Forthampton, Gloucestershire
Historical Description
Forthampton, a village and a parish in Gloucestershire, adjacent to the river Severn and to the boundary with Worcestershire, 3½ miles W of Tewkesbury, with a post office under Tewkesbury; money order and telegraph office, Tewkesbury. Acreage, 2540; population, 402. Forthampton Court, the seat of the lord of the manor, belonged once to the abbots of Tewkesbury. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol; net yearly value, £215. The church consists of tower, nave, chancel, and north aisle. The latter is modern. The tower contains a peal of six bells. The altar is of stone (pre-Reformation), surmounted by a handsome reredos, also of stone, though modern. The chancel has recently been rearranged, and its walls richly decorated with paintings and diaper from designs by William White, F.S.A. The organ is a fine one.
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 | Forthampton St. Mary | |
| Hundred | Tewkesbury | |
| Poor Law union | Tewkesbury |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The Phillimore transcript of Marriages at Forthampton 1678-1812, Gloucestershire is available to browse online.
The registers date from the year 1678
The registers date from the year 1678.
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 Perpendicular style, consisting of chancel, nave of five bays, aisles, south porch and a western tower containing 6 bells: a north aisle was built and the church reseated in 1848, and in 1869 an organ chamber and organ were erected and the restoration of the chancel completed: John Wiche, or Wakeman, last abbot of Tewkesbury and first Bishop of Gloucester, 1541-50, is buried here: there are stained windows in memory of Mrs. Augusta Emeline Yorke, d. 1863; Annie Elizabeth Robeson, d. 1865; to the Rev. John Browne, 19 years incumbent here, d. 1819, and to Maria Louisa Erskine, d. 1849, and a memorial brass to the Rev. Frederick Harrison M.A. d. 1882: the font of marble and stone is a memorial to Mrs. Plumptree, d. 1849, wife of a former vicar: there are many mural tablets and monuments to the Yorke, Platt, Dillon and Dowdeswell families, and a very ancient pyrographic drawing of Christ and two of his disciples breaking bread at Emmaus, in a richly carved frame: there are 270 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 Forthampton from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Forthampton (St. Mary))
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Gloucestershire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Forthampton 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.