Tortworth
Encyclopedia
Tortworth is a hamlet, and civil parish, near Thornbury
Thornbury, South Gloucestershire
Thornbury is a market town in South Gloucestershire, England, approximately 12 miles north of the city of Bristol, with a population of 12,342 at the 2001 UK census. The town hosts South Gloucestershire Council headquarters and is twinned with Bockenem in Germany. Thornbury is a Britain in Bloom...

 in South Gloucestershire
South Gloucestershire
South Gloucestershire is a unitary district in the ceremonial county of Gloucestershire, in South West England.-History:The district was created in 1996, when the county of Avon was abolished, by the merger of former area of the districts of Kingswood and Northavon...

, England
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...

. It has a population of 150, and is noted for a huge and ancient chestnut
Chestnut
Chestnut , some species called chinkapin or chinquapin, is a genus of eight or nine species of deciduous trees and shrubs in the beech family Fagaceae, native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. The name also refers to the edible nuts they produce.-Species:The chestnut belongs to the...

 tree, believed to be over 1000 years old. The tree, in St. Leonard's churchyard, looks like a small wood because many branches of the main trunk have taken root.

Boundary records compiled in the reign of John
John of England
John , also known as John Lackland , was King of England from 6 April 1199 until his death...

 already shown the "Great Chestnut of Tortworth" in South Gloucestershire, as a landmark; and it was also known by the same name in the days of Stephen
Stephen of England
Stephen , often referred to as Stephen of Blois , was a grandson of William the Conqueror. He was King of England from 1135 to his death, and also the Count of Boulogne by right of his wife. Stephen's reign was marked by the Anarchy, a civil war with his cousin and rival, the Empress Matilda...

. This tree measured over 50 feet in circumference at 5 feet from the ground in 1720.

The civil parish contains Leyhill prison, and Tortworth Court
Tortworth Court
Tortworth Court is a Victorian mansion in South Gloucestershire built in Tudor style between 1848 and 1853 by Lord Ducie. Its architect was Samuel Sanders Teulon. During World War II the Grade II listed mansion became a naval training base for coding and signals, under the name of HMS Cabbala, and...

, former home of the Earl of Ducie
Earl of Ducie
Earl of Ducie is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1837 for Thomas Reynolds Moreton, 4th Baron Ducie. The family descends from Edward Moreton , who married Elizabeth, daughter of Robert Ducie. Their son Matthew Ducie Moreton represented Gloucestershire in the House of...

 but now a hotel. In the Domesday Book
Domesday Book
Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...

 of 1086 the manor is recorded as held by Turstin FitzRolf
Turstin FitzRolf
Turstin FitzRolf was a Norman magnate, one of the few "Proven Companions of William the Conqueror" who fought at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. As his name indicates, he was the son of a certain Rolf, synonymous with Rou and Rollo . His first name appears as Tosteins, Thurstan and other variants...

.

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