Lower Oddington and Upper Oddington are a pair of adjoining villages in the English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 county of Gloucestershire

Gloucestershire

Gloucestershire is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn, and the entire Forest of Dean....

. Together they form the civil parish

Civil parish

In England, a civil parish is a territorial designation and, where they are found, the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties...

 of Oddington.

They are located to the south of the A436 road east of the town of Stow-on-the-Wold

Stow-on-the-Wold

Stow-on-the-Wold is a market town and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England. It is situated on top of an 800 ft hill, at the convergence of a number of major roads through the Cotswolds, including the Fosse Way . The town was founded as a planned market place by Norman lords to take...

.

Oddington is known for the fine Church of St Nicholas. It was originally a cell of St Peter’s Benedictine

Benedictine

Benedictine refers to the spirituality and consecrated life in accordance with the Rule of St Benedict, written by Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century for the cenobitic communities he founded in central Italy. The most notable of these is Monte Cassino, the first monastery founded by Benedict...

 abbey in Gloucester

Gloucester

Gloucester is a city, district and county town of Gloucestershire in the South West region of England. Gloucester lies close to the Welsh border, and on the River Severn, approximately north-east of Bristol, and south-southwest of Birmingham....

; it was ceded in 1157 to the See of York

York

York is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence...

, and exchanged with the Crown in 1547.
The Norman

Norman architecture

About|Romanesque architecture, primarily English|other buildings in Normandy|Architecture of Normandy.File:Durham Cathedral. Nave by James Valentine c.1890.jpg|thumb|200px|The nave of Durham Cathedral demonstrates the characteristic round arched style, though use of shallow pointed arches above the...

 south aisle probably represents the original nave. The church was all but abandoned among its fields in 1852, and has been little altered since. It contains wall paintings of the Doom

Doom (painting)

A Doom is a traditional English term for a painting or other image of the Last Judgment, an event in Christian eschatology. Christ judges souls, and then sends them to either Heaven or Hell...

on the north wall of the nave, dating to the early fifteenth century. They were whitewashed over in Puritan times and conserved by Eve Baker from 1969. Scenes depicted include the Acts of Mercy, the Seven Deadly Sins, and Pride.

External links

• GENUKI(tm) page
• Parish council contacts
• 'Parishes: Oddington', A History of the County of Gloucester: volume 6 (1965), pp. 87-98 for Lower Oddington for Upper Oddington