Great Barrington, Gloucestershire
Historical Description
Barrington, Great, a village and a parish in Gloucestershire, on the verge of the county, 3½ miles NW of Burford, and 7 SW of Shipton station on the G.W.R., with a post, money order, and telegraph office. Acreage, 2990; population, 496. The manor belonged prior to the Conquest to Earl Harold; it was afterwards part of the possessions of Llanthony Abbey, and was for 200 years in the hands of the Bray family, till its purchase in 1734 by Lord Chancellor Talbot. The present mansion is a spacious modern edifice, within a park about 3 miles in circuit. Quarries of excellent freestone are worked, and supplied the material for Blenheim House and for the restoration of Westminster Abbey. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol; gross value, £202. The church is a handsome Perpendicular building, with an embattled tower; it was erected in 1511, and contains monuments to the Bray and Dynevor families. A Norman arch and other features point to an older church.
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 | Barrington St. Mary | |
Hundred | Slaughter | |
Poor Law union | Stow-on-the-Wold |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The register dates from about the year 1547.
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 a building of stone in the Norman and Perpendicular styles, consisting of chancel, clerestoried nave of three bays, north aisle, north porch and an embattled tower containing 6 bells: in the aisle is a handsome marble monument with figures of an angel and two children, erected by Edmund Bray, in 1720, to the memory of his children, and in the chancel are mural tablets to Mary (de Cardonell), d. 1787, wife of William, and Baron and 1st Earl Talbot; and to George Talbot, 3rd Baron Dynevor, who died 9th April, 1852, and Frances (Townshend) his wife: here is also a recumbent, effigy, much mutilated, of a knight: the church has been restored since 1873 at a cost of £1,500, and affords sittings for 200 persons.
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 Great Barrington from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Barrington, Great (St. Mary))
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Gloucestershire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Great Barrington 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.