Didmarton and Oldbury on the Hill, Gloucestershire

Historical Description

Didmarton and Oldbury-on-the-Hill, formerly two distinct villages, now united into one both ecclesiastically and civilly. The parish stands on the verge of the county, under the Cotswolds, 5¼ miles SW of Tetbury, and 7 E by S of Wickwar station on the M.R.; and has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Chippenham. Its site is supposed to have been occupied by a Roman station, and has yielded a number of Roman coins. The parish comprises 2068 acres; population, 401. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol; value, £288. Patron, the Duke of Beaufort, who is lord of the manor. A new church was built in 1872-the two old churches being now only used as mortuary chapels. There is a Congregational chapel.

Transcribed from The Comprehensive Gazetteer of England & Wales, 1894-5

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	Didmarton St. Lawrence
Hundred	Grumbalds-Ash
Poor Law union	Tetbury

Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.

Church Records

The Phillimore transcript of Marriages at Didmarton 1675-1751, Gloucestershire is available to browse online.

The Phillimore transcript of Marriages at Oldbury-on-the-Hill and Didmarton 1654-1812, Gloucestershire is available to browse online.

The register of Didmarton dates from the year 1567 and that of Oldbury-on-the-Hill from 1675.

The Gloucestershire Parish Registers are available online at Ancestry, in association with Gloucestershire Archives.

Churches

Church of England

St. Arild, Virgin and Martyr

The old church of St. Arild, Virgin and Martyr, formerly the parish church of Oldbury-on-the-Hill, is a building of stone, in the Early English style, consisting of chancel and nave and a tower containing one bell; this church is now only used for burials.

St. Lawrence

The church of St. Lawrence is an ancient building of stone, in the Early English style, consisting of nave, north aisle, north porch and a central wooden turret, containing a clock and one bell, but is now only used for burials. Several members of the Codrington family are interred here.

St. Michael and All Angels (parish church)

The church of St. Michael and All Angels, erected in 1871, at a cost of about £2,500, is an edifice in the Gothic style, consisting of chancel, nave, north transept, north porch and a turret containing one bell: there are sittings for 250 persons.

Congregational

Congregational Chapel

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Didmarton and Oldbury on the Hill from the following:

Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Didmarton (St. Lawrence))

Land and Property

The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Gloucestershire is available to browse.

Maps

Online maps of Didmarton and Oldbury on the Hill 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:

Visitations Heraldic

The Visitation of the county of Gloucester, 1623 is available on the Heraldry page.