VOL. xvin. (2) EXCURSION-WOTTON-UNDER-EDGE "7 



EXCURSION TO WOTTON-UNDER-EDGE. 



Thursday, i8th September, 1913- 



Directors : H. Goldingham, V. R. Perkins, and L. Richardson. 



{Report by St. Clair Baddeley and L. Richardson)^ 

 The Members arrived at Charfield Station %^^f f^^^_^^^^l 

 Sr"\^"RrchaTds:n F.R S. ^EdPn"'?Hon fecretary), Surgeon-Gen. I. 

 Newton, Dntt Garrett, F.L S Mr V. R. Perkins, Mr H.^GoIgngham^ the 

 Rev. F. J. Greenham, Messrs Charles BagyF.L^SSt^a^^^^^^ liStLd. 

 ?sTrrHn^rr "p^vS^ce; K R LSL^^W^M^rgSon, J. W. SHnner, 

 A E Smith, W. J P. Smith. W. N. SkiUicorne, C.C, W. G. Cottrell, etc. 

 From the Station the Members drove to Kingswood. On the way there 

 Mr Richardson pointed out, on the south side of the road. Hellbury H.ll or 

 Alderman's Bury. He said he understood that some people regarded this 

 hill ir a tumulus, and that it had been dug into under the direction of 

 mil HaTe, but that nothing had been discovered.^ I^ZZ^r^Tvro- 

 however, because he held that it was simply a knoll of Kcuper Marl, pro 

 duced by the ordinary agents of denudation. 



The first hill to be climbed on the Wotton road marks the outcrop of the 

 Rh^tic Series Recently, Mr Richardson said, the bank alongside the 

 "down "Platform at Berkeley Road Station had been cut back and a portion 

 of this SerS induding the sLdstone-bed (the equivalent to the well-known 

 " bone-bed ") had been exposed to view. 



kingswood abbey. 

 Leaving the Wotton road, the Members then drove to Kingswood, alighting 

 near the ofd Abbey Gateway (Plate XV., Fig. i^ . The f^way was pur- 

 chased in commemoration of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee (iSot) by 

 the Committee appointed to carry out the celebrations. It was bought of 

 Messrs Terrett, of Kingswood, and vested in Trustees. 



. Mr V. R. Perkins, of Wotton, read a short paper on the history of the 

 ruins The first Abbey at Kingswood was founded by Williani de Berkeley 

 [nTi39, at the suggestL of the Cistercian Monks at Tintern. Some of these 

 Monks came and Ittled at Kingswood, but, finding the place not sufficiently 

 quiet during the wars between Stephen and Maud purchased a place c^led 

 Hazeldean, now a hamlet of Rodmarton, not far f '"O"^ j£.t'?ury^ Here 

 however, the water-supply was inadequate and they moved toTetbury where 

 Said of S. Waleric gave them land. The Kingswood Abbey went down 

 S^ventually became limply a grange to Tetbury. This disfas^d ^oge^ 

 of Berkeley, the descendant of the founder of Kingswood, but his remons 

 trances to the King to requin. the return of the Monks to Kingswood were 

 of no avail ^^^liM the matter sv.s being debated the Abbot of Waver ey 

 hi Surrey proposed to restore Kingswood Abbey. In spite of opposition the 

 Abbot of Waverley set about his task, and in the end Me n.embers of the 

 brotherhood at Tetbury. not being satisfied with their sil. t^^. J^^ ^e ^ 

 was not room to expand, decided to move back to Kingswool ' he> did 

 not return to the old site, but obtained forty acres of land from K'^ger de 

 Berkeley at Merriford, about a mile to the north of the old site, and founded 

 the new Abbey there in 1170. Some of the building materials were obtained 

 from the old Abbey, the site of which is now marked by a farm-house.- ine 



I Vide M & I. Tail, " Wotton-under-Etlge " (1897, Wottonl, p. 63. 



2. There is a smaU building still called " the Old Abbey " on the Trench Farm. The 

 approach to it is up Trench Lane and Trench fields. 



