WINCHCOMB, a market-town and parish in the
lower division of the hundred of KIFTSGATE, county of
GLOUCESTER, 15 miles (N.E. by E.) from Gloucester,
and 95 (W. N. W.) from London, comprising the chapel-,
ries of Greet and Gretton, and the hamlets of Coates,
Cockbury, Corndean, Langley with the Abbey demesnes,
Naunton with Frampton, Postlip, and Sudeley-Tenements,
and containing 2240 inhabitants. This place
which is of equal antiquity and importance, was anciently
called Winchelscomb, of which its modern name
is obviously a contraction. During the Saxon Octarchy,
if not the metropolis of the kingdom of Mercia, it wasat
least the residence of some of the Mercian kings, of
whom Oifa founded a nunnery here, in 78?'. Cenulph,
who succeeded to the throne of that kingdom, after the
death of Egferth, Offa's son, who survived his father
only a few months, had a palace here, and in 798, laid
the foundation of the stately abbey, for three hundred
monks of the Benedictine order; which he endowed
with an ample revenue, and dedicated, with unusual splen-.
dour, to the Blessed Virgin Mary. After the conclusion
of the ceremony, which . was conducted by Wulfred,
Archbishop of Canterbury, assisted by twelve other
prelates, in the presence of the king himself, Cuthrecl,
King of Kent, Sired, King of the East Saxons, ten
dukes, and the flower of the Mercian nobles, Cenulph,
leading to the high altar his captive, Ethelbert Pren, the
usurper of the kingdom of Kent, whom he had made
prisoner, generously restored him to his liberty without
fine or ransom. Cenulph, in the year .819, was buried
in the abbey which he had founded, where also the
remains of his son and successor, Cehelm, were deposited.
The young king, after a reign of one year, having
been cruelly nrardered, at the instigation of his unnatural
sister Quendreda, in the hope thereby of securing
to herself the throne, was first obscurely buried, and
afterwards, on the discovery of the foul deed, removed
with much funeral pomp, and interred near his father
in the. abbey church. He was at length canonized, and
the bumerous pilgrimages made to his shrine much
augmented the revenue of the monastery, which was
subsequently re-dedicated to the Virgin Mary and St.
Cenelm. It was afterwards in the possession of Secular
priests, and had almost fallen into decay, when Oswald,
Bishop of Worcester, in 985, reformed its discipline,
recovered the lands of which it had been deprived, and
restored it to the Benedictine monks, who held it till the
dissolution. This was a mitred abbey, and its possessions
were numerous; for, at the period of the Normansurvey,
no fewer than nineteen manors were annexed to
it, independently of Winchcomb itself; but the monks
having opposed the Conqueror, were by him deprived of
many of their lands. At the dissolution, the revenue
was £759.11. 9. The building is reported to have been
exceedingly magnificent, and so prosperous, at one period,
was its state, that it is said to have been " equal
to a little university." Very few traces of it, however,
remain, but the memorial is preserved in the name of
part of a hamlet, which is still called the Abbey demesnes.
Of the civil history of the place few particulars
are recorded: the town appears to have been walled,
and to the south of the church there was an ancient
fortress, or castle, which, according to Leland, having
fallen into decay, and the ruins being overspread with
ivy, gave the name of Ivy castle to a spot-which is now
occupied only by a few cottages and gardens.
