Newland, Gloucestershire
Historical Description
Newland, a village, a tithing, and parish in Gloucestershire. The village stands 1½ mile E of the river Wye, at the boundary with Monmouthshire, 2 miles SW of Coleford, and 4 SE of Monmouth, and has a station on the Wye Valley and Coleford branch of the G.W.R., and a post office under Coleford; money order and telegraph office, Redbrook. The tithing contains also the hamlets of Upper Redbrook and Lower Redbrook, and extends to the Wye. The parish contains also the tithings of Redbrook, Clearwell, and Bream, and for parish council purposes is divided into two wards-Bream and Clearwell, the former returning four members to the parish council, and the latter five. Acreage, 7885; population of the civil parish, 4237; of the ecclesiastical, 616. Newland House, Birchamp House, Oak House, Wynals Hill, and Clearwell Court, are the chief residences. Some curious ancient Roman mines called Scowles, one part called the Devil's Chapel, are in Bream tithing, and some also in Coleford and Clearwell. The living is a vicarage, united with the chapelry of Redbrook, in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol; net value, £255 with residence. Patron, the Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol. The church is ancient and spacious, and was restored in 1862; consists of nave, aisles, chancel, and three chapels, with a fine pinnacled tower; has several memorial windows; contains a beautiful ancient font, an altar-tomb of the Jose family of the 14th century, effigies of two priests of the same date, and a monument to Chief Baron Probyn of 1742, and other memorials to the Hall, Wyndham, and Throgmorton families. The rood-stairs and an aumbry remain, and there is a piscina in two of the chapels. The churchyard contains an altar-tomb of 1457, the base of an ancient cross, and a fine modern cross. Bream, Clearwell, and Coleford form separate ecclesiastical parishes. There are dissenting chapels at Bream, Clearwell, and Coleford, and there are almshouses, founded in 1615 and in 1626, at Newland.
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 | Newland All Saints | |
| Hundred | St. Briavells | |
| Poor Law union | Monmouth | |
| Registration district | Monmouth | 1837 - 1937 |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The register, including Bream, Clearwell and Coleford, dates from the year 1556.
The Gloucestershire Parish Registers are available online at Ancestry, in association with Gloucestershire Archives.
Churches
Church of England
All Saints (parish church)
The church of All Saints is a building of stone, in the Decorated and Perpendicular styles, consisting of chancel with one north and two south chapels, clerestoried nave of five bays, aisles, south porch, and an embattled western tower with pinnacles, containing a clock with chimes and 6 bells: there are memorial windows to Mr. Ducarel, Mr. and Mrs. Brickdale, the Rev Thomas Birt, perpetual curate of Bream from 1801, Lieut. J. F. Brickdale, Mrs. Stanley Dighton, and to the Rev. George Ridout LL.B. vicar here from 1832: there is an interesting font dating from 1661: in the south aisle is an altar tomb of the time of Edward III. with recumbent effigies of Sir John Jose and his wife, and in the south chapel are effigies of two priests, vested, of the 14th century, and a marble monument to Sir Edmund Probyn, kt. chief baron of the exchequer, 1740, ob. May 17, 1742, and Elizabeth Blencowe, his wife, and there are other memorials to the Hall, Wyndham and Throgmorton families. The brass eagle lectern was presented in 1895 by the Misses Blandy: each of the chapels retains a piscina, and there is an aumbry in the chancel: the rood stairs also remain: the church was restored in 1862, at a cost of over £4,000, and again in 1912, at a cost of over £1,000: there are 500 sittings. In the churchyard are the steps and base of an ancient cross, with modern shaft, and also a raised tomb with the recumbent effigy of a man in hunting costume, inscribed to John Wyrall, forester, of Fee, 1457, and a stone slab with a recumbent effigy of an archer carrying a bow and arrows.
St. Saviours Chapel, Lower Redbrook
St. Saviour's chapel of ease at Lower Redbrook, erected in 1873, at a cost of £2,200, is a building of stone in the Early English style, consisting of chancel, nave, vestry and organ chamber, south porch and a turret at the south-east angle containing one bell: there are 240 sittings.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Newland from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Newland (All Saints))
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Gloucestershire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Newland 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.