Compton Abdale

{{Short description|Village in Gloucestershire, England}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2015}}

{{Use British English|date=March 2015}}

{{Infobox UK place

|country = England

|static_image =

|static_image_caption=

|coordinates = {{coord|51.84|-01.91|display=inline,title}}

|official_name =Compton Abdale

|population = 125

|population_ref= (2011){{cite web|url=https://neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadKeyFigures.do?a=7&b=11122249&c=GL54+4DR&d=16&e=62&g=6426943&i=1001x1003x1032x1004&m=0&r=0&s=1427044151355&enc=1|title=Parish population 2011|accessdate= 22 March 2015}}

|shire_district=

|shire_county= Gloucestershire

|metropolitan_borough=

| metropolitan_county =

|region=South West England

|constituency_westminster = North Cotswolds{{cite web|title=Location of North Cotswolds |url=https://members.parliament.uk/constituency/4201/location |website=parliament.uk|access-date=10 January 2025}}

|post_town= Cheltenham

|postcode_district= GL54

|postcode_area= GL

|dial_code=

|os_grid_reference= SP0616

}}

File:Compton Abdale.jpg

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.