Hempstead, Gloucestershire

Historical Description

Hempsted or Hempstead, a village and a parish in Gloucestershire. The village stands on the river Severn, near the Berkeley Canal, 1½ mile SW of Gloucester, and is a very pleasant suburb of Gloucester city, with a fine view. The parish comprises 1447 acres; population, 422. The manor was given by Milo, Earl of Hereford, to Llanthony Priory, and passed at the dissolution to the Atkins family, subsequently to the families of Bathurst and Lysons. Hemp-sted Court is the chief residence, dating from the 15th century. There is an old cross in the village. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol; net value,, £920. The church was erected about 1501 by Henry Dene, Prior of Llanthony, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury and Chancellor to Henry VII.; it has been restored, and contains a monument of 1610 to Chief Justice Atkyns, a brass of 1548, and a Norman font. The rectory was built in 1671 by the first Viscount Scudamore.

Transcribed from The Comprehensive Gazetteer of England & Wales, 1894-5

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	Hempstead St. Swithin
Hundred	Dudstone and Kings Barton
Poor Law union	Gloucester

Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.

Church Records

The register dates from the year 1558.

The Gloucestershire Parish Registers are available online at Ancestry, in association with Gloucestershire Archives.

Churches

Church of England

St. Swithin (parish church)

The church of St. Swithin, believed to have been erected by Henry Dene, incumbent of Hempstead, prior of Llanthony and archbishop of Canterbury 1501-3, is an edifice of stone in the Early Perpendicular style, consisting of chancel, nave, south porch and a low central embattled tower containing 6 bells: the stained east window, a memorial to the late Mrs. Crawley, was erected in 1885, and there are five others: in the chancel is an altar tomb with full length effigy, in robes, of Richard Atkyns, chief justice of North Wales, ob. 1610; and a fine inscribed brass, with shields of arms, to the six children of Arthur Porter esq. and Alys his wife, 1548; there are also several tablets to the memory of the Lysons family: the font is Norman: the church was thoroughly restored in 1885-6, at a cost of £1,717, when the nave was lengthened and a vestry with cloister erected: there are about 180 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 Hempstead from the following:

Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Hempstead (St. Swithin))

Land and Property

The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Gloucestershire is available to browse.

Newspapers and Periodicals

The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following newspapers covering Gloucestershire online:

Visitations Heraldic

The Visitation of the county of Gloucester, 1623 is available on the Heraldry page.