Almondsbury, Gloucestershire
Historical Description
Almondsbury, a village, a tithing, and a parish in Gloucestershire. The village stands at the foot of a ridge of limestone rocks, 2 miles from Patchway station on the G.W.R., and 8 N of Bristol. It has a post office (R.S.O.) The heights above it, and the grounds of Knole Park, a beautiful country seat adjacent on the SW, command a very noble and extensive view, embracing the estuary of the Severn and the hills of Monmouth and Wales. Over Court is another fine seat in the vicinity; here are remains of a Roman camp. The parish comprises 7009 acres; population of the civil parish, 2047; of the ecclesiastical, 1543. Some lands belonged anciently to the priory of St Augustine in Bristol. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol; value, £325. Patron, the Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol. The church is cruciform and Early English, with tower and spire at the intersection of the nave and transept; it contains some interesting monuments and a good stained-glass East window, in memory of Dr. Gray, Bishop of Bristol.
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 | Almondsbury St. Mary the Virgin | |
| Hundred | Berkeley | |
| Poor Law union | Thornbury |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The parish register dates from the year 1695.
The Gloucestershire Parish Registers are available online at Ancestry, in association with Gloucestershire Archives.
Churches
Church of England
Patchway Mission Church, Patchway
St. Mary (parish church)
The church of St. Mary is an ancient cruciform building of stone, principally in the Early English style, consisting of chancel, clerestoried nave of four bays, aisles, north and west porches, and a central tower, with spire, containing a clock and 8 bells, rehung in 1902 at a cost of £270, to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee of the late Queen Victoria: the east window is a memorial to Dr. Robert Gray, bishop of Bristol 1827-1834: the porch is Norman, and has a priest's chamber over it containing a fine chest in good preservation: the whole of the chancel is Early English: the original Norman nave was removed in 1834, when the present nave was substituted, and other work carried out at a total cost of £1,000: in 1891 three memorial windows were put in to the memory of Sholto Vere Hare esq.
Baptist
Patchway Baptist Chapel, Patchway
Methodist
Patchway Methodist Chapel, Patchway
United Methodist Chapel, East Compton
Wesleyan Chapel
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 Almondsbury from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Almondsbury (St. Mary the Virgin))
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Gloucestershire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Almondsbury 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.