Iron Acton, Gloucestershire
Historical Description
Iron Acton, a village and a parish in Gloucestershire. The village stands 3½ miles NW by W of Chipping Sodbury, with a station on the Yate and Thornbury branch of the M.R., and fairs on 25 April and 13 Sept. It has a post and money order office under Fishponds (R.S.O.); telegraph office, Frampton Cotterell. The parish contains also the hamlets of Latteridge and Acton Ilgar. Acreage, 2943; population, 1034. Coal, limestone, and iron ore occur, and the last was at one time so largely dug and smelted as to give rise to the prefix Iron in the name of the parish. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol; net value, £537 with residence. Patron, Christ Church, Oxford. The church is Perpendicular, has a lofty tower, and contains a handsome monument to Robert Poyntz. Remains of a very fine ancient cross are in the churchyard. There are Congregational, Baptist, and Wesleyan chapels.
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 | Iron-Acton St. James | |
Hundred | Thornbury | |
Poor Law union | Chipping-Sodbury |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The parish register dates from the year 1570.
The Gloucestershire Parish Registers are available online at Ancestry, in association with Gloucestershire Archives.
Churches
Church of England
St. James the Less (parish church)
The church of St. James the Less is an ancient building of stone in the Perpendicular style, consisting of chaneel, nave of four bays, aisles, north porch and an embattled western tower with pinnacles, containing a clock and 6 bells: in the church is a helmet formerly belonging to one of the Poyntz family: there is an ancient monument to Mr. John Trewman, dated 1686; there are also two ancient brasses to John Crowther (1624) and Margaret Crowther, his wife (1630); in the churchyard are the remains of a very handsome but mutilated stone cross with steps: the interior of the church was thoroughly restored at the beginning of 1878, and the tower in 1892, at a cost of £3,400: there are 300 sittings.
Baptist
Baptist Chapel
Congregational
Congregational Chapel
Methodist
Wesleyan 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 Iron Acton from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Iron-Acton (St. James))
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Gloucestershire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Iron Acton 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.