Charfield, Gloucestershire
Historical Description
Charfield, a parish in Gloucestershire, on an affluent of the Severn, under the Cotswolds, 2½ miles SW of Wotton-under-Edge. It has a station on the M.R., and a post office (R.S.O.); the telegraph office is at the railway station. Acreage, 1383; population, 540. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol; net value, £260 with residence. The church is ancient; a new church was erected in 1882, and an endowed church school was rebuilt in 1893. There is a Congregational 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 | Charfield St. James | |
Hundred | Grumbalds-Ash | |
Poor Law union | Thornbury |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The parish register dates from the year 1587.
The Gloucestershire Parish Registers are available online at Ancestry, in association with Gloucestershire Archives.
Churches
Church of England
St. James (parish church)
The old church of St. James, closed in 1882, is a building of stone, chiefly in the Perpendicular style, consisting of chancel, nave of five bays, aisle, north porch and a low embattled western tower, with saddle-back roof, containing one large bell: in the chancel are mural tablets to Daniel Hicks, 1713, and other members of the Hicks family, and to the family of Wallington, also to the Rev. Richard Jones, rector from 1804, and to the Rev. Richard Prankerd Jones, also rector from 1816, as well as to several members of the Tyndale family, formerly rectors of the parish, who are interred in the chancel; one service is held yearly in this church in July.
St. John (parish church)
The new church of St. John, situated a mile south and erected in 1882 at a cost of £2,500, is an edifice in the Early English style, consisting of chancel, nave, north aisle with porch, and a shingled bell turret on the western gable; it is seated throughout in oak, and has 260 sittings.
Congregational
Congregational Chapel
The Congregational chapel, erected in 1847, has 200 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 Charfield from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Charfield (St. James))
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Gloucestershire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Charfield 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.