Aylburton is a village and civil parish in the Forest of Dean district of Gloucestershire, England, on the A48 road about two miles south-west of Lydney. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 689, increasing to 711 at the 2011 census.
The centre of the Village is a Conservation area. There are elements of medieval buildings in The Cross, and a Cruck frame hall was later converted to a terrace of cottages.
History of Aylburton
Aylburton lies on the line of the old Roman and medieval road. Limited archaeological excavations during permitted developments and the signs of garden soil improvement (compared to neighbouring fields, including the playing field) show long standing occupation.
During the Roman period most of the slopes of the parish were originally covered in woodland and the bank of the River Severn was more than 1 km closer to the main road, with around half of the current "levels" being reclaimed before about 450 AD. The area would have been dominated by the Roman villa and temple in the grounds behind what is now the Lydney Park House. At this time the Forest (of Dean) was just inside the territory known as Britannia Secunda (Secondary Britain), which covered Wales and whose eastern border was the River Severn. Thereafter, the Forest varied between Welsh and English possession at least until King Offa (8th C) built his famous dyke; at that point all of Gloucestershire came within England (n.b. the Dyke is fairly permeable this far South).
The land on which Aylburton (originally Æþelbeorhtes-tun or Ethelbert's farmstead) stands became part of a single manor of Lydney under the Earl of Hereford, William FitzOsbern (the builder of Chepstow Castle and founder of Lire Abbey in Normandy) in 1066, who then gifted it to Lire Abbey. Llanthony Priory became lord of both Aylburton and Alvington (but not Lydney) manors in 1277. They took iron and coal from the land above the current village and carried it down Darken Lane and Stockwell Lane to Aylburton Warth, where it was put onto ships. This carried on a tradition probably started by the Romans.
By 1219 Aylburton had its own chapel situated on Chapel Hill attributed to St. John (it became St. Mary's sometime before 1750). In the same year, Lire Abbey granted Lydney church to the dean and chapter of Hereford. Following the dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII, William Wyntour purchased the manor from the Crown in 1599. It remained in Wyntour hands (apart from a period covering the "Commonwealth") until purchased by the Bathurst family in 1723.
The Prior's Mesne estate (including outlying lands at Newlands and St. Briavels) was based at Prior's Lodge (also known as Prior's Mesne Lodge or Bream Lodge.) It was cleared of trees by Llanthony Priory in 1306 and largely converted to agricultural land, and they allowed their tenants rights of common there. Prior's Pool was a fishpond dating from this time. The market cross was built in the 14th C. Llanthony Priory had a fulling mill on Ferneyley Brook in 1535 (later called Tucker's Mill or Wood Mill, later to be used as a grist mill until around 1900).
Tudor Britain
By 1600, Aylburton manor had a mill at Millend (now Milling Green) on Park Brook. Housing was built around this time at Stockwell Lane and Millend. By 1608 there were 14 tradesmen in Aylburton, including a nailer, a parchment-maker, and a tucker (as in Tucker's Mill.) Aylburton Pill (Warth) was still used for shipping in 1608. There was much fishing in the Severn, with the Wyntour estate being granted the right to catch royal fish in 1640. By the mid 17th C, a new park had been formed to the SE of the original one, and was used mainly for raising deer. Parts of a small medieval hall are still visible at No. 32 High Street.
Stuart Britain
The building which now houses the Cross Inn was built in the 17th C, although there are wall elements from the 11th C. Old Court House was also a smallholding of similar age. Cross Farm incorporated part of an early house too. The short row of cottages at the bottom of Church Road are also probably 17th C. A hamlet called Overstreet once existed on the main road, roughly where Taurus Crafts now is. Sir Charles Wyntour built his new manor house there in 1692, the hamlet becoming tenancies and outbuildings thereof. The poor and needy were not forgotten, in 1680, Christopher Willoughby set up a trust so that £16 could be distributed annually among the poor of Aylburton, a practice which continues to this day.