Aylburton
| Aylburton | |
|---|---|
 High Street, Aylburton |
|
 Aylburton
|
|
| Aylburton shown within Gloucestershire | |
| OS grid reference | SO617017 |
| Civil parish |
|
| District | |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | Lydney |
| Postcode district | GL15 |
| Police | Gloucestershire |
| Fire | Gloucestershire |
| Ambulance | South Western |
| EU Parliament | South West England |
| UK Parliament | |
Aylburton is a village and civil parish in the Forest of Dean district of Gloucestershire, England, on the A48 road about two miles south-west of Lydney. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 689, increasing to 711 at the 2011 census.
The centre of the Village is a Conservation area. There are elements of medieval buildings in The Cross, and a Cruck frame hall was later converted to a terrace of cottages.
Aylburton lies on the line of the old Roman and medieval road.
During the Roman period most of the slopes of the parish were originally covered in woodland and the bank of the River Severn was more than 1 km closer to the main road, with around half of the current "levels" being reclaimed before about 450 AD. The area would have been dominated by the Roman villa and temple in the grounds behind what is now the Lydney Park House. At this time the Forest (of Dean) was just inside the territory known as Britannia Secunda (Secondary Britain), which covered Wales and whose eastern border was the River Severn. Thereafter, the Forest varied between Welsh and English possession at least until King Offa (8th C) built his famous dyke; at that point all of Gloucestershire came within England.
The land on which Aylburton (originally Æþelbeorhtes-tun or Ethelbert’s farmstead) stands became part of a single manor of Lydney under the Earl of Hereford, William FitzOsbern (the builder of Chepstow Castle and founder of Lire Abbey in Normandy) in 1066, who then gifted it to Lire Abbey. Llanthony Priory became lord of both Aylburton and Alvington (but not Lydney) manors in 1277. They took iron and coal from the land above the current village and carried it down Darken Lane and Stockwell Lane to Aylburton Warth, where it was put onto ships. This carried on a tradition probably started by the Romans.
By 1219 Aylburton had its own chapel situated on Chapel Hill attributed to St. John (it became St. Mary’s sometime before 1750). In the same year, Lire Abbey granted Lydney church to the dean and chapter of Hereford. Following the dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII, William Wyntour purchased the manor from the Crown in 1599. It remained in Wyntour hands (apart from a period covering the "Commonwealth") until purchased by the Bathurst family in 1723.
The Prior’s Mesne estate (including outlying lands at Newlands and St. Briavels) was based at Prior’s Lodge (also known as Prior’s Mesne Lodge or Bream Lodge.) It was cleared of trees by Llanthony Priory in 1306 and largely converted to agricultural land, and they allowed their tenants rights of common there. Prior’s Pool was a fishpond dating from this time. The market cross was built in the 14th C. Llanthony Priory had a fulling mill on Ferneyley Brook in 1535 (later called Tucker’s Mill or Wood Mill, later to be used as a grist mill until around 1900). Tudor Britain
...
Wikipedia