Situated in the district of Stroud and in the Vale of Berkeley that borders the estuary of the river Severn, Coaley is a village based on agriculture. It lies under the escarpment of the Cotswold Hills, which rise 700 feet over the valley and provide several excellent viewpoints.

John Mabbott is recorded as being a Yeoman (owned and farmed a small estate) and a churchwarden in Coaley between 1706 and 1708. There is an inscription on a tomb in Stinchcombe which appears to refer to this John who died in 1721.

The churchyard is rather run down with several of the gravestones having collapsed and most of them being so ravaged by the weather as to be illegible: Certainly nothing physical, that I could find, to tie in with our family. The buildings in the village are of various ages so that the whole place looks rather disorganised. The Fox and Hounds pub is presentable and serves meals as well as a good variety of local ales.

Writing in 1779 in his 'A new history of Gloucestershire' Samuel Rudder was somewhat scathing in his description of the village. His description is as follows - "The public roads are the worst that can be conceived; and the poor labouring people are so abandoned to nastiness, that they throw every thing within a yard or two of their doors, where the filth makes a putrid stench, to the injury of their own health, and the annoyance of travelers, if any came among them.  The better houses are gone to ruin, and there is not a gentleman resident in the parish; but this is not particular to Coaley..."

The registers of the parish of Coaley commence in the year 1581, but the first volume which extends from that year until 1738, is extremely irregular, and in many cases badly written. Evidently the entries were often made by the incompetent hand of a parish clerk. Curiously enough, the period during which the register was best kept was that from 1650 to 1660, and the parish was clearly very fortunate at that time in obtaining the services of a competent registrar.

   Uley (Yew Wood)

I left Coaley via the narrow lane, which leads to Owlpen via the delightful old cloth-making village of Uley. During the 17^th and 18^th centuries, Uley was a hive of economic activity, and as early as 1608, it was recorded that three local cloth-merchants earned a living from marketing the products of 29 local weavers, most of whom produced broadcloth.

On a promontory on the escarpment to the north west of the village stands an Iron Age hill fort known as Uley Bury. Banked ditches mark the outer rim of this 32- acre construction, which are mostly given over to the cultivation of arable crops and remain largely unexcavated. However in recent years, some evidence of the wealthy community who inhabited the fort in the first century BC has been unearthed. Items discovered include bronze, glass and shale jewellery, gold coins and iron ingots which have been attributed to the Dobunni tribe within whose lands Uley Bury is situated.

There are excellent views across the valley to the West. A well sign-posted footpath to the south east of the fort leads down to the church of Uley. This is an imposing building built on a promontory but again I could find no gravestones dedicated to any member of the Mabbott clan. The pub, The Crown (or was it The Old Crown?) serves locally brewed beer and it is, appropriately, opposite the church at the top of the narrow lane that leads downhill to the East and Owlpen.

Rudder's (1779) comments on Uley were less than complementary - "This village, though' not large, is very populous, from a manufacture of fine broad cloth long established here.  It is still carried on by several persons in a very extensive manner, and furnishes employment for the lower class of people. But idleness and debauchery are so deeply rooted in them, by means of those seminaries of vice called Alehouses, that the poor are very burthensome. These houses are scattered all over the country, and are daily increasing, which we owe either to the magistrates inattention, or indulgence, or, perhaps, to a mistaken notion of serving the community by increasing the public revenue from licences; but they may be assured that nothing can compensate for depravity of morals, and loss of industry.

It should, perhaps, be pointed out that Rudder was a vicar and the Puritans were active in the area in the preceding years.

   Owlpen (Olla’s pen or enclosure)

John Mabbott married Anne and their children were christened in the parish of Owlpen.  John went on to become a yeoman (owner and farmer of a small estate) in Coaley in 1706 to 1708.  The land may well be that referred to in the Will of  John Mabbott of Stinchcombe dated 17 October 1776.

According to Mark Mabbott's researches in the Gloucestershire records office the children of John Mabbott (1661) are as follows -

John Mabut on 4^th march 1687 and he probably died before his tenth birthday;

Ann Mabbott 19^th May 1690; Mary Mabbet 29^th December 1695; John Mabbett 15^th December 1696; She worked at Owlpen Manor as a kitchen servant in the early 1700 and married John Gunter in Wooten-under-Edge in 1723.

Mary Mabbet 29 December 1695;

John Mabbett 15 December 1696, He appears to have died aged 26 in Stinchcombe parish.

Anthony Mabbott 31^st August 1701. Apparently variations in spelling of surnames was not unusual at that time. Such a small hamlet even in those days was unlikely to boast more than one John and Anne with the same surname.  He is our probable line, and also appears in Stinchcombe parish but has left less in the way of memorial.

