Alderley, Gloucestershire
Historical Description
Alderley, a village and a parish in Gloucestershire. The village stands on a hill of the Cotwolds, above the confluence of two rivulets, 9 miles NE of Chipping Sodbury, and 4 ESE of Charfield station on the M.R. It has a post office under Wotton-under-Edge, which is the telegraph office; money order office, Hillesley. The parish comprises 818 acres; population, 78. The hill on which the village stands has yielded many curious fossils. The parish was formerly the boundary of Kingswood Forest. The estate of Alderley was the birthplace of Sir Mathew Hale, and is still in the possession of the Hale family. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol; net value, £158. The church is a handsome building, conspicuously situated on the hill. It was rebuilt about 1802, with the exception of the western tower, which dates from 1458, and contains a clock, the gift of Sir Mathew Hale. In the churchyard is the tomb, in black and white marble, of this distinguished judge, who was buried here in 1676.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
| Ancient County | Gloucestershire | |
| Ecclesiastical parish | Alderley St. Kenelme | |
| 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 1647.
The Gloucestershire Parish Registers are available online at Ancestry, in association with Gloucestershire Archives.
Churches
Church of England
St. Kenelm (parish church)
The church of St. Kenelm, rebuilt about 1802, with the exception of the tower, in the Renaissance style, is a battlemented edifice of stone, consisting of apsidal chancel, nave, and an embattled western tower of Perpendicular date, erected about 1458, with pinnacles and containing a clock and one bell: in the churchyard are several tombs to the Hale family, including a monument of black and white marble to Sir Mathew Hale, Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench, 1671-6, who was born in this parish November 1, 1609, and died December 25, 1676, aged 67: there are 150 sittings.
Civil Registration
For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Alderley from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Alderley (St. Kenelme))
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Gloucestershire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Alderley 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.