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Upper Swell
Upper Swell maps
Historic maps of Upper Swell and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Upper Swell maps
Upper Swell area books
Displaying 1 of 10 books about Upper Swell and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Upper Swell
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Gloucestershire memories
Lower Swell Forge
I first came to Lower Swell as a 16 year old boy; that would have been 1967. I had attended Wilsons Grammar School in Camberwell London. Austen Nichols had worked at the school teaching metal work. He told me that he lived in Lower Swell and had a forge there. He and I got on really well. He was a good teacher and became a good friend. When he left Wilsons he invited me to visit him and that summer I did. I had family friends not far away and combined my visit to him with a short stay in nearby Malmesbury.
Austen showed me the forge and his beautiful little cottage. I stayed for most of the day and before leaving promised to visit again.
To my eternal sorrow I didn't actually visit him again until about 1986. I had driven by over the years but felt I'd left it too long to rekindle our friendship. Now, however I was married and had a son and a daughter I... Read more
Lower Swell in The 1930s
My Dad and his family lived in Lower Swell between about 1928 and 1940. They must have been quite unusual in those days - arriving in the village from London. My grandmother married a Canadian soldier after the First World War and went to live in Canada where she had 4 children. But it didn't work out and she brought them home, first to London and soon afterwards to Lower Swell. Their name was Allen - the children were Yvonne, William (known as Rigby) Wilfrid and Norman. My Dad liked to remember his childhood spent in Lower Swell and often talked about the people there - Hathaway, Taylor, Temple, Illes, King, Clarke and Harris. I wonder if anyone still remembers them? Or the Allens?
Eve Magee
Pineapple Cottages, Lower Swell
My gran's name was Lily Illes and she lived in one of Pineapple Cottages at Lower Swell as a child. She left home at 15 to go and work in London and then moved to Scotland with my grandpa. I have visted and stayed in one of the cottages as a family member still owned it (unfortunately not anymore). Even as a child I thought it was the most beautiful area. I have fond memories of Stow on the Wold and Bourton on the Water and often tell people to visit the area. It was so lovely to see my gran's family name mentioned in the post.
Auntie's Tea Gardens
My mother's family once lived at the vicarage in Upper Slaughter, when my grandfather, Rev Arthur Parr, was vicar. My mother married and moved away to Yorkshire, where we grew up, but as children, my sisters and I stayed once with our auntie and cousins in their pretty Cotswold stone cottage while our parents attended a wedding. It was our first time away from our home, and it was so lovely. The garden was full of vegetables and flowers, with a greenhouse, I think - so well tended. It was no surprise when later my auntie made a tea garden there. When I was expecting my first baby I visited again, this time with my husband, and we sat in that lovely garden with a traditional Cotswold tea and cakes made by local village ladies. I can almost smell the sweet peas.
The Old Post Office
My husbands Aunt, Cicely Minnie Day, was the post mistress at the Post Office in Lower Slaughter when it was situated in the house on the far right of this photo. The sign above the door denoting this fact. When she died in 1954 the post office was moved to another house in the village. As a child my husband spent happy holidays in this house when his Mother and Father visited his family there.
Sheer Bliss
I lived in lovely Lower Slaughter in 1991 along with my children's father. How we came to live in such a beautiful place was pure luck. We had applied for jobs in nearby Adlestrop and with the jobs came accomodation, Manor Farm Cotts. I remember an open top mock vintage bus driving through in the summertime, usually american tourists waved on the top deck, it felt surreal. My favourite time of day was early evening, we would stroll along the river breathing the sweet air of honeysuckle. I was pregnant with my first child and just filled with complete peace and contentment. Although only there for a short time I really felt that I was home.
Evacuees
I was evacuated to Evenlode as a small child, I lived with a family in a small cottage opposite the school, I would be interested to make contact with anyone with a similar history or of knowledge of the area at that time. I am not sure of the year, I was quite young. Frank Piner
