Cotswold Connections - Here
is a collection of famous people who are connected to the Cotswolds and includes Prince
Charles, Winston Churchill, Alan Coxon, Elizabeth Hurley, William Morris, Stella McCartney,
John Sargent, William Shakespeare, Kate Winslet, William Tyndale and the Mitford Sisters.
Charles Robert Ashbee (1863 to 1942)
Charles Robert Ashbee was born in London, the son of a prosperous city merchant. Educated at Wellington College and King's College, Cambridge, he was articled to G. F. Bodley. He became a designer and follower of the Arts and Crafts Movement. He founded The Guild of Handicraft in London and was influenced by William Morris and John Ruskin.
In 1902 Ashbee undertook his grand experiment and removed the entire Guild to Chipping Campden in the Cotswolds. For a while the Guild's affairs prospered, but from 1905 the receipts from the craftwork fell off disastrously and by 1907 the company was forced into voluntary liquidation. Ashbee continued throughout this period with his architectural practice, which brought in a number of decorative commissions to the Guild.
Lord Bledisloe the Right Honourable Sir Charles Bathurst was Governor General of New Zealand from 1930 to 1935 and it was in 1935 that he was created Viscount Bledisloe of Lydney.
A 17th century manor house at Siddington near Cirencester is now the home of the Bowen family.
The house is the new home of flamboyant design guru Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen who moved there in April 2007 with his wife, Jackie, and their two daughters, having decided to risk all and trade their comfortable family town house in London for a "run down, unloved" Cotswold home.
Click on links for further details including information about the village of Siddington and the historic house known as 'Roberts House' - John Roberts being the leader of the persecuted Quakers in the mid 1600s.
Born in Glasgow, Scotland, Marion Chesney started her writing career while working as a fiction buyer in a bookstore in Glasgow. She doubled as a theater critic, newspaper reporter, and editor before coming to the United States in 1971. She is the widely acclaimed author of historical romances and writes the popular Agatha Raisin and Hamish Macbeth mystery series (under the name M. C. Beaton) and the Edwardian Murder Mystery series. She currently divides her time between the Cotswolds and Paris.See Cotswolds.Info Bookstore - Fiction
Grandson to the Duke of Marlborough and born and brought up at Blenheim Palace at Woodstock in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds. Buried in the church cemetary at the small village of Bladon a few miles away from Blenheim Palace.
Jeremy Charles Robert Clarkson (born April
11, 1960, in Doncaster)
is an English broadcaster and writer who
specialises in motoring. He writes weekly columns for The
Sunday Times and The
Sun, but is most associated with the BBC motoring
programme Top Gear, which he presents,
first doing so from 1989 until 1999, and then again from 2002. The show won an International Emmy in
2005. "Not a man given to considered opinion," according to the BBC,
Clarkson is known to be opinionated and forthright in his views. He was once described
by Tony
Parsons in the Daily Mirror as
a "dazzling hero of political incorrectness".
Jeremy Clarkson lives between Chipping Norton and Chadlington in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds.
Jilly Cooper,author, journalist and broadcaster lives in the
southern Cotswold village of Bisley,
near Stroud.
The huge success of her first novel Riders, published in 1985 and reaching number one in the best sellers list in its first week, was entirely due, she says, to her move to Bisley. 'I was trying to write Riders in London and failing miserably, because it was set in the country. Then there was the fact that we were so broke that the bank said we would have to sell our lovely house here. It was quite and incentive to write better and more quickly,' she said.
She went on to write the blockbusters Rivals and Polo, and then Appassionata about an orchestra, set in the west country and including many references to Stroud. Other novels include The Man who Made Husbands Jealous and Score!. As well as the best sellers Jilly Cooper has written countless popular non-fiction books, including Women and Superwomen (1974), How to Survive Christmas (1986) and The Common Years (1982) about her dog walking exploits on the commons of south west London. She has also written a series of romantic novels and many children's books.
Edward William Elgar was born on 2nd June 1857 in a small cottage in the village of Lower Broadheath, near Worcester, England. He was the fourth of seven children born to William Elgar, a piano tuner and music dealer, and his wife Ann.
The outbreak of the First World War was to alter the world. And for Elgar it was also the beginning of a time of change. Elgar wrote: "...everything good and nice and clean and fresh and sweet is far away - never to return". Although he was too old to be a soldier he composed many patriotic works in support of the war effort. The central section of his Pomp and Circumstance March No.1 was taken and, with words added, became "Land of Hope and Glory". Other works composed by Elgar during the war period included Sospiri, The Starlight Express (based on a story by Algernon Blackwood), Polonia (symphonic prelude), Une Voix dans le Dèsert, The Spirit of England and The Sanguine Fan .
