{{Short description|Village in Gloucestershire, England}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2025}} {{Use British English|date=March 2015}} {{infobox UK place| | country = England | static_image_name =Rendcombe, St Peter.jpg | static_image_caption= St Peter's Church, Rendcomb | coordinates = {{coord|display=title|51.78613| -1.97441}} | official_name=Rendcomb | population = 278 | population_ref = (2021 census) | shire_district= Cotswold | shire_county= Gloucestershire | region= South West England | constituency_westminster = North Cotswolds<ref>{{cite web|title=Location of North Cotswolds |url=https://members.parliament.uk/constituency/4201/location |publisher=Parliament of the United Kingdom|access-date=8 January 2025}}</ref> | post_town= Cirencester | postcode_district = GL7 | postcode_area= GL | dial_code= | os_grid_reference= SP0209 }} '''Rendcomb''' is a village and civil parish in the Cotswold district area of the English county of Gloucestershire. It is about five miles north of Cirencester in the Churn Valley. In 2021 the parish had a population of 278.

==History==

=== Etymology === Rendcomb is thought to get its name from the stream running through the small valley or ''coomb'' which lies south of the village. The stream which flows into the Churn, was called ''Hrindan Broc'' in 852 AD, with the modern name of Rendcomb deriving from ''Hrindan'' + ''coomb''.<ref name="vch" />

=== History === In 1086 a total of 39 inhabitants of Rendcomb and Eycot was recorded in the Domesday Book as part of Rapsgate Hundred. By 1563, there were 12 households in Rendcomb.<ref name="vch">{{cite web |title=Rendcomb Pages 218-227 A History of the County of Gloucester: Volume 7. Originally published by Oxford University Press for Victoria County History, Oxford, 1981. |url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/glos/vol7/pp218-227 |website=British History Online |accessdate=15 July 2020}}</ref> The existence of Rendomb Park estate was recorded in 1544, and by the 1670s it consisted of 250 acres.<ref name="vch" />

During the Middle Ages, Rendcomb manor was the property of the earls of Gloucester and owned by their knights including the de la Mare family. In 1503, the manor was sold to Edmund Tame of Fairford, son of John Tame.<ref name="vch" /> Sir Richard Berkley was the owner in 1564 who invited Elizabeth I to the manor house in 1592.<ref name="vch" /> It later came into the possession the MP Sir Christopher Guise.<ref name="vch" /> In 1864, the manor was sold to Sir Francis Goldsmid, MP for Reading. Soon after 1914, the estate had multiple owners and had essentially disintegrated.<ref name="vch" />

St Peter's church dates from the 16th century. It was restored by Frederick R. Kempson in 1895.

The diplomat Thomas Roe was living at Rendcomb in 1608. In 1641, Sir Maurice Berkeley and Richard Berkeley of Rendcomb were fined by Parliament for supporting the Royalist cause in the English Civil War, but were spared having their estates seized.<ref>{{cite web |title=House of Commons Journal Volume 5: 14 December 1647 Pages 381-383 Journal of the House of Commons: Volume 5, 1646-1648. Originally published by His Majesty's Stationery Office, London, 1802. |url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/commons-jrnl/vol5/pp381-383 |website=British History Online |accessdate=15 July 2020}}</ref>

About 1773, the lord of the manor, Sir William Guise, improved access from the village to Cirencester by building a new road.<ref name="vch"/>

Sir Berkeley Guise funded a charity school at Rendcomb from 1808.

In the mid-1860s, Sir Francis Goldsmid rebuilt the manor-house, Rendcomb Park, and made some improvements to the village, including a new river bridge and funds for the village school which closed in 1930.<ref name="vch"/> Philip Hardwick was the architect commissioned to undertake the improvements.<ref name="vch" />

== Education == A free school was established in 1808, supported by Berkeley Guise.<ref name="vch" />

In 1857, a National school was built and supported by Sir Goldsmid. It closed in 1930<ref name="vch" />

In 1920 Rendcomb College, a public school, was founded at Rendcomb Park adjacent to the village.<ref name="vch" />

== Notable residents == * Frederick Sanger (1918–2013), biochemist who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry twice, in 1958 and 1980; the fourth person to win two Nobel Prizes * R. N. D. Wilson (1899–1953), Irish poet who taught at Rendcomb College from 1934 to 1944

== See also == * Rendcomb College

== References == {{reflist}}

==External links== {{Commons category-inline|Rendcomb}}

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Category:Villages in Gloucestershire Category:Civil parishes in Gloucestershire Category:Cotswold District