Clearwell, Gloucestershire
Historical Description
Clearwell, a village, a tithing, and an ecclesiastical parish in Newland parish, Gloucestershire. The village lies in Dean Forest, near the river Wye, 5¼ miles SSE of Monmouth, and 2½ S of Coleford station on the Severn and Wye, Severn Bridge and Monmouth railway, and the G.W.R. It has a post office under Coleford; money order and telegraph office, Coleford. An interesting 14th century cross, restored in 1868, stands in the village. The ecclesiastical parish was constituted in 1856. Population, 999. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol; net value, £225 with residence. Patron, the Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol. The church was rebuilt in 1866.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
| Ancient County | Gloucestershire | |
| Civil parish | Newland | |
| Hundred | St. Briavells | |
| Poor Law union | Monmouth |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The parish register dates from the year 1830.
The Gloucestershire Parish Registers are available online at Ancestry, in association with Gloucestershire Archives.
Churches
Church of England
St. Peter (parish church)
The church of St. Peter, erected through the munificence of the late Dowager Countess of Dunraven, and consecrated April 5, 1866, is a building of local red sandstone, with Bath stone dressings, in the French Gothic style of the 13th century, consisting of chancel, clerestoried nave of four bays, aisles, south porch, organ chamber and vestry on the north side, and a tower with a spire at the south-west angle containing a clock and 4 bells: the chancel has a credence table, sedilia, and richly ornamented reredos, the latter being a memorial to Capt. the Hon. Windham Henry Wyndham Quin, Grenadier Guards, who died 24th October, 1865, erected by his widow: the stained east window was placed to the memory of the same gentleman, by his mother, the late Dowager Countess of Dunraven: the pulpit is enriched with symbolical panels and medallion heads of Evangelists and Prophets, the ground work being exquisitely diapered: the font consists of an octagonal basin on a shaft of polished red granite: the church was re-roofed and the tower restored in 1913: there are 400 sittings.
Methodist
Primitive Methodist Chapel
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Clearwell from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Clearwell)
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Gloucestershire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Clearwell are available from a number of sites:
- Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- Google Streetview.
- National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
- OpenStreetMap.
- old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
- Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)
Newspapers and Periodicals
The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following newspapers covering Gloucestershire online:
- Gloucester Citizen
- Gloucester Journal
- Gloucestershire Chronicle
- Gloucestershire Echo
- Cheltenham Chronicle
- Cheltenham Looker-On
Visitations Heraldic
The Visitation of the county of Gloucester, 1623 is available on the Heraldry page.