Author born 25 November 1867 at Westminster, London and educated at Oxford. He died at the age of 31 on 13 May 1899 at Marylebone, London. He lived at the Manor House in the Hamlet of Ablington, near Bibury, and is famous for his book 'A Cotswold Village'. This is a truly classical work on life in the Cotswolds and his persuit of country sports and activities. See Cotswolds.Info Bookstore.
Sir Baptist Hicks once Mayor of London, First Lord Campden and a friend of the Royalty, he lent money to King James I and as a result acquired some considerable wealth.
He was also a friend of King Charles I. He was also a successful textile merchant and hence the start of his connections with the Cotswolds and Chipping Campden in particular.
At the time of the English Civil War his own house (Campden Manor) was burnt down rather than allow it to fall into the hands of the Parliamentary forces.
A philanthropist, he was responsible for many of the fine buildings in Campden including the Famed Wool Market Hall, which is known the world over he was also responsible for the erection of the Almshouses, his generosity to the town was almost without bounds.
His Tomb is at the Church of St. James, Chipping Campden, The South Chapel contains effigies of him and his wife.
Damien Hirst (born June 7, 1965) is an English artist and the leading artist of the group that has been dubbed "Young British Artists" (or YBAs). He dominated the art scene in Britain during the 1990s and is internationally renowned.
Death is a central theme in his work. He is best known for his Natural History series,
in which dead animals (such as a shark, a sheep or a cow) are preserved, sometimes cut-up,
in formaldehyde. His iconic work is The Physical Impossibility Of Death In the Mind Of Someone Living, an 18ft tiger shark in formaldehyde in a vitrine. Its sale in 2004 made him the second most expensive
living artist (after Jasper Johns).
He is also known for "spin paintings", made on a spinning circular surface, and "spot
paintings", which are rows of randomly-coloured circles; these have been imitated in commercial
graphics.
Damien was born in Bristol but brought up in Leeds and is thought to be worth £100million. He bought in 2004 a Cotswolds retreat, the Victorian Gothic Toddington Manor,
where the full extent of his collections will go on view to the public in a few years' time.
A British composer who was born in Cheltenham, England in 1874 and died in London in 1934. Holst was a composer of many choral part-songs, song cycles, operas and orchestral pieces. He is perhaps best known for his orchestral suite composed during the years 1914–1916, entitled The Planets. He was a friend of Edward Elgar.
Poet and author Laurie Lee is one of only a handful of people of whom it can truly be said: he was a legend in his own lifetime. An immensely gentle and kind man, with a great sense of humour and a tremendous appreciation of beauty, his works are read, enjoyed and admired the world over.
See details of Laurie Lee's homeplace of Slad Valley, nr Stroud See Cotswolds.Info Bookstore for - Laurie Lee Country
Unity, Pam, Diana, Nancy and Jessica lived at the Victorian Gothic Mansion, Batsford Park,
between 1916 and 1919 (famous for its Arboretum)
near Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire. The sixth sister, Deborah was born at Asthall Manor
at the village of Swinebrook in Oxfordshire.
The Mitford sisters were remarkable, in every sense of the word: funny, glamorous, intelligent, beautiful, and quirky. But their individual fates were quite different. Debo became a duchess. Jessica became a Communist. Diana married a fascist and was thrown in jail for most of WWII. Unity developed an unhealthy obsession with Hitler. And, of course, Nancy became a successful novelist.
Four of the six Mitford sisters Jessica and Unity at the back, Nancy and Diana below
(1837 - 1916) of Batsford Park, Gloucestershire, and Birdhope Craig, Northumberland,
was an English diplomat, collector and writer. He was the grandfather of the Mitford
Sisters (see above).
Was responsible for the creation of Batsford
Arboretum and the building of the Batsford
Victorian Gothic Mansion between 1888 and 1892 to replace the former residence that had
been on the site from the 17th century. The Arboretum is famous in particular for the collection
of Japanese Cherries and Bamboos.
Mitford was educated at Eton College and then at Christ Church, Oxford. He entered the foreign office in 1858, and was appointed third secretary of Embassy in St Petersburg. After service in the Diplomatic Corps in Peking, Mitford went to Japan as second secretary to the British Legation. There he met Ernest Satow and wrote Tales of Old Japan (1871). He resigned in 1873.
Well know designer and founder of the Arts and Crafts movement. Studied in Oxford and lived at Kelmscott Manor in the Cotswolds from 1871 until his death.
Sir Thomas Phillipps, bibliophile, is known to have established the world's largest private
book collection and also started The Middle Hill Press publication house in 1822. It
was used by him mainly to publish his discoveries in early English topography and genealogy.
