Its flat and low-lying site is surrounded by the Cotswold Hills. The River Evenlode rises near Batsford, runs around the edge of Moreton and meanders towards Oxford, where it flows into the river Thames just east of Eynsham.
Moreton is derived from Old English which means "Farmstead on the Moor" and "in Marsh" is from henne and mersh meaning a marsh used by birds such as moorhens.[3] An alternative suggestion is that 'Marsh' is a corruption of 'March', early English for boundary.
History
St David’s Church, the parish church of Moreton-in-Marsh
A settlement was built during the British Iron Age, just north-west of the town centre near the cricket ground. Archaeological research has found Roman pottery and coins at the site, showing that it remained occupied after the Roman invasion of Britain.[4] During this period, the Fosse Way, one of the best preserved Roman routes in Britain, was constructed. It was initially constructed by the Roman army but was subsequently maintained by the local Civitas. The course can be traced through the county by the modern roads that tend to follow its course, although there are deviations such as south of the town where it crosses the hill into Stow-on-the-Wold.
Moreton is first mentioned as a Saxon settlement around 577 AD. Following the Norman conquest of Britain, the township was part of the monastic property held by Westminster Abbey in London. Abbott Richard of Barking began developing Moreton as a medieval market town between 1222 and 1246.[4] The new town was built on common land bordering the Fosse Way to the north-west of the original Saxon settlement. St David's Church is in the centre of the original settlement, which is still called Old Town.[5] To accommodate medieval markets, the new town was developed with a long and wide High Street.
The town's economy thrived, thanks to wool and cloth-making in the medieval era. "It's why the high street has so many elegant 18th century inns and houses."[5]
The Curfew Tower, on the corner of Oxford Street, probably dates from the 16th century.[6] Its bell was cast in 1633 and its clock was built in 1648.[6] The Royalist cavalry was based in the town during the Civil War; in 1644, King Charles I of England stopped at the White Hart Royal in 1637 and granted a charter for the market.[5]
The Church of England parish church of Saint David began as a chapel of ease for Blockley, to which the residents of Moreton had to transport their dead for burial.[7] The early history of the church in Moreton is not clear, but there is evidence that a primitive Celtic place of worship preceded the church on the present site, which had seven springs. The church at Moreton came under the jurisdiction of the Batsford Estate, when that estate was given to the Bishops of Worcester in the 12th century. Latterly, the church in Moreton was a chapel-at-ease for Batsford, which was technically the parish church. The appointment of the vicar for Batsford with Moreton alternates between the Bishop of Gloucester and the Lord of the Manor at Batsford, currently Lord Dulverton, who, until the Second World War, exercised his right to collect a shilling (5 pence) a year for every shop window facing Moreton High Street. There is a tradition that the church was rebuilt and reconsecrated in the middle of the 16th century.[7] The nave was enlarged in 1790, with a £1,000 gift from Samuel Wilson Warneford,[8] most of the church was rebuilt in 1858 and the tower was replaced in 1860.[6] The chancel and south aisle were enlarged in 1892 and the east end of the south aisle has been used as a chapel since 1927.[6]
A nonconformist congregation started meeting in Moreton in 1796 and was constituted as a Congregational church in 1801; it had a chapel built in 1817.[7] In 1860–61, the Congregationalists replaced the chapel with a new one on the same site[7] in a mixed neo-Grecian and Romanesque style.[9] The congregation voted against the merger with the Presbyterians and remains a Congregational Chapel. The Roman Catholics, without their own church in Moreton, held a mass there on Sunday mornings for several years.
According to one report, the town was in a suitable location for the "old coaching route from London to Worcester [and] thrived as a stopping place for stagecoaches, in particular The Redesdale Arms and The White Hart Royal."[5]
The Stratford and Moreton Tramway was built between 1821 and 1826, linking Moreton with the Stratford-on-Avon Canal at Stratford.[7] It was horse-drawn until 1859, when the section between Moreton and Shipston-on-Stour was converted to a branch line railway operated with steam locomotives. The Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway, built between 1845 and 1851, passes through Moreton. The railway station was opened in 1853. The Great Western Railway (GWR) took over the OW&W Railway in 1862 and the Shipston-on-Stour branch in 1868. The GWR withdrew passenger trains from the branch in 1929 and British Railways withdrew freight traffic and the last train, Driver Ted Hardiman, Fireman Ken Hughes and Guard Perry, and one paying passenger, Christopher Horne, ran on 2 May 1960.
The OW&W Railway is now part of the Cotswold line. The line between Oxford (Wolverton Junction) and Worcester (Norton Junction) was singled in the 1970s, except for the distance between Shipton-under-Wychwood to Moreton-in-Marsh, but subsequently the double track has been replaced, except between Evesham and Worcester (Norton Junction) in 2011. Traffic to and from Long Marston uses the west end of the line and freight services are planned to re-use this route. In 2019, the platforms were lengthened after the removal of all sidings from the station area.
