Abbots Leigh
Abbots Leigh | |
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Avon and Somerset | |
Fire | Avon |
Ambulance | South Western |
UK Parliament | |
Website | Abbots Leigh web site |
Abbots Leigh is a village and
.History
The original
The parish of Abbots Leigh was part of the
The manor house here, also named Abbot's Leigh or Leigh Court, was a resting place of Charles II during his escape to France in 1651. He arrived on the evening of 12 September, and stayed at the home of Mr and Mrs George Norton, who were friends of the King's travelling companion, Jane Lane. The Nortons were unaware of the King's identity during his three-day stay.[3]
A description of the house appears in the book The Escape of Charles II, After the Battle of Worcester by Richard Ollard:[4] Watercolour images of Abbot's Leigh House [5][6][7]
"Abbots Leigh was the most magnificent of all the houses in which Charles was sheltered during his escape. A drawing made in 1788, only twenty years before it was pulled down, shows a main front of twelve gables, surmounting three storeys of cowled windows; a comfortable, solid west country Elizabethan house."
While staying at Abbots Leigh, Charles deflected suspicion by asking a trooper, who had been in the King's personal guard, to describe the King's appearance and clothing at the Battle of Worcester. The man looked at Charles and said, "The King was at least three inches taller than you."[8]
The King's escape route is commemorated in the Monarch's Way long-distance footpath which passes through the village.[9]
Hymn tune
In 1942, during World War II, Rev. Cyril Vincent Taylor (1907–1991), then a producer of Religious Broadcasting at the BBC and stationed in the village, wrote a hymn tune which he named after it. The tune was originally written for the hymn "Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken". This hymn had usually been sung to the tune "Austrian Hymn", or Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser, but since the national anthem of then-enemy Germany was also sung to that tune, new music was needed in wartime Britain. Other hymn texts now commonly sung to the same tune include "Father Lord of All Creation", "God is Here", "Go My Children, With my Blessing", "God is Love, Let Heaven Adore Him", and "Lord, You Give the Great Commission".[10][11][12]
Governance
The parish is in the
North Somerset's area covers part of the
The parish is represented in the
Parish church
The
References
- ^ "2011 Census Profile". North Somerset Council. Archived from the original (Excel) on 4 January 2014. Retrieved 4 January 2014.
- ^ "Somerset Hundreds". GENUKI. Retrieved 19 October 2011.
- ^ Count Grammont. Memoirs of the Court of Charles the Second and the Boscobel Narratives, edited by Sir Walter Scott, Publisher: Henry G Bohn, York Street, London, 1846. Chapter: King Charles's escape from Worcester: (The King's own account of his escape and preservation after the Battle of Worcester as dictated to Samuel Pepys at Newmarket on Sunday, October 3d, and Tuesday, 5 October 1680). p.466
- ^ Ollard, Richard (1966). The Escape of Charles II, After the Battle of Worcester. Hodder and Stoughton.
- ^ "Side view of Abbots' Leigh House, where Charles II took refuge after the Battle of Worcester". 19 February 2020.
- ^ "The Gateway to Abbots' Leigh House, where Charles II took refuge after the Battle of Worcester". 19 February 2020.
- ^ "Abbots Leigh House near Bristol".
- ^ J. Hughes (ed.) (1857). The Boscobel Tracts: Relating to the Escape of Charles the Second After the Battle of Worcester and his subsequent adventures, William Blackwood and Sons. p.166
- ^ "The Monarch's Way". The Quinton Oracle. 2005. Archived from the original on 28 August 2008. Retrieved 30 August 2008.
- ^ "Cyril Vincent Taylor". Hymn Time. Archived from the original on 3 June 2016. Retrieved 21 March 2017.
- ^ "Abbot's Leigh". Hymnary. Retrieved 21 March 2017.
- ^ "Composer: Cyril Vincent Taylor". Hymns Without Words. Archived from the original on 22 March 2017. Retrieved 21 March 2017.
- ^ "The Avon (Structural Change) Order 1995". HMSO. Archived from the original on 30 January 2008. Retrieved 9 December 2007.
- ^ "Long Ashton RD". A vision of Britain Through Time. University of Portsmouth. Retrieved 4 January 2014.
- ISBN 0-9526702-0-8.
- ^ "Holy Trinity Church". historicengland.org.uk. Retrieved 5 October 2007.