St Paul’s Epistle

Nearest town:
Cheltenham (7km WNW)
OS reference:
SP002181
OS sheet:
163
Latitude:
51° 51' 39.54 N
Longitude:
1° 59' 49.54 W
Added to TMA by

Images

Image of St Paul’s Epistle (Round Barrow(s)) by thesweetcheat

A quick and easy detour off the Gloucestershire Way for a revisit. The barrow gives great views over the Coln Valley, where I’m heading next.

Image credit: A. Brookes (17.4.2021)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Jan 9, 2022
Image of St Paul’s Epistle (Round Barrow(s)) by thesweetcheat

Looking east from the barrow over the Coln valley. There are many long barrows in the landscape ahead, although most have been ploughed down.

Image credit: A. Brookes (7.11.2020)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Aug 8, 2021
Image of St Paul’s Epistle (Round Barrow(s)) by thesweetcheat

In its hilltop landscape, from the Gloucestershire Way to the south.

Image credit: A. Brookes (1.1.2010)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Jan 1, 2010

Articles

St Paul’s Epistle

C
CARL Aug 27, 2013

Visited 24.8.13

Very easy to see right next to the minor road.
Tree covered at a prominent location with great views to the east

Nice one.

St Paul’s Epistle

thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Jan 1, 2010

This is a decent round barrow, very nicely preserved and in a very prominent position. Topped by trees and easily visible from the minor road running alongside, this is one of the best examples of a round barrow along the western edge of the Cotswolds.

[The OS 1:25000 shows another round barrow a couple of hundred yards to the south-east (on Pegglesworth Hill at SP00351779), but a quick visit makes it look like it may have been ploughed out of existence. According to Darvill and Grinsell’s “Gloucestershire Barrows: Supplement 1961-1988” it was only 0.4m high in 1980, so it’s no real surprise. There is a mound in the field with a reservoir tank inserted into the top, but not in quite the position shown on the OS.]

Folklore

St Paul’s Epistle
Round Barrow(s)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Jan 4, 2009

The barrow appears to have had the name since at least 1777, when it was marked on Taylor’s Map of Gloucester as “Paul Aposd”.

“It has been suggested that an epistle was read there at the beating of the parish bounds, which run close by. In the mid 19th century, however, the name ‘Paul and the Epistles’ was sometimes used and was said to refer to the number of trees.”

From: ‘Parishes: Dowdeswell’, A History of the County of Gloucester: volume 9: Bradley hundred. The Northleach area of the Cotswolds (2001), pp. 42-69. URL: british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=66462

Rather less religiously, it is also known locally as “Bull’s Pissel”!

Sites within 20km of St Paul’s Epistle

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