Miserden, Gloucestershire
Historical Description
Miserden or Miserdine, a village and a parish in Gloucestershire. The village stands 5 miles NNE of Brimscombe station on the G.W.R., 6½ NE by E of Stroud, and 8 N by W of Cirencester, and has a post office under Cirencester; money order office, Bisley: telegraph office, Birdlip. The parish contains also the hamlets of Camp, Sudgrove, Down, and Wishanger. Acreage, 3218; population of the civil parish, 393; of the ecclesiastical, 369. The manor belonged to the Musards in the time of King John: passed to the Despencers, the Mortimers, and others. Miserden Park and Sudgrove House are chief residences. A castle was built by the Musards in the time of King John, and the site of it is still discernible. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol; net value, £278 with residence. The church shows traces of Saxon work, and comprises nave, aisles, and chancel, with a monumental chapel and a low embattled tower; the chancel and the chapel were rebuilt and the rest of the edifice was restored in 1866, and the church retains a Norman font, a fine alabaster monument of 1644 to Sir William Sandys, a monument of 1614 to W. Kingston, a figured tablet of 1625 to Anthony Partridge, and a curious old tombstone to some of the Warneford family. There is a Primitive Methodist chapel.
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 | Miserden St. Andrew | |
| Hundred | Bisley | |
| Poor Law union | Stroud |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The parish register dates from the year 1574.
The Gloucestershire Parish Registers are available online at Ancestry, in association with Gloucestershire Archives.
Churches
Church of England
St. Andrew (parish church)
The church of St Andrew, thoroughly restored in 1866, is a building of stone, chiefly in the Early English style, consisting of chancel, nave of two bays, aisles, south porch and a low embattled western tower containing a clock and 2 bells: in the front over a closed doorway on the north side, and also in the south porch, are two exceedingly interesting arches of Saxon or very Early Norman work, embedded in the wall: in the south chancel aisle, or manorial chapel, is a fine monument in alabaster with effigies to Sir William Sandys kt. ob. 1640, and Margaret (Culpeper ) his wife, ob. 1644; the figure of the knight is in complete armour, and his lady is richly dressed; at the sides and south end of the tomb are kneeling figures of ten children, and at the head on a mural tablet of black marble, is an inscription: in the same chapel is an altar tomb with effigy, in stone, to William Kingston esq. ob. 1614, and on the floor of the chancel a tombstone inscribed to Thomas Warneford, ob. 1717; on the north side of the chancel is a tablet, with kneeling effigies, to Anthony Partridge, ob. 1625, Alice (Cartwright) his wife, and four children: there are several stained windows, one of which, erected by the Nizam of Hyderabad, is a memorial to William Hurst Yarnton Mills esq.: the stained east window is a memorial to the Rev. William Yarnton Mills J.P. for many years rector of the parish, and there is another to Daniel Yarnton Mills J.P. of Sudgrove House: in the church are also numerous tablets to various members of the Mills family, dating from 1724: in the manorial chapel are two stained windows, erected by E. A. Leatham esq. in 1882, and in the south aisle another, presented by Mr. Leatham in memory of his son, Harold, and one presented by Miss Juliana Willitt Lyon, in memory of Mrs. Lyon: the font is of Saxon date: the lectern was carved by Henry Bradley, son of a former parish clerk, on the occasion of whose jubilee as clerk it was presented to the church: a carved and painted oak reredos and pulpit were presented in 1894 by Arthur W. Leatham esq. J.P.: there are 180 sittings: in the churchyard is a memorial to Anthony Ockhold and his wife, 1605.
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 Miserden from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Miserden (St. Andrew))
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Gloucestershire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Miserden 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: