Little
Sodbury
Gloucestershire
Hiding in a labyrinth of roads some 2 miles north and east of Chipping Sodbury, off the A46 road which heads north for Tetbury, the picturesque village of Little Sodbury shows few signs of having changed over the last century. Known for its Iron Age Hill Fort and popular as a picnic spot for walkers travelling the Cotswold Way, Little Sodbury was also the manorial home of Sir John Walsh who employed William Tyndall as a chaplain and tutor in 1521. Tyndall went on to translate the Bible into English but eventually fell foul of the authorities in Belgium, where he was strangled and burnt at the stake as a heretic in 1536.
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The Parish Church of St Adeline is the only church in Britain dedicated to this particular Saint and the origins of the name are obscured in the mists of time. The present church was built in 1859 in the perpendicular style and is likely to bear a close resemblance to the original St Adeline’s where William Tyndall preached three centuries previously. |
| Inside St Adeline’s hang the rolls of honour for both World Wars
– six men went to and returned from the Great War of 1914-1918.
William Gowen Charles Grivell William Leach Leonard Taylor Ernest William Warren John Weare |
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These men returned to give thanks for their deliverance and the Parish of Little Sodbury became one of only three ‘Thankful Villages’ in the great County of Gloucestershire.
Text and photographs - Rod Morris