Redesdale Hall, which was designed by the architects Sir Ernest George and Harold Peto, became the market hall and town hall for the town and was completed in 1887.[9] The town was often misdescribed as Moreton-in-the-Marsh into the early 20th century.[10][11] The name was confirmed as Moreton-in-Marsh before 1930.[12]
In 1940, a large area of level land east of the town was developed as RAF Moreton-in-Marsh and used as a training airfield, largely by Wellington bombers. 38 men flying to or from RAF Moreton-in-Marsh died during the Second World War. The former airfield is now the Fire Service College, where senior fire officers from brigades all over the UK undergo operational, management and leadership training. The same complex is also now the headquarters of the Institution of Fire Engineers, the professional body for fire fighters, officers and civilians with an interest in fire engineering.
Moreton-in-Marsh and Batsford War Memorial is in the High Street and commemorates the dead of the First and Second World Wars, together with one serviceman killed subsequently. One woman is featured: Diana Hope Rowden, an agent of the Special Operations Executive who was killed in a concentration camp in 1944, had served previously at RAF Moreton-in-Marsh. Despite the number of serving men in the Glorious Glosters, all these men of the town returned safely from the Korean War.
Floods, which blocked the High Street, were fairly regular from the 1940s to the 1960s, until works were carried out on the ditches around the town and the camber on the A44 descending to Moreton from Bourton on the Hill; these works appear to have resolved most of the problems. The last time Moreton was badly flooded was in 2007.[13]
There was a Roman fort near Dorn (one mile north-west of Moreton). The annual Moreton and District Agricultural Show, held on the first Saturday in September, is held on part of the site of the fort on the Batsford Estate; the show has been running since 1949.[14]
The railway line to Worcester runs alongside the showground and, at Dorn, reaches the highest point between Oxford and Worcester; this is also the river Thames/river Severn watershed.
Moreton was once the headquarters of the railway spot-hire company Cotswold Rail.
Governance
The town is represented on Cotswold District Council by councillors from two wards. Since May 2023, Angus Jenkinson of the Liberal Democrats represents Moreton East and Daryl Corps of the Conservatives represents Moreton West.
North Cotswolds Hospital, on the southern outskirts of Moreton-in-Marsh, built in 2012 replacing a town centre cottage hospital.
Moreton has many buildings in characteristic Cotswold stone. There are two supermarkets (Aldi and the Co-Operative), two general stores (Spar and Tesco Express), and a number of antique shops, bars, cafes, hotels, inns and restaurants located down the High Street and Stow Road. A Caravan Club site is a short walk east on the Broadway Road (A44), past the Wellington Aviation Museum,[18] a museum of the history of the Vickers Wellington bomber. Other local attractions include Batsford Arboretum near Batsford village and the onion-domedSezincote house and gardens.
The White Hart Royal, originally a seventeenth-century coaching inn, was occupied by King Charles I when he took shelter in the building following the Battle of Marston Moor (during the First English Civil War of 1644–1646) and supposedly left without paying his bill.[19]
Research by a branch of the Tolkien Society indicates that the Bell Inn was a source of inspiration for the Prancing Pony.
The 300-year-old Black Bear Inn, on the eastern side of the High Street near the Curfew Tower, has enjoyed a long association with football. An ex-professional footballer, landlord Jim Steele, was in the Southampton team that famously beat favourites Manchester United in the 1976 FA Cup Final. Chelsea legend Peter Osgood, who was also in the winning Southampton side, was a great friend of Jim and often visited the Black Bear before he died in March 2006.
Media
Local news and television programmes are provided by BBC West Midlands and ITV Central. Television signals are received from the Lark Stoke TV transmitter. [22]
William Towns (1936–1993), 20th century car designer.
Mark Williams (1959–), actor, screenwriter and presenter.
Related Research Articles
The Cotswolds is a region of central South West England, along a range of rolling hills that rise from the meadows of the upper River Thames to an escarpment above the Severn Valley and the Vale of Evesham. The area is defined by the bedrock of Jurassic limestone that creates a type of grassland habitat that is quarried for the golden-coloured Cotswold stone. It lies across the boundaries of several English counties; mainly Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire, and parts of Wiltshire, Somerset, Worcestershire, and Warwickshire. The highest point is Cleeve Hill at 1,083 ft (330 m), just east of Cheltenham. The predominantly rural landscape contains stone-built villages, towns, stately homes and gardens featuring the local stone.
Stow-on-the-Wold is a market town and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England, on top of an 800-foot hill at the junction of main roads through the Cotswolds, including the Fosse Way (A429), which is of Roman origin. The town was founded by Norman lords to absorb trade from the roads converging there. Fairs have been held by royal charter since 1330; a horse fair is still held on the edge of town nearest to Oddington in May and October each year.
