Avening, Gloucestershire
Historical Description
Avening, a village and a parish in Gloucestershire, 4 miles S of Brimscombe station on the G.W.R., 2½ S of Minchinhampton, and 7 SSE of Stroud. It lies within the parliamentary borough of Stroud, and has a post office under that town; money order and telegraph office, Minchinhampton. The parish includes the hamlets of Aston, Forest-Green, Nags Head, and Windsors-Edge, and part of the chapelry of Nailsworth. Acreage, 3724; population of the civil parish, 894; of the ecclesiastical, 1908. The manor belonged anciently to the Saxon Earl of Gloucester, of which he was deprived by the Conqueror, who gave it to the nuns of Caen. At the suppression of the foreign monasteries it was held by the kings till it was given to the nuns of Sion House, and passed by exchange for lands near Windsor, from Henry VIII. to Lord Windsor, from whose family it passed to the Shepheards. A large tumulus, known as the Longstone, and supposed to be the sepulchre of a Danish chief, occurs in a field near Gatcombe Park, and there are several barrows in which human skeletons have been found. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol; value, £273. The Norman part of the church was built by the direction of the Conqueror, whose architects, who built the two monasteries at Caen for him and his queen, doubtless directed the building of the Norman part of Avening Church, which corresponds in many features with the architecture of the church at Caen. There is a Baptist chapel. Dr Frampton, a former rector, was made Bishop of Gloucester in 1681, and became one of the Non-jurors. Another rector, Dr Bull, was appointed Bishop of St David's in 1705.
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 | Avening St. Mary | |
Hundred | Longtree | |
Poor Law union | Stroud |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The parish register dates from the year 1557.
The Gloucestershire Parish Registers are available online at Ancestry, in association with Gloucestershire Archives.
Churches
Church of England
The Holy Cross (parish church)
The church of the Holy Cross is an ancient cruciform building of stone, of which the tower, the western part of the chancel, the greater part of the nave, the aisle and north porch are Norman: the transepts and the east end of the chancel are 13th century work: the tower contains 6 bells, rehung in 1909: in the church is a curious monument to the Hon. Henry Bridges, dated 1615: the east window was restored in 1889, and filled with stained glass, as a memorial to Capt. Playne, 1st Batt. Rifle Brigade, eldest son of the late W. Playne esq. of Avening Court: a new organ was provided in 1896; the church was partially restored in 1887, and fully restored in 1902-6, under the supervision of the late Mr. John T. Micklethwaite F.S.A. at a total cost of £3,500, and affords sittings for 230 persons. The churchyard has been enlarged.
Baptist
Baptist Chapel
The Baptist chapel, built in 1806, and enlarged in 1821, affords 200 sittings.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Avening from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Avening (St. Mary))
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Gloucestershire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Avening 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
Villages, Hamlets, &c
AstonVisitations Heraldic
The Visitation of the county of Gloucester, 1623 is available on the Heraldry page.