Elmstone, Gloucestershire

Historical Description

Elmstone, a parish in Gloucestershire, containing the two townships of Harkwicke (commonly called Elmstone Hardwicke) and Uckington. Elmstone Hardwicke, the principal township, is 2 miles SW of Cleeve station on the M.R., and 4 NNW of Cheltenham. It has a post office under Cheltenham; money order office, Cheltenham; telegraph office, Coombe Hill. Acreage, 1746; population, 197. Uckington is 2¼ miles from Cheltenham; post, money order, and telegraph office, Cheltenham. Acreage, 852; population, 148. The living of Elmstone is a vicarage in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol; net value, £239 with residence at Uckington. The church, in the old manor of Elmstone, of Saxon foundation, contains some Saxon and Norman remains, as well as Early English, and a fine Perpendicular tower. It was restored in 1878.

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	Elmstone-Hardwicke St. Mary Magdalene
Hundred	Westminster
Poor Law union	Tewkesbury

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

Church Records

The register dates continuously from the year 1564.

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

Churches

Church of England

St. Mary Magdalene (parish church)

The church of St. Mary Magdalene is an ancient building of stone in various styles, first erected by the Benedictine monks of Deerhurst, but restored at different periods, and consists of chancel, nave of three bays and south aisle with porch, in the Decorated style, and an embattled western tower of Perpendicular date, containing 4 bells, three of which are respectively dated 1618, 1675 and 1775: on the west side of the tower is a defaced image of the Virgin and Child, and two figures playing on musical instruments: the base of the village cross is preserved in the baptistery; in the nave are two square pillars of the Earliest Norman type and two Norman arches: the existing screen is an exceptional example of old and rich oak carving of the Tudor period, freely adorned with the Tudor flower, and has been carefully restored: in the east wall of the chancel, on the north and south sides, are two square recesses, the precursors of the modern credence table: there is also an aumbry in the north wall, a piscina on the south side, and a piscina and traces of a stone altar at the east end of the south aisle, formerly the Lady Chapel: in the chancel is a floor slab to the Cowcher family, 1669, and in the baptistery are floor slabs to the Buckle family, of various dates from 1645: a beautifully carved reredos was given in 1886 by the Misses Holt, as a memorial to their parents, formerly residents in the parish: the communion plate, which bore the date 1516, disappeared when the greater part of the vicarage was destroyed by fire in 1869: the church was re-seated and restored in 1871-8 at a cost of about £1,500, and has 174 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 Elmstone from the following:

Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Elmstone-Hardwicke (St. Mary Magdalene))

Land and Property

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

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.