A large number of works emanating from the Press were edited by Phillipps himself
and printed in very limited editions varying from twenty-five to one hundred copies. Many
are leaflets consisting of extracts from registers, visitations, genealogies, etc. The collection
also includes some proofsheets annotated by Phillipps. Thomas Phillipps lived in Cheltenham,
Gloucestershire where he housed his collection.
His father Sir William Phillipps lived at Middle Hill House in Broadway, Worcestershire,
England.
John Roberts was the ringleader of the 'new' Quakers religious sect in England. He was the son of a yeoman-freeholder, fought under Cromwell (1640) in the English Civil War, married in 1649, fathered 6 children, of whom three survived and died in 1683.
He is first mentioned in the Quaker 'records of persecution' as one of nine men 'committed to prison at Gloucester..... for meeting together to worship God' at Cirencester and Tetbury. Later the same year he was one of five quaker leaders arrested at a Meeting at Cirencester and brought before the King's Commissioners. He was sent to prison for failure to take the Oath of Allegiance.
John Roberts lived in the house now known as Roberts House in the village of Siddington, near Cirencester - now owned by Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen.
Sir (Sydney) Gordon Russell was an English furniture designer, craftsman and educationist.
He came under the influence of the Arts and Crafts movement from 1904 after his father had moved to Broadway in the Cotswolds to be hotelier at the Lygon Arms, through the Guild of Handicraft, the community of metalworkers, enamellers, wood carvers, furniture makers, and printers brought in 1902 by C.R. Ashbee from east London to Chipping Campden.
Following service in World War I he became a furniture maker and designer. During World War II he developed utility furniture as chairman of the government's Utility Furniture Design Panel.
In 1947 Gordon Russell became director of the Council of Industrial Design (COID), later renamed the Design Council. He became the first chairman of the Crafts Council. He was awarded a knighthood in 1955 for services to design.
Notable designs by him include chairs for the re-built Coventry Cathedral. His brother Richard Drew Russell was also a designer.
F. LaGard Smith is the author of more than 20 books. He is the arranger and narrator of The Daily Bible™, 30 Days with Jesus, and 30 Days Through Psalms and Proverbs. For the past two decades, Smith has done most of his writing in the quiet Cotswold countryside of England while spending his time in the States teaching both law and religion at Christian universities.
He lives in the Cotswolds in the village of Buckland from where he was inspired, by his walks, to write the excellent book 'Meeting God in Quiet Places'.
A truly local author was born in Minchinhampton in Gloucestershire. She has since returned to live in the area where many of her books are set.
Joanna Trollope was born in her grandfather's rectory in the Cotswolds in December 1943, and although her actual childhood was spent in the Midlands and in Surrey, she always felt that her real "home" was her birthplace. Joanna says — “It gave me - still gives me - not just a sense of rootedness, but a capacity to value landscape and weather and the rich life of smallish communities.
She is the author of eleven bestselling contemporary novels, including Girl from the South (2002), the story of an American Southerner who takes a job in London to escape the family and social pressures of her home in South Carolina. Brother & Sister (2004), is a story which explores the themes of adoption, loyalty and the nature of identity.
Joanna Trollope is also the author of several historical novels (published under the name of Caroline Harvey) and of a study of women in the British Empire entitled Britannia's Daughters (1983). Her books have been translated into over twenty-five languages.
The Choir (1988), A Village Affair (1989), The Rector's Wife (1991) and Other People's Children (1998) have all been made into series for television.
Joanna Trollope is a member of the same family as Anthony Trollope, author of The Barchester Chronicles. She was awarded an OBE in 1996 and lives partly in London and partly in Gloucestershire, for which county she was made a Deputy Lieutenant in 2002. Her latest novel is Second Honeymoon (2006).
William Tyndale gave us our English Bible and is thought to have been born in North Nibley, Gloucestershire.
Forbidden to work in England, Tyndale translated and printed in English the New Testament and half the Old Testament between 1525 and 1535 in Germany and the Low Countries. He worked from the Greek and Hebrew original texts when knowledge of those languages in England was rare. His pocket-sized Bible translations were smuggled into England, and then ruthlessly sought out by the Church, confiscated and destroyed. Condemned as a heretic, Tyndale was strangled and burned outside Brussels in 1536.
Kate Winslet and her movie director husband, Sam Mendes, live
at Church Westcote Manor in the village of Westcote, made up
of Church Westcote and Nether Westcote located 3.5 miles South
East of Stow-on-the-Wold.
Famous for her role in 'Titanic' and more recently amongst her many film roles, 'Enigma', 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind' and 'Finding Neverland'. Born in Reading, Berkshire, Kate is married to film producer Sam Mendes and now lives in Church Westcote in the Cotswolds.
