Petty France is a hamlet

Hamlet

The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...

 in the rural north of South Gloucestershire

South Gloucestershire

South Gloucestershire is a unitary district in the ceremonial county of Gloucestershire, in South West England.-History:The district was created in 1996, when the county of Avon was abolished, by the merger of former area of the districts of Kingswood and Northavon...

, near the Gloucestershire

Gloucestershire

Gloucestershire is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn, and the entire Forest of Dean....

 border, in Hawkesbury

Hawkesbury, Gloucestershire

Hawkesbury is a hamlet consisting of a few cottages around a triangular green, it is also the name of a civil parish in the South Gloucestershire unitary authority in England in which Hawkesbury itself lies, it is located west of Hawkesbury Upton, off the A46 road.The civil parish includes...

 parish

Civil parish

In England, a civil parish is a territorial designation and, where they are found, the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties...

. It is on the A46

A46 road

The A46 is an A road in England. It starts east of Bath, Somerset and ends in Cleethorpes, North East Lincolnshire, but it does not form a continuous route. Large portions of the old road have been lost, bypassed, or replaced by motorway development...

, which runs from Bath, to Nailsworth

Nailsworth

Nailsworth is a town in Gloucestershire, England, lying in one of the Stroud Valleys in the Cotswolds. It has a population of around 6,600 people and lies on the A46 road....

 and Stroud

Stroud

Stroud a town and civil parish in the county of Gloucestershire, England.Stroud may also refer to:*Stroud, New South Wales, Australia*Stroud, Ontario, Canada*Stroud , Gloucestershire, UK*Stroud...

, just south of another, slightly smaller hamlet, Dunkirk

Dunkirk, Gloucestershire

Dunkirk is a hamlet in the rural north of South Gloucestershire, near the Gloucestershire border, in the parish of Hawkesbury. The hamlet is on an important T-junction where the A46 meets the A433 .Dunkirk in Hawkesbury parish should not be confused with Dunkirk near Nailsworth, also on the A46...

.

Previously, Petty France and Dunkirk were known as road accident hotspots. The proportion of fatal and serious accidents was 46%, significantly higher than the average for South Gloucestershire as a whole, which is 12%. 13 accidents occurred between 1 January 1998 and 31 December 2001, including 2 fatal accidents, four were serious and seven were slight., as a result of this the speed through the two hamlets was reduced to 40 MPH. Badminton

Badminton, Gloucestershire

Badminton, Gloucestershire, is a village in England famous for its horse trials, which take place in early May each year in the grounds of the Duke of Beaufort's residence, Badminton House...

 and Hawkesbury Upton

Hawkesbury Upton

Hawkesbury Upton is a village in South Gloucestershire, England, east of the much smaller Hawkesbury. It lies north of Horton, east of Dunkirk and south of Alderley and Hillesley. The "Somerset Monument" is on the Cotswold Edge nearby....

 are also nearby.

The Manor House in Petty France was built in 1812 for Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool

Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool

Robert Banks Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool KG PC was a British politician and the longest-serving Prime Minister of the United Kingdom since the Union with Ireland in 1801. He was 42 years old when he became premier in 1812 which made him younger than all of his successors to date...

, prime minister from 1812 to 1827. The house has seen the likes of Lord Wellington

Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington

Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, KG, GCB, GCH, PC, FRS , was an Irish-born British soldier and statesman, and one of the leading military and political figures of the 19th century...

, and has been in the ownership of the poet Wordsworth's

William Wordsworth

William Wordsworth was a major English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with the 1798 joint publication Lyrical Ballads....

family, Lord and Lady Apsley and the Duke of Beaufort; today it is a hotel..