Hillesley, Gloucestershire
Historical Description
Hillesley, a tithing and an ecclesiastical parish in Hawkesbury parish, Gloucestershire. The tithing lies under the Cotswolds, 2½ miles S by E of Wotton-under-Edge, and 3½ ENE of Wickwar station on the M.R. It has a post and money order office under Wotton-under-Edge, telegraph office, Wotton-under-Edge. The ecclesiastical parish includes also the hamlet of Kilcott, and was constituted in 1852. Population, 440. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol; gross value, £104 with residence. Patron, the Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol. The church was built in 1851 on the site of a previous one, and many interesting remains of the latter were discovered at the founding of the present edifice. There is a Baptist chapel.
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 | Hawkesbury | |
| Hundred | Grumbalds-Ash | |
| Poor Law union | Chipping-Sodbury |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The register dates from the year 1851 only; earlier entries are in the register of Hawkesbury.
The Gloucestershire Parish Registers are available online at Ancestry, in association with Gloucestershire Archives.
Churches
Church of England
St. Giles (parish church)
The church of St. Giles, consecrated in 1851, is a building of stone, in the Early Eng1ish style, consisting of chancel, clerestoried nave of eight bays, aisles, vestry, south porch and a western turret containing 2 bells: the church occupies the site of a former church of the same name, many curious remains of which were found in digging the present foundations, including an ancient but shattered font: there are 200 sittings. The ancient chapel belonging to this place, also dedicated to St. Giles, had been converted previous to 1712 into tenements for the poor.
Baptist
Baptist Chapel
The Baptist chapel, founded in 1730, has 350 sittings.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Hillesley from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Hillesley)
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Gloucestershire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Hillesley 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.