Northleach is an easy place to miss. At one point in the recent
past so much traffic thundered through the town, situated close
to the junction of the A.40 and Fosse Way, that buildings were
being shaken to pieces and people were finding somewhere else
to live. The town has now been bypassed so effectively that all you
see of Northleach as you fly down a steep hill on the Fosse Way
is a glimpse of a sign saying "Northleach - Historic
Wool Town", and by the time the thought has registered you
are passing the turn-off to Bourton. Even the grim-looking buildings of Sir George Onesiphorus Paul's 18th. century penal establishment are glimpsed in a blur.
I will be honest: despite passing it many times I didn't even know where Northleach was until I went looking for it. That's what I call a bypass.
The pride of Northleach is its church. It is, in my mind, the finest of the Cotswold churches, and I am comparing it with some very fine churches. I would say it was like a small cathedral, but it isn't - there are cathedrals which are thoroughly depressing places. Looking up at the massive tower from the south porch, the golden and intricately carved limestone seems organic in its natural beauty, born, it would seem, from a life-long love of God and Stone. It is as memorable as buildings like King's College chapel in Cambridge - not so lavishly endowed perhaps, but uniquely memorable in the way that all uniquely beautiful things are - real beauty can never be compared.
The interior has many 15th. century brasses which commemorate the wealthy wool merchants of Northleach, such as John Fortey (died 1458) who rebuilt the nave and added the clerestory. The inscription on his plaque reads: "Behold, what is the good of anything in life- All of which is nothing unless one loves God". I have an affection for these wool merchants and their churches and their memorial brasses - too often it is the powerful who clutter up our churches with vast and often ugly memorials, but these merchants built something beautiful for the good of their communities and you can see them still with their wives and families - no armour, no crests, no grand titles - they were just ordinary businessmen and women of five hundred years ago.
The town is small and compact and completely unspoiled, reminding me in some ways of a slightly larger version of Castle Coombe. The original large market has been fragmented by stalls which became shops in late medieval times, leaving several little roads and alleys, so that initially the church side of the town seems maze-like until the plan unfolds. The town is much as it was in 1500. A number of buildings are stone-clad at ground level, but the upper levels are overhanging and timber framed. The doorways are interesting - big, wide doors, which at one time must have been solid, weathered oak, and still look substantial.
There are stories that the town has tunnels underneath it. These stories are elaborate and detailed. The least romantic explanation is that stone for building was mined by sinking a deep shaft and driving tunnels into the rock. The basis for the stories occurred in 1937 when the garden of Guggle Cottage gave way revealing a hole almost sixty feet deep. At the bottom was a room with barrel vaulting and tunnels radiating in various directions. These tunnels appear to have been explored by local folk, but in a fashion typical of "hidden tunnel" stories (which I collect), there seems to have been a profound lack of curiosity in determining the plan or origin of the tunnels. There are several other stories of tunnels in Northleach, but no-one is making any money out of guided tours. There seem to be two constant factors in hidden tunnel stories: everyone knows where the tunnel is supposed to be, and no-one bothers to go looking for it.
To the west of the town is (or was) the prison. In the 18th. century the gap between the rich and poor was enormous, and the poorest folk supplanted their income by petty pilfering - a few potatoes here, some firewood there. Poaching on the large estates was common, and some hideous devices were employed to discourage poaching (most of which seem to have ended up in the Woolstapler's Museum in Chipping Campden). Punishment for the slightest of offenses was harsh. People were sent to prison for simple disobedience to their "masters". The prisons were ghastly places where men and women were cooped-up in the same room, prisoners awaiting trial were locked up with hardened villains, and sanitary conditions were appalling, leading to outbreaks of disease.
The prison in Northleach was built in about 1792 at the instigation of Sir George Onesiphorus Paul, High Sheriff of Gloucestershire. It was conceived as a model prison and had many completely novel features which were later copied in Cherry Hill Penitentiary, Philadelphia in 1829, and London's Pentonville Prison in 1844. The buildings which remain now form part of the Cotswold Countryside Collection, a rural life museum featuring agricultural implements, agricultural vehicles, blacksmithing, and many other aspects of rural life. Part of the original prison and courthouse have been preserved.
I lived for a considerable period of time on a smallholding which had been occupied by my family since late Victorian times, and found many of the commonplace items of country life on display very familiar and deeply nostalgic.
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The fine woolchurch of St. Peter & St. Paul, Northleach.
Stained glass detail from the east window over the altar, St.
Peter & St. Paul, Northleach.
South Porch of St. Peter & St. Paul, Northleach.
Looking
up at the tower of St. Peter and St. Paul's, and no, I didn't tint the sky. All questions should be referred to my
photo processing laboratory.
Part
of the High Street, Northleach. I must confess that this limestone is every bit as golden as that in
Chipping Campden.
This fine example of traditional Cotswold architecture also happens to house Keith Harding's World
of Mechanical Music. Note the stone tiles, the gables, the rubblestone walls, the stone mullioned and
transomed windows, and the characteristic dripmould over the lower window.
Traditional tradesmen's carts from the last century, at the Cotswold Countryside collection.
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In most cases further details can be found under Things to See.
Northleach is near to Burford, Cirencester, Bourton-on-the Water and Stow-on-the-Wold, which should also be referred to.
The Cotswold Countryside
Collection, Northleach, Gloucestershire, GL54 3JH Tel. 01451 860715
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Copyright © Digital Brilliance 1995