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 RAF
#87 SQUADRON
The Blue Heritage Plaque at Walton House, Northleach
In 1940 during the Battle of Britain No.87 Squadron pilots were billeted
in Walton House, a large old coaching inn on the High Street of
Northleach. From July to November 1940 they flew Hurricanes from a
landing strip situated between Northleach and Bibury, the ground crews
being housed in tents there. Amongst the pilots were some famous names
like Ian “Widge” Gleed, Roland Beamont, Derek Ward, Dennis David, Roddy
Rayner and Laurence Thoroughgood. Flight leader Ian Gleed wrote the
Battle of Britain book ‘Arise to Conquer’ and was awarded the
Distinguished Flying Cross.
The most famous pilot to be stationed at Northleach was Roland Beamont,
who went on to destroy 32 flying bombs in 1944, and after the war became
a record-breaking chief test pilot, making the maiden flights of the
Canberra Bomber, P1, the Lightening and the TSR2, before becoming a
director of British Aerospace.
In January 2005 Northleach resident Gerald Green arranged for a blue
plaque to be unveiled at Walton House, this being carried out by the
Lord Lieutenant of Gloucestershire, Mr Henry Elwes, accompanied by S/Ldr
Stephen Foster-Bazim and other officers from RAF Brize Norton.
THE
WOOL TRADE
A boom period for
Northleach came from 1340 - 1540, when top quality wool from the local
Cotswold Lion sheep was exported to Europe. The export of wool to the
continent was a prime source of income for the Crown. Cotswold wool was
famous for its fine quality, and the Wool merchants of the Cotswold
Market Towns collected fleeces from the local farms and sold them to
middlemen called Wool Staplers. These Merchants of the Staple held a
monopoly from the Crown and wool could only be exported by them. In
return they collected the income tax on the wool and the importance of
the trade was recognized by having the Lord Chancellor sit on the
woolpack at Westminster.
The woolmen of
Northleach were William Midwinter, Thomas and John Fortey, and John
Tayler. Wool merchants had become some of the wealthiest men in the
country, and fortunately those involved in the trade locally poured much
of this money back into the town. They restored the parish church of St
Peter and St Paul to such a magnificent state that it became known
unofficially as the 'Cathedral of the Cotswolds'. It is a very fine
example of the region's Perpendicular style, and contains a wealth of
features, including a handsome porch, regarded by many as one of the
best in the country. Brasses in the church remain as a lasting tribute
to the generosity of these medieval wool merchants.
DECLINE AND
FALL
Most booms are
followed by bust, and the change in the fortunes of Northleach was so
pronounced from the 16th century onwards, that it never regained its
importance in the region. Even until early this century it was almost
more famous for its decline than its past glories; which led to it
having a very 'bad press' until quite recently. So what happened?
Even during the
fifteenth century, wars on the continent were interrupting the flow of
the wool across Europe, and causing a slow-down in trade. During the
sixteenth century, when the emphasis of the economy was shifting from
agricultural to manufactured goods; the export of raw fleeces was banned
altogether by an Act of Parliament. However, wool merchants soon began
to realize that exporting manufactured cloth was going to be even more
profitable than the export of raw wool, leading to an altogether new
trade. Good news for Northleach? No. The river Leach had a mill, but not
enough power in the stream or volume to drive a commercial manufacturing
industry. So the trade moved to the hillier south of the Cotswolds where
the deeper valleys around Stroud produced faster supplies of water in
their rivers.
NORTHLEACH
AS A COACHING TOWN
 Northleach never recovered. In the
eighteenth century, however, passing trade picked up as the town was a
convenient coaching stop en route from London to Gloucester, and
provided a welcome beer and a change of horses for the weary traveller.
A number of old coaching inns still stand in the town to this day; the Sherborne Arms; the Red Lion; the Wheatsheaf are all still public
houses. Others such as the Old Kings Head, Tudor House and the Union
Hotel have seen a change of use over the years. Around 1790, a prison
was built to the west of the town by Sir George Onesipherous Paul. It
was a great advance on the prisons of the time and became a pattern for
others both here and in the USA. (Latterly, in the twentieth century the
building was to house a Museum of Rural Life and a remarkable and
historic collection of agricultural machinery-now sadly closed down).
The coming of the railways in Victorian times was to supersede the
coaching trade; but the railways never came to Northleach, and again the
town was left behind.
The beginning of
the twentieth century was a low point in the status of Northleach. It is
said that grass grew down the middle of the High Street, and indeed many
of the properties were vacant, and in a state of disrepair. In the
decade up to the second world war the town had the lowest building rate
in the county. A survey during the forties revealed that 17% of all
properties were regarded as obsolete, and 162 houses were vacant.
RESTORATION
The rise of the motor car in the second half of the twentieth century
was to bring passing trade back to Northleach, and a revival in the
fortunes of the shops and services in the Market Place. It was becoming
a 'coaching stop' once again! All was improving until problems that
arose from the growth in heavy goods traffic on the main A40 from London
to the West; which of course was still running through the centre of
Northleach in the nineteen-sixties and seventies. The narrowing down of
the High Street at either end of the Market Place, along with parked
cars along the way was creating an increasingly intolerable situation.
More than one tragic road accident in the town finally resulted in the
building of a by-pass which was opened in 1984. A blessed relief for
some; it was hard on the traders who had relied on the flow of traffic
through the town for their passing trade. Many shops and pubs changed
hands, and the Market Place struggled to find a new identity.
Perhaps the most
significant result of Northleach being by-passed was that land either
side of the High Street was released for the building of new houses.
Practically nothing had been built since the construction of the Walton
Estate in the nineteen-fifties; the law had prevented new estates from
filtering on to a trunk road. With the fair wind of a housing boom
behind, new estates blossomed around the perimeter of the town;
eventually pushing hard against its boundaries. Over the following ten
years, Northleach was to grow by half as much again. Sadly, one of the
losses of the 1980's was the Westwoods Grammar School, which was built
in 1930 on the eastern edge of the town. There had been a Grammar School
in Northleach since 1557. The cottage hospital was closed down at the
same time despite great local opposition.
The shops and
services now serve a thriving local community. Northleach, so often the
'forgotten town of the Cotswolds', will never be a bustling tourist trap
like Bourton-on-the-Water or Stow-on-the-Wold; but it has become a
desirable place to live, and as a quiet little town with so many fine
features, many visitors regard it as a bit of a 'discovery'. |
NORTHLEACH IS A TOWN, despite its size. There are villages which
are larger and there may be towns which are smaller. A simple rule of
thumb is this; towns have market places but villages have greens. This
is too crude a rule and a better way is to look at the shape of the
settlement. Villages have grown up higgledy-piggledy round a church and
a manor house. Towns like Northleach, Stow-on-the-Wold, Burford and Lechlade were laid out as towns in about 1200 AD and it is noticeable
that the town is on one side of the Church. Here for example the town
was built to the east and north of the Church. To the south of the
Church was a pre-Norman hamlet with two mills and this hamlet was
incorporated into the Town by the 14th century. The Church however
remained outside the town.