Beckford, Gloucestershire
Historical Description
Beckford, a village and a parish in Gloucestershire. The village stands on the river Carrant, 6 miles NE of Tewkesbury, and 7 SW of Evesham, and has a station on the Ashchurch and Evesham branch of the M.R., and a post office under Tewkesbury, with telegraph office at the railway station. The parish includes also the hamlets of Bangrove, Didcote, and Grafton. Acreage, 2778; population of the civil parish, 433; of the ecclesiastical, with Ashton-under-Hill, 794. Beckford Hall, an Elizabethan mansion, restored in 1863, was formerly the seat of the Wakeman family. The manor was given, in the time of Henry I., to the abbey of St Martin in Normandy; and passed after the suppression first to Eton College, next to Fotheringhay, next to Sir Richard Lee. The living is a vicarage, with the chapelry of Ashton-under-Hill annexed, in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol; gross value, £500 with residence. The church is Norman, and has a lofty central Perpendicular tower crowned with pinnacles.
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 | Beckford St. John the Baptist | |
| Hundred | Tibaldstone | |
| Poor Law union | Winchcomb |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The register of burials and marriages dates from 1538, and of baptisms from 1549.
The Gloucestershire Parish Registers are available online at Ancestry, in association with Gloucestershire Archives.
Churches
Church of England
St. John the Baptist (parish church)
The church of St. John the Baptist is an ancient building in the Norman style, consisting of chancel, nave, south porch and an embattled central tower with pinnacles, containing a clock and 6 bells: there are five mural tablets, two to the Wakeman family dating from 1662 to 1833, and three to the Timbrill family dating from 1848 to 1865: the stained east window is a memorial to Samuel Hollins (d. 1893), and his wife (d. 1879), and son, Henry Herbert Hollins (d. 1884), and two others to the Dudley family, 1885-97: the chancel arch and that of the entrance doorways of the north and south porches are fine examples of Norman work: there are 400 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 Beckford from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Beckford (St. John the Baptist))
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Gloucestershire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Beckford 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.