Lower Swell, Gloucestershire
Historical Description
Swell, Lower, a village and a parish in Gloucestershire, 1 mile NW by N of Stow-on-the-Wold. Post town, Stow-on-the-Wold. Acreage, 2347; population, 405. Swell Bowl was the residence of the county historian Sir R. Atkyns. Abbotswood and Quar Wood are the chief residences. There are a mineral spring and three barrows. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol; gross value, £170 with residence. Patron, Christchurch, Oxford. The church is Norman and Early English, and retains a lepers' window and a hagioscope.
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 | Lower Swell St. Mary | |
| Hundred | Slaughter | |
| Poor Law union | Stow-on-the-Wold |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The register dates from the year 1685.
The Gloucestershire Parish Registers are available online at Ancestry, in association with Gloucestershire Archives.
Churches
Church of England
St. Mary the Virgin (parish church)
The church of St. Mary the Virgin is a building of stone, in the Norman and later styles, consisting of chancel, nave of two bays, south aisle, south porch and a small western turret containing 3 bells: the chancel and nave are Early English, the rest of the church being Norman: the south aisle was formerly the nave of the Norman church: the original chancel retains a low-side window, and there is a hagioscope looking from the aisle into the new chancel: the interior of the church is decorated with cartoons representing the Passion: all the windows are stained: the nave was built in 1852, and the chancel rebuilt in 1870, at a total cost of about £2,000: since 1873 the church has been renovated and decorated, at a cost of £500, and affords 250 sittings.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Lower Swell from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Swell, Lower (St. Mary))
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Gloucestershire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Lower Swell 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.