An Insight into Moreton in Marsh

Here’s a glimspe of the beautiful Cotswold village of Moreton-in-Marsh. 

The name Moreton-in-Marsh is rather obscure. Henmarsh notes that the word Moreton mostly originated from Old English, and it means ‘a farm or settlement on the moor.’ The ‘in-Marsh’ suffix is a little less clear. It could be a corrupted term of ‘Henne and Mersh’ – an area of marshy land where game such as Moorhens may be discovered. Another explanation is that it is a corruption of the word ‘March’, or a boundary. Either way, such quirky facts about this town only make it more interesting. 

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Moreton is built on the route of the old Roman Fosse Way which ran from Exeter through Bath, Cirencester, and Leicester. Following the Roman conquest of Britain in 43AD, they built a large settlement at Dorn, two miles north of Moreton. 

A Charter for the town to become a weekly market was procured by the Enterprising Abbot of Westminster in 1227. King Charles I then granted the town another market charter in 1638. Most of Moreton’s buildings were constructed in the 17th and 18th centuries when the town prospered because of the wool trade, but it was not until 1853 when its station on the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton railway opened, the line being taken over by GWR in 1862. 

In 1940, a large area east of the town was developed as RAF Moreton-in-Marsh and used as a training airfield, mostly by Wellington bombers. Sadly, 38 men flying to or from the town lost their lives during the Second World War. This town has so much more history and with Oxfordshire, Warwickshire, and Gloucestershire nearby, Moreton-in-Marsh represents the perfect day out. It is worth a visit. 

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