer Basil Harwood composed a hymn tune named after the village. [20] [21]
The tower of the Church of St John the Evangelist dates back to the 14th century, while the rest of the church was mostly rebuilt in 1858, and the spire refurbished in 2000. The graveyard includes a number of Grade II listed tombs. [22] [17] [23]
Richmond is a market town and civil parish in the district and county of North Yorkshire, England. It is in the Swaledale valley, near the River Swale, and on the eastern edge of the Yorkshire Dales National Park. The town has become a tourist centre for the park. The town's population at the 2011 census was 8,413. The town is 16 miles (26 km) from the local government district's administrative centre in Northallerton.
Milford is a village in the civil parish of Witley south west of Godalming in Surrey, England that was a small village in the early medieval period — it grew significantly after the building of the Portsmouth Direct Line which serves Godalming railway station and its own minor stop railway station. The village, served by a wide array of shops and amenities, has to one side an all-directions junction of the A3, one of Britain's trunk roads. Nearby settlements are Eashing, Shackleford, Witley and Elstead, and the hamlets of Enton and Hydestile, all of which are in the Borough of Waverley. The west of the parish is in the Surrey Hills AONB.
The Keeper or Master of the Rolls and Records of the Chancery of England, known as the Master of the Rolls, is the President of the Civil Division of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales and Head of Civil Justice. As a judge, the Master of the Rolls is second in seniority in England and Wales only to the Lord Chief Justice. The position dates from at least 1286, although it is believed that the office probably existed earlier than that.
Joseph Sturge was an English Quaker, abolitionist and activist. He founded the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society. He worked throughout his life in Radical political actions supporting pacifism, working-class rights, and the universal emancipation of slaves. In the late 1830s, he published two books about the apprenticeship system in Jamaica, which helped persuade the British Parliament to adopt an earlier full emancipation date. In Jamaica, Sturge also helped found Free Villages with the Baptists, to provide living quarters for freed slaves; one was named Sturge Town in his memory.
Olveston is a small village and larger parish in South Gloucestershire, England. The parish comprises the villages of Olveston and Tockington, and the hamlets of Old Down, Ingst and Awkley. The civil parish population at the 2011 census was 2,033. Alveston became a separate church parish in 1846. The district has been inhabited since the Stone Age, and the salt marshes that made up almost half of the parish, were progressively drained in Roman and Saxon times. A sea wall was constructed at the same time to prevent flooding from the nearby estuary of the River Severn.
The Vice-Chamberlain of the Household is a member of the Royal Household of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom. The officeholder is usually a senior government whip in the British House of Commons ranking third or fourth after the Chief Whip and the Deputy Chief Whip. The Vice-Chamberlain is the Deputy to the Lord Chamberlain of the Household and, like the Lord Chamberlain, carries a white staff of office when on duty on state occasions.
The Morning Star was a radical pro-peace London daily newspaper started by Richard Cobden and John Bright in March 1856. It had substantial support from Joseph Sturge.
Matthew Nicholas (1594–1661) was an English Dean of St. Paul's Cathedral, London.
English county histories, in other words historical and topographical works concerned with individual ancient counties of England, were produced by antiquarians from the late 16th century onwards. The content was variable: most focused on recording the ownership of estates and the descent of lordships of manors, thus the genealogies of county families, heraldry and other antiquarian material. In the introduction to one typical early work of this style, The Antiquities of Warwickshire published in 1656, the author William Dugdale writes:
I offer unto you my noble countriemen, as the most proper persons to whom it can be presented wherein you will see very much of your worthy ancestors, to whose memory I have erected it as a monumentall pillar and to shew in what honour they lived in those flourishing ages past. In this kind, or not much different, have divers persons in forrein parts very learnedly written; some whereof I have noted in my preface: and I could wish that there were more that would adventure in the like manner for the rest of the counties of this nation, considering how acceptable those are, which others have already performed
Mary Darby Sturge was a British medical doctor, known for her pioneering work with alcoholism and championing the importance of preventative medical care. She is credited as being the second woman doctor in Birmingham and was President of the Medical Women's Federation from 1920 to 1922.
Emily Sturge was a British campaigner for women's education. She was secretary of the west of England branch of the National Society for Women's Suffrage.
Eliza Mary Sturge was a British women rights activist based in Birmingham. She was first woman elected to the Birmingham school board in 1873.
Sophia Sturge was a British slavery abolitionist based in Birmingham. She was a founding member of the Birmingham Ladies Society for the Relief of Negro Slaves and devoted much of her life to supporting her brother who was one of the UK's leading abolitionists.