Haresfield, Gloucestershire
Historical Description
Haresfield, a village and a parish in Gloucestershire, 3 miles N of Stonehouse, and 4½ NW of Stroud. The village lies at the foot of a hill known as Haresfield Beacon, a spur of the Cotswolds, in the vale of the Severn, 1 mile W of the Bristol and Gloucester main road which passes through the parish. There is a station on the M.R., and a post office under Stonehouse; money order office, Stonehouse; telegraph office at the railway station. Acreage, 2948; population, 458. Haresfield Court, an ancient manor house, was restored in 1869 and considerably enlarged in 1893. An ancient camp is at Broad Ridge. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol. The church is ancient, is supposed to have been built by the prior of Llanthony Abbey, and was repaired in 1840, and again in 1891. Near the church is an ancient moat in good condition, formerly the site of an old castle.
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 | Haresfield St. Peter | |
| Hundred | Whitstone | |
| Poor Law union | Wheatenhurst |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The register of baptisms dates from the year 1558; marriages, 1565; burials, 1559.
The Gloucestershire Parish Registers are available online at Ancestry, in association with Gloucestershire Archives.
Churches
Church of England
St. Peter (parish church)
The church of St. Peter, repaired in 1840, is an ancient building of stone, consisting of two chancels, one beyond the other, the further one belonging to the vicar, the other to the lay impropriator, nave, north and south porches, and a western tower with spire containing a clock and 6 bells: there are about 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 Haresfield from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Haresfield (St. Peter))
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Gloucestershire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Haresfield 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.