Bledington, Gloucestershire
Historical Description
Bledington, a village and a parish in Gloucestershire, on the verge of the county, adjacent to Chipping Norton junction on the G.W.R., and 4 miles SE of Stow-on-the-Wold. It has a post office under Chipping Norton; money order office, Kingham; telegraph office. Chipping Norton junction railway station. Acreage, 1539; population, 354. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol; net value £150 with residence. Patron, Christ Church, Oxford. The church is ancient, chiefly Early English and Decorated; it contains interesting old stained glass, an aumbry, and a Norman font; it consists of chancel, nave with clerestory, and aisles, south porch, and an embattled western tower. There is a Wesleyan chapel.
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 | Bledington St. Leonard | |
| Hundred | Slaughter | |
| Poor Law union | Stow-on-the-Wold |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The register of baptisms and burials dates from the year 1703; marriages, 1761.
The Gloucestershire Parish Registers are available online at Ancestry, in association with Gloucestershire Archives.
Churches
Church of England
St. Leonard (parish church)
The church of St. Leonard is an ancient and interesting building of stone, consisting of chancel, clerestoried nave of three bays, south aisle, south porch and an embattled western tower containing a clock and 6 bells: the nave, clerestory and aisles are Perpendicular; the western window is Decorated and the south porch and doorway are Early English: there is a piscina on the south side of the chancel and another in the south aisle, the old stained glass has been collected and re-arranged: the chancel was restored in 1881 in the Early English style, at a cost of £850, by Mr. J. E. K. Cutts, architect, of London, and the church was reseated in 1904 at a cost of £294: there are 95 sittings.
Methodist
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 Bledington from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Bledington (St. Leonard))
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Gloucestershire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Bledington 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.