Winchcomb is situated in a beautiful vale, at the
northern base of the Cotswold hills, by which it is sheltered
nearly on every side, and is watered by the little
river Isbourne, which flows close to it on the south-east:
it consists principally of three streets, extending in a
long line from east to west, with North-street, and a
few smaller ones, branching from them. The houses are
in general low and of indifferent appearance, and, from
its being but little of a thoroughfare, the place preserves
an air of seclusion and tranquillity, and has that venerable
character which denotes an old Anglo-Saxon town;
it is abundantly supplied with excellent water from
wells and springs. The cultivation of tobacco, which is
said to have been first planted here after its introduction
into the kingdom, in 1583, was, for a considerable
time, a source of much profit to the inhabitants; but
in the 12th of Charles I., that trade being restrained,
the plantations were neglected. The principal branches
of manufacture at present carried on are those of paper
and silk, for the former of which there are in the neighbourhood
two large mills, and one for the latter; there
is also a tan-yard on a moderate scale. Other minor
branches are cotton stockings and pins; and agricultural
operations, with the spinning of linen and woollen,
afford nearly constant employment to the parochial
poor. The market is on Saturday: the fairs are on
the last Saturday in March, May 6th, and July 28th,
for horses, cattle, and sheep; and. two fairs are held at
Michaelmas for the hiring of servants. Previously to
the time of Canute, Winchcomb, with a small surrounding
district, was a county of itself; but, in the
reign of that monarch, according to an ancient manuscript
in the cathedral church of Worcester, Edric, who
governed under him as viceroy, "joined the sheriffdom
of Winchelscomb, which was entire within itself, to the
county of Gloucester." In the reign of Edward the
Confessor the town was made a borough, and the government
was vested in two bailiffs and twelve burgesses,
of whom the former have till lately been annually
elected by the lord of the manor, but exercise no
jurisdiction, the charter having for many years ceased
to be acted upon.
The living is a discharged vicarage, with the chapelry
of Gretton annexed, in the archdeaconry and diocese
of Gloucester, rated in the king's books at £3. 4.,
endowed with £400 private benefaction, .£400 royal
bounty, and £400 parliamentary grant, and in the patronage
of C. H. Tracy, Esq. The church, dedicated
to St. Peter, partly erected by Abbot William, in the
reign of Henry VI., and completed at the expense of
the parishioners, munificently assisted by Ralph BoteT
ler, Lord of Sudeley, is a spacious and handsome structure,
in the later style of English architecture, with a
lofty square embattled tower, crowned with pinnacles;
the walls are embattled, and strengthened with buttresses,
also terminating with pinnacles; the south
porch is a beautiful specimen of the style of which the
roof is elaborately groined and highly enriched. The
interior, consisting of a nave, aisles, and chancel, is of
appropriate character; the nave is separated from the
aisles by octagonal pillars and compressed arches, and
from the chancel by an ancient carved oak screen.
There' are places of worship for Baptists and Wesleyan
Methodists. A free grammar school was founded, in
1522, by Henry VIII., who endowed it with £9. 4. 6.
per annum, which was afterwards confirmed by Q,ueen
Elizabeth. The school, after being long continued in a
house belonging to the corporation, now inhabited by
some of the parochial poor, was united to a grammar
school, subsequently founded by Lady Frances Chandos,
for which she erected a school-house in St. Nicholas'-
street, endowing it with certain lands and tenements,
for the education of fourteen boys; the income, arising
from nearly twenty acres of land, is about £40 per
annum, which is received by the master of the king's
grammar school, who pays a sub-master to teach the
boys reading, writing, and arithmetic; the number of
scholars on both these foundations is about thirty-four.
A school for' teaching children to read was founded by
George Townsend, Esq., who endowed it with £5 per
annum;, as a salary for the master, (since increased to
£20 by the trustees,) and also left funds for apprenticing
the children, with whom a premium of £15 is.
given. There are unendowed almshouses for six poor
families, founded by Lady Dorothy Chandos, and various
charitable bequests for the distribution of bread,
clothing, and money to the poor. There are two mineral
springs in the parish, one a strong saline, the other
chalybeate, and nearly similar to those of Cheltenham.
In addition to the abbey of St. Mary, previously noticed,
were a church, dedicated to St. Nicholas, in the
east part of the town, of which there are no remains,
and an ancient hospital, of which no particulars
are recorded. About half a mile from the town are
the beautiful remains of the magnificent castle of
Sudeley, formerly belonging to the Botelers lords of
Sudeley, which is noticed in the article on SUDELEYMANOR.
Tidenham of Winchcomb, Bishop of Worcester,
and physician to Richard II., is supposed to
have been a native of this town; and Dr. Christopher
Mercet, an eminent naturalist and philosopher, was born
here, in 1614.