Guiting Power

Guiting Power, looking South East down the village

Guiting Power is a small Gloucestershire village in the Cotswolds, England. The population taken at the 2011 census was 296.[1]

Location

Guiting Power is situated on the slopes above a small valley (formed by a tributary of the River Windrush). There was a late Anglo-Saxon settlement on this site, when it was called Gyting Broc. The village is near Cheltenham and the parish church is located at Ordnance Survey grid reference SP 096246.

Facilities and features

The village is unusual for its size in having a Post Office, a village hall, a children's nursery, a bakery, village shop and two public houses. Nearby are the excavated foundations of the original Anglo-Saxon church and a large kerbed round barrow shown as tumulus on Ordnance Survey mapping.[2] To a large extent, the village owes its preservation to the Guiting Manor Amenity Trust, founded by Raymond Cochrane in the early 1970s.

The Farmer's Arms, a pub in Guiting Power.

The Wardens' Way passes through the village, on its 14-mile (23 km) route from Bourton-on-the-Water to Winchcombe, passing close by the church. It joins the Oxfordshire Way to the Cotswold Way and can be combined with the Windrush Way to make a circular route. It passes through the Cotswold villages of Guiting Power, Naunton, Lower Slaughter and Upper Slaughter.

There is a 17-acre (69,000 m2) wetland nature reserve, where a rich flora and fauna thrive.

The parish church of St Michael and All Angels is situated on the south edge of the village. It is of Norman origin, with a later Victorian transept. The north and south doorways were preserved in the renovations at that time.

"Guiting Power" is a hymn tune by John Barnard, named after the village, for the hymn "Christ triumphant, ever reigning".

Guiting Music Festival

Guiting Power is also known for its Music Festival, which runs for ten days, starting in the last week of July every year.

The Guiting Music Festival, known until 2014 as simply "The Guiting Festival", typically comprises eight evening concerts covering the genres of Classical, Folk and Jazz music. These concerts are normally held in the Guiting Power Village Hall. The Festival also includes two open-air concerts (Jazz and Folk), which are held in the adjacent playing fields on the first and second Sundays.

The Guiting Festival is a Registered Charity (No. 1100808) with the stated aim of "ORGANISATION OF AN ANNUAL MUSIC FESTIVAL BRINGING DISTINGUISHED PERFORMERS TO A RURAL AUDIENCE AT LOW TICKET PRICES".

The first Guiting Festival was held in 1970 and Joanna MacGregor has been its Honorary President since 1995.

Notable residents

SAS soldier and author Lofty Large grew up in Guiting Power.[3]

References

  1. ↑ "Parish population 2011.Retrieved 25 March 2015".
  2. ↑ "Guiting Power 3 round barrow". University of Bradford Division of Archaeological, Geographical and Environmental Sciences. 1998-07-29. Retrieved 2008-03-16.
  3. ↑ Large, Lofty (1999). Soldier against the odds. Mainstream Publishing. p. 117. ISBN 978-1-84018-346-7.
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Coordinates: 51°55′N 1°52′W / 51.917°N 1.867°W / 51.917; -1.867

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