Leonard Stanley, Gloucestershire
Historical Description
Leonard Stanley or Stanley St Leonards, a village and a parish in Gloucestershire. The village stands 1 mile E by S of Frocester station on the M.R., 1½ S by E of Stonehouse, and 3¼ miles SW by W of Stroud; was once a market-town; was nearly all destroyed by fire in 1686; and has a post and money order office under Stonehouse; telegraph office, King Stanley. The parish contains also the hamlet of Downton, and includes the detached tract of Lorridge. Acreage, 824; population of the civil parish, 763; of the ecclesiastical, 771. The manor belonged at Domesday to Richard de Berkeley. Leonard Stanley House and The Grange are the chief residences. The Priory, formerly the residence of the lord of the manor, is now a farmhouse. A Benedictine priory, a cell to Gloucester Abbey, was founded here in 1146 by one of the Berkeleys; was given at the dissolution to the Kingstons; and has left some fragmentary remains which form part of the buildings of the priory farm. Sandford's Knoll commands an extensive and beautiful view. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol; gross value, £300 with residence. The church is Norman and cruciform, is said to have belonged to the priory, has a low massive tower of interesting character, and contains monuments of the Sandfords and of the last prior, Croose. There is a Wesleyan chape l.
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 | Stanley St. Leonard St. Swithin | |
| Hundred | Whitstone | |
| Poor Law union | Stroud |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The Phillimore transcript of Marriages at Leonard Stanley 1570-1812, Gloucestershire is available to browse online.
The parish register dates from the year 1557.
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, formerly belonging to the priory of St. Leonard, is a cruciform building of stone, in the Transitional, Early English and later styles, consisting of chancel, nave, transepts, north porch and a low massive embattled western tower containing a clock and 4 bells: on a window jamb on the north side are figures of persons receiving a cross from an ecclesiastic, and on the south side is a large mural painting with numerous figures, animals and fishes: the nave and the massive arcade and one doorway are Transition Norman: the organ cost £200: the piers of the nave were restored in 1884, and outside buttresses erected to strengthen the tower and north wall, at a total cost of about £700: the chancel has since been restored and new-roofed, mainly at the expense of the late R. D. Jones esq. sometime patron, at a total cost of £1,600: there are 700 sittings.
Methodist
Wesleyan Chapel
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Leonard Stanley from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Stanley St. Leonard (St. Swithin))
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Gloucestershire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Leonard Stanley 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.