Stratford-upon-Avon, commonly known as just Stratford, is a market town and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon district, in the county of Warwickshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It is situated on the River Avon, 91 miles (146 km) north-west of London, 22 miles (35 km) south-east of Birmingham and 8 miles (13 km) south-west of Warwick. The town is the southernmost point of the Arden area at the northern extremity of the Cotswolds. In the 2021 census Stratford had a population of 30,495.
The A44 is a major road in the United Kingdom that runs from Oxford in southern England to Aberystwyth in west Wales.
Shipston-on-Stour is a town and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon District in southern Warwickshire, England. It is located on the banks of the River Stour, 9 miles (15 km) south-southeast of Stratford-upon-Avon, 10 miles north-northwest of Chipping Norton, 14 miles (22 km) south of Warwick and 14.5 miles west of Banbury. In the 2021 census, Shipston-on-Stour had a population of 5,849.
Blockley is a village, civil parish and ecclesiastical parish in the Cotswold district of Gloucestershire, England, about 3 miles (5 km) northwest of Moreton-in-Marsh. Until 1931 Blockley was an exclave of Worcestershire.
Bourton-on-the-Water is a village and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England, that lies on a wide flat vale within the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The village had a population of 3,296 at the 2011 census. Much of the village centre is a designated Conservation Area.
Broadway is a large village and civil parish in the Cotswolds, England, with a population of 2,540 at the 2011 census. It is in the far southeast of Worcestershire, close to the Gloucestershire border, midway between Evesham and Moreton-in-Marsh. It is sometimes referred to as the "Jewel of the Cotswolds".
The Cotswold Line is an 86+1⁄2-mile (139.2 km) railway line between Oxford and Hereford in England.
Northleach is a market town and former civil parish, now in parish Northleach with Eastington, in the Cotswold district, in Gloucestershire, England. The town is in the valley of the River Leach in the Cotswolds, about 10 miles (16 km) northeast of Cirencester and 11 miles (18 km) east-southeast of Cheltenham. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 1,854, the same as Northleach built-up-area.
Batsford is a village and civil parish in the Cotswold district of Gloucestershire, England. The village is about 1½ miles north-west of Moreton-in-Marsh. There is a falconry centre close to the village and Batsford Arboretum is nearby, situated on the Cotswold escarpment.
Bourton-on-the-Hill is a village and civil parish in the Cotswold district of Gloucestershire, England, and about 2 miles (3 km) west of Moreton-in-Marsh. In 2010 it had an estimated population of 288. The village overlooks the surrounding hills of the Cotswolds and lies on the Heart of England Way, which heads southwards to Bourton-on-the-Water and northwards to Cannock Chase. The village is also connected by a footpath to the Cotswold Way, via Blockley and Chipping Campden.
Moreton-in-Marsh railway station serves the town of Moreton-in-Marsh in Gloucestershire, England, and is on the Cotswold Line between Kingham and Honeybourne. The station and all passenger trains serving it are operated by Great Western Railway.
Willersey is a village in Gloucestershire, South West England, situated close to the boundary with Worcestershire, West Midlands region and southwest of Evesham. Although situated in Gloucestershire, the postal county for the village is Worcestershire, due to it being covered by the Broadway post town. It is an old village with much character. There is a primary school and as well as a large park area. The duck pond is much admired by visitors to the village.
Coates is a village and civil parish situated in Cotswold District, Gloucestershire, England. It is around 3 miles (4.8 km) west of Cirencester and close to Cirencester Park, part of the Bathurst Estate. It is the nearest village to the source of the river Thames at Thames Head, and it is close to the course of the Foss Way or Fosse Way, the ancient Roman road. The nearest railway station is Kemble. The village population taken at the 2021 census was 491.
Stretton-on-Fosse is a village in the Stratford-on-Avon District in Warwickshire, England. It is situated between the towns of Moreton-in-Marsh and Shipston-on-Stour. The village is situated along the ancient Fosse Way road which runs from Exeter in Devon to Lincoln in Lincolnshire. The road bypasses the village to the east and is now the modern-day A429 road. The village is close to the Gloucestershire and Warwickshire border. While the lower ground of the village is heavy clay the upper parts are composed of sand and shingle. During commercial extraction of sand important graves of the Roman-British and Anglo-Saxon periods were uncovered and interesting skeletons and personal belongings were unearthed. These burials were the result of internecine warfare between local tribal factions.
The Four Shire Stone is a boundary marker that marks the point where the English counties of Warwickshire, Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, and Worcestershire once met. Since 1931, when the Worcestershire exclave of Evenlode was transferred to Gloucestershire, only three counties have met at the stone.
Evenlode is a village and civil parish in the Cotswold District of eastern Gloucestershire in England.
Todenham is a village and civil parish in the Cotswold district of Gloucestershire, England. The village is significant for its Grade I listed 14th-century parish church.
Dorn is a hamlet in the Cotswold district of Gloucestershire, England. The hamlet is about 1 mile north of Moreton-in-Marsh.
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