Bourton-on-the-Water


Bourton-on-the-Water is a village and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England that lies on a wide flat vale within the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The village had a population of 3,296 inhabitants at the 2011 census. Much of the village core is a designated Conservation Area.

Description

Bourton-on-the-Water's high street is flanked by long wide greens and the River Windrush that runs through them. The river is crossed by five low, arched stone bridges.
They were built between 1654 and 1953, leading to the moniker of "Venice of the Cotswolds".
The village often has more visitors than residents during peak times of the tourist season. Some 300,000 visitors arrive each year as compared to under 3,500 permanent residents.
There are two operating houses of worship, Bourton-on-the-Water Baptist Church and St Lawrence, Church of England. The latter is usually open to visitors during the week. It is a Grade II listed building. A part of it was built in the 14th century but major modifications were made in the 1780s and in the late 1800s.
Educational institutions include Bourton-on-the-Water Primary School and the Cotswold School, a co-educational comprehensive school.

Governance

An electoral ward of the same name exists. This ward includes Cold Aston in addition to Bourton. The total population of the ward taken at the 2011 census was 3,676. The village itself had 3,296 people; the estimated population in mid 2016 was 3,482.
Bourton-on-the-Water parish is bounded by the Fosse Way along the northwest, while the eastern boundary is defined by a series of brooks, namely: Slaughter Brook, the River Dikler and the River Windrush; the southern boundary is associated with a watercourse that runs between Bourton Hill and Broadwater Bottom.

History

The earliest evidence of human activity within the Bourton-on-the-Water area was found in the Slaughter Bridge gravel-spread, where Neolithic pottery was discovered. Moreover, excavations of the Salmonsbury Camp give evidence of almost continuous habitation through the Neolithic period, the Bronze Age and throughout England's Roman period. A Roman road, Icknield Street, ran from the Fosse Way at Bourton-on-the-Water to Templeborough in South Yorkshire. Ancient Roman pottery and coins discovered in the village itself give clear evidence of extended Roman occupation. By the 11th century a Christian church, Norman, was established and the village had developed along the River Windrush much as it is today. Centuries earlier, a Saxon timber church was located on that site since about AD 708, built on the site of an old Roman temple. Some of the St Lawrence church on that site today was built in the 14th century but most of it is from the 17th and 18th centuries.
The village was served by a passenger railway between 1862 and 1962. Tourism did not became a significant factor in the village until the 1920s and 1930s. The Model Village opened in 1937. There was a significant increase in the population between 1931 and 1951.
Following the formation of the Territorial Force in 1908, the town, for recruiting, was granted to the Royal Gloucestershire Hussars. Following this formation the regiment maintained a troop from B Squadron. Today the regiment, now a squadron of The Royal Wessex Yeomanry continues to recruit from this area.
The houses and shops in the village are constructed of the yellow limestone characteristic of the Cotswolds and they have the embellishments that make Cotswold architecture so picturesque: projecting gables, string-courses, windows with stone mullions, dripmoulds and stone hoodmoulds over the doors.
Parts of the movie Die Another Day were filmed in the car park at Bourton-on-the-Water and on the nearby ex-RAF aircraft runway at Upper Rissington.

Special designations

The small historic core of Bourton-on-the-Water along with associated areas along the River Windrush have been designated a UK Conservation Area.
Salmonsbury Camp, a nearby Iron Age habitation, is designated a UK National scheduled monument.
English Heritage designates 114 buildings within Bourton-on-the-Water; all have Grade II or Grade II* listed status.

Tourism

Bourton has a number of tourist attractions:
Long-distance footpaths and local walks start, finish or pass through Bourton-on-the-Water. One such route that begins its 100-mile route north is the Heart of England Way.

Sport

The village also has its own non league football club, Bourton Rovers who currently play in the Hellenic Football League at the Rissington Road ground.

Railway

Bourton-on-the-Water was first served by rail with the opening of the Bourton-on-the-Water railway in 1862; this was a branch line from on the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway. The station was situated just to the north of the village. The OWWR later amalgamated with the Great Western Railway, and in 1881, the branch was extended westwards, and formed part of the GWR's Banbury and Cheltenham Direct Railway. The station closed to passengers in 1962, and to goods in 1964.
The closest operating railway station now is in Moreton-in-Marsh. The heritage Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway uses part of the route of the former Great Western Railway's main line in the Cotswolds; it does not pass through the village.

People