The manor is situated in a natural bowl with the two promontories of Uleybury and Stinchcombe hill on either side and the escarpment of the Cotswolds behind. Springs feed a small stream that has been damned to provide a fishpond for the manor.  Situated over the dam is a mill house with a copper cap. A vegetable garden is sited between the stream and the manor house taking advantage of the south-facing slope. Three hundred years ago this must have been a self sufficient, well to do, manor.

The manor house is not an elaborate building; a straightforward three-gabled house, it does not have an architectural wholeness, parts dating from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries. But it possesses elegance of line and a simple beauty, enhanced by the yew trees on the lawns in front of it, and by a simple church and dense woodland in the background.

The manor, small church, and a couple of small cottages remain today and are open to the public between April and October.  I went there during the "open" season (13^th April 2000 for the record). Despite the open signs accessing the site, the ticket office, manor house, office and restaurant (Tithe barn) were all "closed". There are a lot of signs advising that access is forbidden unless in possession of a ticket (the ticket office was closed), and even more advising that dogs are not allowed.  The present church was not built until 1887 so a wander around the churchyard didn’t bear fruit. I don’t know where the old parish church was located.

There are two very narrow lanes leading to Owlpen, but it can be approached on a third route from the East by an unpaved track which drops, down the escarpment through the wood to the manor house and visitor parking. This route is well sign posted and undoubtedly reduces visitor frustration during the "season".

   Dursley (Deorsige’s Leah (pasture or wood))

   Cam (Crooked stream)

Lower Cam, Cam and Dursley are built up today and effectively form one small town. Cam dates from the 11^th century when its manor, known as Camma, formed part of the huge Berkeley estate. The village has been a cloth-making centre for centuries and today Cam Mill continues the practice, which began in 1522. Hopton Manor school was founded in 1730 making it one of the oldest primary schools in the country.

Jane, youngest daughter of John (1661) and Ann was christened in Cam on the 2^nd of January 1705. So it looks probable that the family left Owlpen and moved via Cam to settle in Coaley around this time.

Just the Coaley side of Cam there are three hills which are outcrops of the escarpment.

The caps of these hills are of lower inferior oolite (why do I like that term so much?) with a layer of cotteswold sand, upper lias clay, marlestone rock bed and finally middle and lower lias clays reading from the peaks downward.

The largest of these hills is known as Downham hill and was the site of an 18^th century smallpox hospital. I wonder if any Mabbott family members spent time there?

The middle hill is known as Cam Long Down and was quarried for limestone in Victorian times.

The smallest and nearest to Cam is appropriately known as Cam Peak. It is easily climbed (I did) but be advised that it is less steep to go to the mid-point between Cam Peak and Cam Long Down and then south up the (slightly) gentler slope. The view from the top is rewarding. Berkeley Nuclear power station Slimbridge wildlife park and the M5 would not have been seen by our ancestors of course, but the river Severn and beyond that the Forest of Dean, and the hills of South Wales won’t have changed much. To the South Dursley nestles beneath Stinchcombe hill and the Tyndale monument is clearly visible.

Traditionally the people of the area climb Cam Peak on the 1^st of May each year and roll hard-boiled eggs down the steep slope. Peculiar!

   Stinchcombe (Valley infested by gnats)

I didn’t see any gnats during my visit. The village has all but gone with a few houses and a well preserved church and churchyard. The M5 thunders past barely a hundred yards away. The village nestles beneath Stinchcombe Hill on the edge of the Vale of Berkeley.

Anthony Mabbott was christened on the 31^st August 1701 in Owlpen and he married Sarah. Anthony died in the parish on 18^th May 1736, they had five children all were christened in Stinchcombe:

John Mabbet Feb. 20^th 1724,

Daniel Mabbott 27^th July 1727;

Anne Mabbett 21^st Jan 1730,

Mary Mabbott 1^st December 1732

Elizabeth Mabbott 8^th September 1734.

Stinchcombe Church yard = The Mabbett gravestones

   North Nibley (Point, peak tip or the like. Name taken from neighbouring hill)

William Mabbott, christened here on 8^th of July 1756, later migrated 15 miles to the South and eventually died in the parish of Northwick. He is our possible link with the Mabb*tt family who figure above.

North Nibley was also the birthplace of William Tyndale in 1484. He is thought to be one of the first scholars to translate the scriptures into English, and it is upon his work that the authorised version of the Bible was subsequently based. For his trouble he was unfortunately strangled and burned at the stake at Vilvorde near Brussels in 1536.

The Tyndale monument was later constructed to commemorate the life and work of this early pioneer. Built in 1866 by public subscription, the monument stands 111 feet high on top of a 700-foot escarpment and forms a prominent landmark on the route of the Cotswold Way.

North Nibley is also noted for being the site of the last "private" battle in England between the rival barons William Lord Berkeley and the Viscount De Lisle.

Olveston

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