Aldsworth sits away from the main road, a scattered village. The traveller, driving between Burford and Bibury on the B4425, will perhaps notice Sherbourne Arms at the side of the road, and a scatter of cottages behind it, before continuing on their way.
The map (courtesy of ARCHI UK) shows the village lying in open downland. Before inclosure in 1793 most of the parish lay in extensive open fields but from the 13th century the downlands have provided sheep-pastures. There is some meadow land in the Leach valley but by the 16th century estates either had meadows in or took hay from near-by parishes, suggesting a shortage of meadow land in Aldsworth.
St Bartholomew’s Church
The small church is on a rise, set slightly away from the rest of the village.
Parts date from the 12th century, but the church as a whole is a charming hotch potch of curiousities.
In the North porch, on the Eastern side, is a niche with pierced stones holes (otherwise known as a cresset) to hold candles, and a narrow flue for smoke. It is also fitted for a grille. Pevsner suggests that this might be a poor man’s chantry.
Of particular interest are the large grotesque heads, running along the roofline.
The interior is plain and peaceful, with few monuments.
The North aisle was rebuilt in c. 1500, keeping its narrow Norman width and, at the East end is a large niche with a rich double canopy, with an emblematic wheel carved on it, suggesting that it had been a chapel dedicated to St Catherine.
A photo from the early 20th Century shows the gallery that originally stood at the West end.
The response of the incumbent, John George Bellingham, to the Religious Census of 1850, requesting the numbers attending religious service at the church on 30th March of that year, express the feelings of all of us who are faced by bureaucracy.
‘Re [the] question is invidious: for the number attendant on divine service on any given Sunday (liable to a variety of influences as well as seasonal as religious and political, and none more than these generated by this confusing document) can hardly present to any reasonable and disinterested person, competent ground for any …clear conclusion on a statistical point [very unclear handwriting].’
Between 1852-6, Bellingham was unwell and until he left the parish in 1865 it was served by curates.
There was no vicarage at Aldsworth until 1907 and the vicar used to ride all the way from Oxford to take the Sunday services. The churchwardens used to climb the belfry and ring the bells when he came into sight, to summon the parishioners.
Nonconformity
Bibury Club
Bibury racecourse operated between about 1800 and 1848. Its best years were between 1801 and 1825, when the exclusive Bibury Club held its annual meet there. The Burford races had taken place on these flat-topped downs since the beginning of the 17th Century.
The transition from the ‘Burford’ course to the ‘Bibury’ course followed the privatisation of the downland between Burford and Bibury during the Land Enclosures. Local wealthy landowner and horseracing enthusiast the 1st Lord Sherborne emerged as owner of that part of Seven Downs where the Burford course was located.
He immediately had a new figure-of-eight course laid out, and this was in place by 1799. This was the Bibury racecourse. The first race on the new course was in 1801. The old Burford course continued to be used until 1802.
The figure-of-eight layout can be seen clearly in Ordnance Survey maps (First Edition) from the early 1800s.
The name of the location changed over the years. For most of the 18th century it had been known as The Seven Downs. By 1799, after the changes introduced by the Land Enclosures, it was known as East Down, and later as East Leach Down. In some newspaper announcements about races held there in the 1840s, the venue was referred to as Bibury Down, because of the racecourse.
A stylish circular grandstand was designed for the Bibury course by Richard Pace & Son of Lechlade, and installed around 1800. The course also had a jockey’s robing and weighing room, and a rubbing room and paddock.
The course was named the Bibury Racecourse because it was the home course of the Bibury Club.
In 1825 the Bibury Club ceased holding its annual events on the course. After that there was occasional racing over the next 20 years, but it seems that horseracing there ceased around 1848.
In the 1920s some evidence of the area’s racing history could still be seen, in the form of the wooden bell post, remains of the jockeys’ robing and weighing room, and the rubbing house.
The location of the long-gone Bibury racecourse is still shown on OS maps. The privately-owned site is protected as a Sheduled Ancient Monument because of the underlying Celtic field system.
(thanks to BIBURY RACECOURSE for this information)
Sherbourne Lodge
On the other side of the parish, just within the boundary, lies Sherbourne Lodge. It was built by John Dutton (1598-1657), a friend of Oliver Cromwell. He acquired land from 1624-40, with the aim of enclosing it to create a Deer Park. The Lodge itself would have been built towards the end of this period.
This beautiful little building was not designed as a dwelling house at all, but as a ‘grandstand’ from which to view the coursing of deer by greyhounds. It was originally comprised of only two rooms, a hall on the ground floor, and a gallery with balcony, giving an extensive view, on the first floor.
In 1898, it was converting into a dwelling house.
The beech spinney, from which the slippers let out the deer and then the greyhounds, still stands, a mile away.
The rules show that the use of the Lodge was not confined to the family, but that any gentleman desiring to try his dogs could use it on payment of a fee of 2s 6d per dog, with a 12d tip for the slipper.
(more information, as well as a transcription of the rules, can be accessed in the Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, volume 82, 1963.)
The Lodge is owned by the National Trust, and is open for visits on certain weekends (go to their website for further information).
The twin lodges were added in 1898.
The Sherbourne Arms
The Sherborne Arms is on the main Burford to Bibury B4425 road just outside the village. The building dates back to the 17th century and it was originally a farmhouse or smallholding.
The Cirencester Brewery purchased the Sherborne Arms on 11th April 1921. Presumably the pub was on the market following the acquisition of the Tayler’s Cotswold Brewery by the Cheltenham Original Brewery in 1919. It is surprising that the Cheltenham brewery did not purchase the Sherborne Arms as part of the take-over.
The Sherborne Arms passed into the ownership of Simonds Brewery of Reading when the Cirencester Brewery was taken over in 1937. In turn, Simonds was acquired by Courage, Barclay & Co. in 1960 and in recent memory the Sherborne Arms was a Courage Brewery pub.
(with thanks to Gloucestershire Pubs & Breweries for the information.
