Aston Somerville, Gloucestershire
Historical Description
Aston-Somerville, a village and a parish in Gloucestershire, on the river Isborne, 5 miles S by E of Evesham, and 2 of Hinton station on the M.R. Post town, Broadway. Acreage, 1004; population, 107. The manor was held, for upwards of six centuries, by the family of Somerville, of whom were William Somerville the poet, author of 'The Chase,' and Lord Somerville the distinguished agriculturist, who died in 1819. A salt spring occurs, and interesting fossils have been found. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol; net value, £227. The church is ancient, in the Norman style, and has an embattled tower with pinnacles; it contains an ancient effigy of a knight in armour, supposed to be one of the Somervilles.
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 | Aston-Somerville St. Mary | |
Hundred | Kiftsgate | |
Poor Law union | Evesham |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The Phillimore & co. transcript of the Marriages at Aston Somerville 1661-1812 is available to browse online.
The register dates from the year 1600.
The Gloucestershire Parish Registers are available online at Ancestry, in association with Gloucestershire Archives.
Churches
Church of England
St. Mary (parish church)
The church, commonly called St. Mary's, is a building of stone in the Norman and Transitional styles, consisting of chancel, nave, north porch, and an embattled western tower, with crocketed pinnacles, containing a clock and 2 bells; on the floor of the church is an ancient recumbent stone effigy of a knight in armour, supposed to represent one of the Somervilles: there is a mediaeval carved oak chancel screen; mural monuments to the Somerville, Head and Crowther families, and at the west end an ancient slab re-used and inscribed to Benjamin Parry, of London, goldsmith, d. 1785; the church was restored and reseated in 1908, at a cost of £1,350: there are 120 sittings.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Aston Somerville from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Aston-Somerville (St. Mary))
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Gloucestershire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Aston Somerville 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.