Coln St. Dennis is a rural parish in the Cotswolds, 6 miles north-east of Cirencester and adjoining Northleach on the south-west. In shape the ancient parish formed roughly a diamond, 1,789 a. in area, and was bounded by the Foss Way on the north-west, the ancient Salt Way from Hailes to Ablington on part of the north-east, and the River Coln on the south-west. (fn. 1) The river gives the parish the first part of its name; the second part indicates its ownership in the Middle Ages, when for three and a half centuries it belonged to the abbey of St. Denis, Paris. The abbey acquired Coln St. Dennis as part of the estates of the Saxon monastery of Deerhurst, (fn. 2) whose possession of the parish accounts for its inclusion in Deerhurst hundred though remote from the rest of the hundred. The river separates Coln St. Dennis from Coln Rogers, which in 1935 was merged in the civil parish of Coln St. Dennis, to make a total area of 3,363 a. (fn. 3) The history of Coln Rogers, however, is reserved for inclusion in another volume.