Tormarton is a village and civil parish in the South Gloucestershire district, in the ceremonial county of Gloucestershire, England. The village is about half a mile north of the M4 motorway; the A46 road towards Bath passes a similar distance west of the village to join the motorway at junction 18. The parish includes the small village of West Littleton, south of the motorway. The parish population at the 2021 census was 323.[1] The Cotswold Way footpath passes through the village.[2]
History
St Mary Magdalene churchThe main entrance to Dodington Park
It is thought that humans have been active in the area of Tormarton for more than 6,000 years.[3] In 1968 the bodies of three Bronze Age men were discovered near Tormarton, when a gas pipeline was being installed. Unusually, two of the bodies showed combat wounds; they are now in Bristol Museum & Art Gallery. Further excavations were made in 1999 and 2000, which found remains of two other bodies estimated to be 3,500 years old. They are all thought to have all died at a similar time and were then buried in a ditch.[4] A BBC documentary, Meet The Ancestors, was made that followed the second excavation.[5]
The area is thought to have been inhabited by the Romans[2] as a stone coffin was found in nearby Hinton.[6] The village was on the border of the Anglo Saxon kingdoms of Wessex and Mercia. The medieval village was larger than today: extensive earthworks to the north and east of the church suggest that this area may have been settled previously.[2] Its name may come from Thor Maer Tun, meaning The settlement with the thorn (tree) on the boundary.[2] Another source suggests the name derives from the church tower (Tor) on the border between Wessex and Mercia (Anglo-Saxon Meark).[7]
The village became part of the Badminton estate, owned by the Duke of Beaufort, in 1789.[8] In 1848 the population of the parish was 620.[9]
The M4 motorway to the west of Tormarton opened in 1967, with the section to the east running to Stanton St Quintin (Junction 17) opening four years later.[10]
In 2008, SITA made a planning application to build a large in-vessel composting facility near Tormarton.[11] Previously SITA had been proposing to site it on a brown field site in Pucklechurch but this was met with opposition from residents due to concerns it could pose a health risk and be an eyesore. The proposed facility would handle 30,000 tonnes of waste a year. BBC News reported that it was controversial with residents in Tormarton too.[12]
Notable buildings
The Church of England parish church of St Mary Magdelene stands to the north of the present village. Its Norman origins can be seen in the chancel arch and the lower two stages of the tower. The south aisle was added in the 14th century, and in 1853 T. H. Wyatt added the south porch and the vestry. The church was designated as Grade I listed in 1985.[13]
The former manor house, now Manor Farmhouse, is south-west of the church. Originally the home of the St Loe family of Tormarton and Sutton Court at Chew Magna,[citation needed] it was later owned by the de la Riviere family. Dating from c.1350, the house was enlarged to the rear in the next century and further added to and altered in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.[14]
Tormarton Court is a Grade II listed Georgian rectory, now a house.[15] The manor house at West Littleton, from c.1500 with later alterations, is Grade II* listed.[16]
^Young, Roger (22 October 2011). "Obituary: John Mackay". The Independent. Retrieved 10 August 2021.
^Collins, J. R. (2000). "Christian Ecclesiology and the Composition of Leviathan: A Newly Discovered Letter to Thomas Hobbes". The Historical Journal. 43 (1): 217–231. doi:10.1017/S0018246X99008845. JSTOR3021019. S2CID154979401.
