Minchinhampton, Gloucestershire
Historical Description
Minchinhampton, a market-town and a parish in Gloucestershire. The town stands on a gentle declivity, near the Thames and Severn Canal, 1 mile S of Brimscombe station on the G.W.R., and 4 miles SE of Stroud. It was given by William the Conqueror to the nunnery of Caen; took thence the first part of its name, by corruption of Monachyn, signifying a nun; passed to the Windsors and the Sheppards; figured long as a place of considerable importance, but has latterly declined; consists chiefly of four streets at right angles to one another, but is irregularly built; and has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Stroud, a police station, a church, a Baptist chapel, almshouses for eight aged women, and a dispensary. The church was built in the time of Henry III. by the nuns of Caen, while the beautiful and unique S transept, with stone roof and rose window, was built in 1382, was partially rebuilt in 1842, is Decorated English and cruciform, with central tower, surmounted by a truncated spire, and contains several curious brasses. Fairs for horses, cattle, and sheep are held on Trinity Monday and 27 Oct.; woollen cloth manufacture is carried on; and there are a few mailings in the neighbourhood and a brewery at Forwood. The civil parish includes the hamlets of Amberley, Box, Brimscombe, Burleigh, Hyde, Littleworth, and St ChIoe-Longfords. Acreage, 4637; population of the civil parish, 3936; of the ecclesiastical, 1866. By order of Council in 1840 Amberley and Brimscombe were separated from Minchinhampton for ecclesiastical purposes. The manor belongs to the Ricardo family. Gatcombe Park, The Lammas, Box House, and The Coigne are the chief residences. A large common on the W side of the town was given to the inhabitants in the time of Henry VIII. by Dame Alice Hampton, and comprised originally about 1000 acres, but has been diminished by successive encroachments to little more than 500 acres. A remarkable entrenchment is on the common, extends nearly 3 miles from Littleworth to a valley on the opposite side of the town, called Woeful Lane Bottom, and is conjectured to have been the scene of a great overthrow of the Danes-possibly the much-disputed site of the battle of Ethandune in 879. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol; net value, £222 with residence.
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 | Minchinhampton Holy Trinity | |
| Hundred | Longtree | |
| Poor Law union | Stroud |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The Phillimore transcript of Marriages at Minchinhampton 1566-1812, Gloucestershire is available to browse online.
The parish register dates from the year 1555.
The Gloucestershire Parish Registers are available online at Ancestry, in association with Gloucestershire Archives.
Churches
Church of England
Holy Trinity (parish church)
The church of the Holy Trinity, partially rebuilt in 1842, is a cruciform edifice of stone, in the Early English and Decorated styles, consisting of chancel, clerestoried nave of four bays, aisles, transepts, west porch and a central octagonal towerm with embattled parapet, pinnacles and truncated spire, and containing 6 bells, and a clock with chimes and three dials, erected as a memorial of the Diamond Jubilee in 1897 of Queen Victoria: the south transept was rebuilt in 1382 by Sir John de la Mere and Maud, his wife: there are brasses to a civilian and his wife, c. 1500; to Edward Halyday, ob. 1519, and Margery, his wife, with his merchant's mark; to John Hampton, gent. ob. 1556, and his wife Elyn, engraved c. 1510; the effigies are in shrouds, and there are figures of nine children; there is also a brass half-effigy of a female, c. 1530; and another to Dr. James Bradley, now affixed to the wall on the east side of the south transept, but formerly on the tomb in the churchyard: there are modern brasses to Edward Sheppard, d. 1883, and Joseph Bowstead, d. 1876: two stained windows in the south transept were presented in 1889 by the Rev. Edward Colnett Oldfield M.A. rector 1865-84, and there are a number of memorial windows, including one to Edward Playne esq. to whom also a lych-gate was erected in 1909: the church was restored in 1884 at a cost of £850, a new organ was erected in 1887 and repaired and improved in 1905, and in 1889 the church was decorated: there are 600 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 Minchinhampton from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Hampton, Minchin (Holy Trinity))
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Gloucestershire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Minchinhampton 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
Villages, Hamlets, &c
AmberleyBox
Visitations Heraldic
The Visitation of the county of Gloucester, 1623 is available on the Heraldry page.