REDMARLEY D'ABITOT, Gloucestershire

Archives and Libraries

• Original source material relating to Redmarley d'Abitot, and other parishes in Diocese of Gloucester may be found at the Gloucestershire Archives; with the exeception of Bishops Transcripts, which (if they exist) should be found at Worcestershire Record Office.

Bibliography

• Warde, Eric - Prosperity to this Parish. Severnprint, Ltd, Gloucester, 2007. Paperback, 210p currently (2008) priced £13.50. Added 25 Apr 2008.

  Here is a comprehensive account encomassing everything the reader might wish to know about Redmarley, "and then some..." It opens with a description of the village immediately familiar to the visitor of the present day, until the following paragraph:

  "The whole parish is a mixed agricultural area and there are many fine farms on the outskirts, still undisturbed by the rush of modern times or the new by-pass road now being built across the northern end..."

  In fact the account is reproduced from an original written about 1950, and that 'new' by-pass is rather better established now! The M50 was one of the UK's earliest motorways - according to The Motorway Archive it was built around 1958, and as the account says, across the northern end of Redmarley.

  Later chapters are on: 2. Neolithic Times; 3. De Principio - the Development of a Name; 4. Urso d'Abitot - Sherrif of Worcestershire; 5. The 'Curse' on the Abitot Family; 6. The Domesday Book; 7. A History of Redmarley Church; 8. Parish Charities; 9. Law and Order; 10. Heraldic Shields and the 'd'Abitots'; 11. The Will of Robert de Pendock; 12. A Redmarley 'Gallimaufrey'; 13. The Elizabethan Communion Cup; 14. The Battle of Redmarley - 1644; 15. Churchwardens' Accounts; 16. Margaret Birchett 1666-1733; 17. The Poor's House or Church House; 18. The Ledbury Hunt; 19. The Down House - The Earlier Years; 20. The Down House - post 1800; 21. Licensed Premises; 22. The Chartist Community at Lowbands; 23. The Gadfield End Chapel - Church of LDS; 24. Education; 25. Pfera Hall; 26. Major General Sir Henry Roberts, K.C.B.; 27. Miss C. Alice Roberts; 28. Lily Elsie - from Leicester Square to Drury Lane; 29. The Former Wesleyan Chapel; 30. The War Memorial; 31. War and the Civilian Population; 32. Selling the Original Schools; 33. Listed Properties; 34. Sport; 35. Redmarley Characters.

  See also this review of Prosperity To This Parish - by Brenda Bainbridge.

Census

• Transcription of the Census for Redmarley d'Abitot in 1841 and 1871 by Debra J. Svedin and Kari Svedin Kruger.

• Transcription of the Census for Redmarley d'Abitot in 1891 by Debra J. Svedin. Added 15 May 2005.

Historical Geography

• "Worcester Diocese. Transferred [to Gloucestershire] from Worcestershire, 1931."
  (Ref: Guide to the Parish Records of the City of Bristol and the County of Gloucester; I. Gray & E. Ralph, 1963)
  
  See also: Staunton.

Military History

• The "Battle of Redmarley", was fought on 27 July, 1644, between Cromwell's General Massey, and the Royalist General Mynne - at which 170 Royalists, including Mynne, were killed. Seventeen of the casualties have been identified as buried in Redmarley churchyard. It is not known where the rest are buried, although it has been suggested that it may have been in the adjoining parish of Donnington, now in Herefordshire, which was possibly a Royalist stronghold, and where ancient cannon balls have been found.

Names, Geographical

• The suggested derivation of this name in The place-names of Gloucestershire (Smith, A.H. - Cambridge: University Press - q.v.), is from the Old English words hrëod - mere - lëah; meaning 'clearing by the reed-mere'. However, to see Redmarley nestling amongst rolling fields and hedgerows today, suggests a rather more prosaic meaning - the soil is noticeably red, and a heavy clay - hence "Red Marle" would aptly describe it! One of those strange coincidences, perhaps? Not so for the French sounding suffix, of which the aforementioned book suggests "The feudal addition is derived from the family of Urse d'Abitot of whom already in DB (Domesday Book), two hides were held". It is further suggested that Abitot may derive from Abbetot in Normandy, a compound of the Northern French tot (=toft) and the personal name Api or the common word æble, 'apple'.