Fretherne, Gloucestershire
Historical Description
Fretherne, a village and a parish in Gloucestershire. The village is near the Berkeley Ship Canal and the river Severn, 5 miles NW of Frocester station on the M.B., and 7½ WNW of Stroud. Post town, Stonehouse; money order and telegraph office, Saul. The parish was united in 1885, under the Divided Parishes Act, with that of Saul. Acreage of Fretherne with Saul, 1140; population of the civil parish, 854; of the ecclesiastical parish of Fretherne, 188; of the ecclesiastical parish of Saul, 412. Fretherne Court is the chief residence. The living of Fretherne is a rectory in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol, net value, £203 with residence. The church was rebuilt in 1848. A great battle between the Saxons and Britons was fought here in 584, in which the latter were defeated.
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 | Fretherne St. Mary | |
| Hundred | Whitstone | |
| Poor Law union | Wheatenhurst |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The parish register dates from 1631.
The Gloucestershire Parish Registers are available online at Ancestry, in association with Gloucestershire Archives.
Churches
Church of England
St. Mary the Virgin (parish church)
The church of St. Mary the Virgin, consecrated in 1847, is a building of stone, in the Early English style, consisting of chancel, nave of four bays, aisles, north porch and a tower, with crocketed pinnacles and spire, supported by flying buttresses and containing a clock and 2 bells: there are two chapels in the south aisle, one erected in memory of Sir Edward Tierney bart. in 1857, and another erected for an organ chamber: the east window is stained, and there is a memorial window to Sir Harry Francis Colville Darell bart. who died 6 January, 1853; the other windows are all stained: above the altar table is a fine pyrographic picture executed by the Rev. W. Calvert, sometime minor canon of St. Paul's, and representing the Saviour revealing himself to the disciples at Emmaus: the entire cost amounted to about £1,000, the major portion of which was contributed by the late Rev. Sir William Lionel Darell bart. M.A. rector of this parish from 1844 to 1878, who died June, 1883: there are 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 Fretherne from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Fretherne (St. Mary))
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Gloucestershire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Fretherne 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.