Sapperton, Gloucestershire

Sapperton is a village and civil parish in the Cotswold District of Gloucestershire in England, about west of Cirencester. It is most famous for Sapperton canal tunnel and its connection with the Cotswold Arts and Crafts Movement in the early 20th century. It has a population of 424.

The parish includes the villages of Sapperton and Frampton Mansell. The outlying hamlet of Daneway lies in the parish of Bisley, but is nearer to the village of Sapperton and often considered a part of it.

History and architecture

The Domesday Book of 1086 lists the village as Sapleton.

There are many interesting buildings in Sapperton associated with the leading designers of the Arts and Crafts movement in the area, as well as the church, primary school, and a pub.

Sir Robert Atkyns, the county historian and author of The Ancient and Present State of Gloucestershire (1712), lived in the manor house of the village, now demolished, in the early 18th century. The manor was later acquired by the Bathurst family, who still own most of the village and land.

Most of the buildings in the eastern part of the village were built (or rebuilt) under the patronage of the Bathurst family in the Cotswold Arts and Crafts style. Upper Dorvel House and Beechanger, designed and built by the brothers Ernest and Sidney Barnsley , and the Leasowes, built by their colleague Ernest Gimson (d. 1919) are to the north-east of the Church.

Norman Jewson (1884-1975), friend...
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