Compton Abdale

Compton Abdale
Compton Abdale Location within Gloucestershire
Population	125 (2011)[1]
OS grid reference	SP0616
Shire county	Gloucestershire
Region	South West
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	Cheltenham
Postcode district	GL54
Police	Gloucestershire
Fire	Gloucestershire
Ambulance	South Western
UK Parliament	The Cotswolds
List of places UK England Gloucestershire 51°50′N 1°55′W / 51.84°N 01.91°W / 51.84; -01.91

Compton Abdale is a small village in Gloucestershire, England, on the Roman "White Way", which ran North from Cirencester ("Corinium"). The village lies about 9 miles North of Cirencester, 1 mile South of the A40 London road.

In 1870–1872, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Compton Abdale like this:

COMPTON-ABDALE, a parish in Northleach district, Gloucester; on the river Colne, 3 miles WNW of Northleach, and 9 SE by E of Cheltenham r. station. Post town, Northleach, under Cheltenham. Acres, 2, 215. Real property, £2, 047. Pop., 258. Houses, 49. The property is divided among a few. Part of the surface is heath. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol. Value, £81. Patrons, the Dean and Chapter of Bristol. The church was repaired in 1859.

The Anglican church building, St Oswald's, situated at the top of a steep hill, dates back to the 13th century and features unusual gargoyles. At the foot of the church path in the centre of the village a spring-fed brook emerges from a "crocodile" head constructed from stone by a local mason in the mid-19th century. This brook flows through the village before eventually joining the River Coln at Cassey Compton, which in turn joins the Thames near Lechlade.

The remains of a Roman villa to the South of the village, in a wood now called Compton Grove, were known to local people in the 19th century, when some surviving materials were removed. The villa site was excavated in 1931 by a schoolmaster and pupils from Cheltenham Grammar School, but the principal trench left by their excavations was later filled from the brook by the landowner to form a swimming pool.