Bitton, Gloucestershire
Historical Description
Bitton, a village, a township, and a parish in Gloucestershire. The village stands near the confluence of the Boyd and the Avon, adjacent to the Julian Way, 6 miles SE of Bristol. Area of the township, 3665 acres; population of the civil parish, 3023; of the ecclesiastical, 1212. It has a station on the M.R., and a post and money order office under Bristol; telegraph office at the railway station. The parish includes also Hanham chapelry and Oldland hamlet, with Kingswood village and the villages of Beach, Willsbridge, Upton Cheyney, Swineford, and Longwell's Green. Coal and iron ore are worked. Traces of many Roman antiquities have been found. The manor of Bitton was granted in 1137 to Robert Fitzhardinge, and passed to his son, Robert de Berkeley, whose arms have been traced on tiles found in the churchyard; it passed to a family who assumed the name of De Bitton, and thence by marriage to the Barre family, whose name is preserved in Barre's Court, the manor house, now a farmhouse; subsequently the manor came into the hands of the Newton family, to whom there are monuments in the church. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol; gross value, £294 with residence. Patron, the Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol. The church is a handsome building, partly Norman, partly Perpendicular, and has a fine Perpendicular tower, with a staircase turret; in the chancel are three sedilia. An effigy of Robert de Bitton, who died in 1227, was discovered in the churchyard, and has been placed in the church. The vicarages of Hanham, Oldland, and Kingswood are separate benefices. There Are Wesleyan and Free Methodist chapels.
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 | Bitton St. Mary | |
| Hundred | Langley and Swinehead | |
| Poor Law union | Keynsham |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The parish register dates from the year 1571.
The Gloucestershire Parish Registers are available online at Ancestry, in association with Gloucestershire Archives.
Churches
Church of England
St. Mary (parish church)
The church of St. Mary is an ancient building of stone, in the Norman, Early English and later styles, consisting of chancel, nave, north chantry, and a fine embattled western tower, of Perpendicular date, with a stair turret, and pinnacles, and containing 6 bells: the north chantry retains three canopied sedilia and a piscina: most of the windows are stained; there are about 500 sittings.
Brethren
Brethren meeting house
Congregational
Congregational Chapel
Congregational Chapel
Methodist
Primitive Methodist Chapel
United Methodist Chapel
Wesleyan Chapel
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Bitton from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Bitton (St. Mary))
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Gloucestershire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Bitton 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.