Belton Knapp

Belton Knapp () is a small village just off the B4068 in the Cotswold hills in Gloucestershire, England, about east of Cheltenham. It is situated in the Cotswolds, an area of outstanding natural beauty (AONB). The name derives from the Old English words bél meaning near a fire, beacon or funeral pyre and cnæpp meaning hill-top, hillock.
Community
Belton Knapp, or Belt as it is known to locals, is a small village in which there are very few community services. Locals sometimes refer to themselves as 'Belters' though this is now seen as dated and more recently youngsters prefer the perhaps self-deprecating term 'Knappers'. There is a single pub, The Green Man and a mini post office is contained inside what is the newsagent that is hamlet's only shop. There is a parish church, the Priory Church of Saint Mary and Saint Anne, whose magnificence reminds inhabitants that the village once boasted a monastic settlement which was almost entirely removed in the dissolution. Visitors to the church are some of the few visitors that Belton Knapp receives. There is a remnant of a small communal green called Warner's Green in the centre of the village near the church. There is a single Church of England primary school (Saint Anne's) with children participating in secondary education going to one of the larger cotswold towns, often Cheltenham.
History
The origin of Belton Knapp is lost in mystery, but the existence of the priory church indicates that there was once a much larger monastic community than probably exists today. Stonework obviously belonging to the original monastic buildings (it had boasted cloisters, a hospital and guestern hall) is visible in some of the extant village homes. The church was preserved at the dissolution by the villagers who somehow managed to raise twenty pounds to purchase it and stop its destruction. Local myth has it that the money was partly raised by selling various monastic manuscripts, which went missing shortly before, in Oxford, the so-called Oxford Booksale, but there are no records which would confirm this and most historians dismiss it as fanciful. Although the majority of the stained glass was replaced in the Victorian period, some medieval stained glass remains. Notably a window in the northern wall depicting Saint Anne holding a small virgin Mary, who in turn holds a small Jesus Christ. The church also contains a large number of clay earthenware tiles in the style of those from Great Malvern. Slowly following the dissolution the village has shrunk, buildings have been torn down and their stonework repurposed in farm buildings, walls, and dwellings. Indeed, the Green Man pub contains just over its entrance the remnant of a green man roof boss which is thought to have originated from the monastic cloisters. Very little has happened in the village's history that was as dramatic, and only the small memorial commemorating the 12 fallen men from Belton Knapp in the First World War reminds visitors of more modern history. No record can be found of any villager participating or dying in the Second World War although men of serviceable age must have been available. This leads locals to joke "Belters lernt th'first time round", though it is more likely that it is just that more research is needed in this area. Certainly, a number of children were evacuated to Belton Knapp during the Second World War, and the Women's Land Army took over a number of local farms during both wars.
May Festival
In 1999 Belton Knapp reinstituted a May Day Festival for which the last record in civic accounts was 1699. The festival, which probably resembles very little its late-seventeenth century inspiration, includes a school pageant, singing, food and craft stalls, and an overly large ornamental maypole handcrafted each year by a local carpenter. Although not part of the May festival as organised by the parish council, some village teenagers have taken to celebrating it by staying out all night on the nearby hill (locally referred to as Nortun Hill) just north of the village. Each year the May festival highlight is a nineteenth-century style maypole dance by all the unwed (or presumed virginal) girls and women of the village. Following the dance there is a large communal meal on Warner's Green, which lasts into the evening. Although not planned by the parish council, in 1999 this concluded with the maypole, possibly accidentally, being set alight. Since then each year this has been commemorated by burning the pole, with much song and revelry, as a conclusion to the festivities. In 2003 the maypole was not burnt at the conclusion of the festivities because of a solid downpour of rain; but someone did set light to it the next night.

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