Hawkesbury, Gloucestershire
Historical Description
Hawkesbury, a tithing and a parish in Gloucestershire. The tithing lies under the Cotswolds, 3 miles W of the boundary with Wiltshire, 4 NW by N of Chipping Sodbnry, and 4 ESE of Wickwar station on the M.R., and has a post, money order, and telegraph office, of the name of Hawkesbury Upton, under Chippenham, and gave the title of Baron to the Earls of Liverpool. The parish contains also the tithings of Upton, Hillesley, Little Badminton, Saddlewood Tresham, and Rillcott. Acreage, 9912; population. of the civil parish, 1795; of the ecclesiastical, 1250. Hillesley and Rillcott form a separate ecclesiastical parish. A fine tower, erected in 1846 to General Lord R. E. H. Somerset, stands on the brow of a hill commanding a fine view. There are traces of a Roman road. The living is a vicarage, united with the chapelry of Tresham, in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol; net value, £220 with residence. The church is of various dates, chiefly Early English and Perpendicular; consists of nave, S aisle, and chancel, with a tower; and contains monuments of the Jenkinsons. There are Congregational, Baptist, and Primitive Methodist chapels, and a Church of England chapel of ease at Tresham.
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 | Hawkesbury St. Mary | |
Hundred | Grumbalds-Ash | |
Poor Law union | Chipping-Sodbury |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The Phillimore transcript of Marriages at Hawkesbury 1603-1812, Gloucestershire is available to browse online.
The register, including Tresham, dates from the year 1603.
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 Early English and Perpendicular styles, with some traces of earlier work, and consists of chancel, with south aisle, clerestoried nave of four bays, south aisle, south chantry with a piscina, north and south porches, with a parvise over each and a lofty embattled western tower containing one bell: a room in the tower has a fireplace and chimney, and the same is the case with each parvise: in the north porch is a portion of a stoup, and the chancel retains a double piscina, and the canopy of an Easter sepulchre; the doorways of the rood loft remain in the wall of the south aisle: the richly-sculptured stone pulpit is a Perpendicular work: there are mural tablets in the chancel to Sir Robert B. Jenkinson bart. and 2nd Earl of Liverpool K.G. Prime Minister of England from 1812 to 1827, who died 4th December 1828; and to Charles, first Earl of Liverpool, who died 17th December, 1808; and one in the west wall to the Rev. Potter Cole, 73 years vicar of this parish, who died in 1802, aged 97: the church was thoroughly restored in 1884, under the direction of Mr. Wood Bethell, architect, of London, at a cost of £2,300 raised by subscription, when the galleries were removed, the nave roofed with oak, the chancel refitted with oak, and the Norman doorway repaired: there are 400 sittings.
Baptist
Baptist Chapel
Congregational
Congregational Chapel
Methodist
Primitive Methodist Chapel
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 Hawkesbury from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Hawkesbury (St. Mary))
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Gloucestershire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Hawkesbury 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.