Todenham
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Todenham

Todenham is a village and civil parish in the Cotswold district of Gloucestershire, England. The village is significant for its Grade I listed 14th-century parish church.

Todenham, 'Todanhom' in 804 (in the kingdom of Mercia) and 'Teodeham' in 1086, derives from the Old English for an "enclosed valley of a man called Teoda" the 'ham' part referring to "...land hemmed in by water or marsh or higher ground...".

In 804 the Benedictine monastery at Deerhurst, Deerhurst Priory, acquired Todenham manor from Ethelric, the son of Ethelmund. The priory, and therefore the manor of Todenham, then passed to king Edward the Confessor, who willed it to Westminster Abbey. Todenham in the Domesday Book is listed as being in the Deerhurst Hundred of Gloucestershire. The settlement contained 59 villagers, 54 smallholders (middle level of serf below a villager), and 51 slaves. There were ploughlands for 24.5 lord's plough teams and 28 men's plough teams. Resources were 40 acres (16 ha) of meadow, a woodland of 0.5 leagues, and four mills. Three of the mills may have been included as part of the wider Deerhurst manor. Major lordship in 1066 was held by Westminster Abbey, which retained it in 1086 after the Norman conquest, while becoming Tenant-in-chief to king William I.

In the second half of the 19th century, and up to the First World War, Todenham was in the Eastern division of Gloucestershire, the upper division of the Hundred of Westminster, the petty sessional division of Moreton-in-Marsh, and the Unionpoor relief provision set up under the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834—and county court district of Shipston-on-Stour. It had a railway station on the line of the Oxford and Worcester section of the Great Western Railway.

The ecclesiastical parish was in the rural deanery of Campden and the archdeaconry of Cirencester, in the Diocese of Gloucester. The parish church was described as of Decorated style, containing a chancel with chantry chapel on north side, a nave of three bays, a south chapel within the nave, a north aisle, a south porch, and a tower with six bells and a clock. Recorded were stone sedilia with canopies and a piscina, and remains of stairs to a former rood loft. The chancel chantry chapel was the family pew of the Pole family. Nave south chapel, with canopied piscina and credence, contains a monument to Lady Louisa Pole (died 6 August 1852). The decorated-style chancel east window included a stained glass memorial (erected 1879) to Rev Gilbert Malcolm, parish rector from 1812. The chancel has an inscribed brass memorial to William Moulton (died 1614). The church was restored in 1879 for £600 [Kelly's 1897] or £2,000 [Kelly's 1914]. There was seating for 150.

The church register dates to 1721, and includes a list of former rectors going back farther. A significant rector was Thomas Merkes (1397–1403), 'abbot of Westminster' [Kelly's], then Bishop of Carlisle (1397–1400), who was 'degraded' by Henry IV for his support of Richard II. The parish living was a rectory which included 188 acres (76 ha) of glebe—an area of land used to support a parish priest—and a residence, under the patronage of the Bishop of Gloucester. The parish priest in 1882 was also vicar of Lower Lemington, but not in residence at Todenham.

Todenham manor had belonged in 1542 to the Dean and Chapter of Westminster, then in 1545 to the Petre family of Essex after it was given to William Petre, the Tudor Secretary of State. It was retained by the Petre family until 1783, when it was sold to the Pole family who originated in Derbyshire, and who are descended from Cardinal Reginald Pole (1500–1558), the last Catholic Archbishop of Canterbury, and son to Sir Richard Pole and Margaret Pole, 8th Countess of Salisbury. Lordship of the manor resided with this branch of the Poles until 1951. The Pole family seat was Todenham House in the village, in 1856 occupied by Sir Peter Van Notten-Pole, 3rd Baronet (1801–1887), and in 1897 by Sir Cecil Pery Van Notten-Pole, 4th Baronet (1863–1948) JP.

There was a new National School, built in 1874 for 100 children, with an 1897 average attendance 23 boys and 27 girls including infants. At the beginning of the 20th century this was now a Public Elementary School (Education Act 1902), with an average attendance of 50. There had been no parish school in the late 17th century, but an endowment of £20 in 1704 was given for the education of poor children, these to be selected by the rector and churchwardens. A previous National school, which was subscription, fee and rector financed, existed from the early to mid-19th century in a rented building.

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