North Nibley, Gloucestershire
Historical Description
Nibley, North, a village and a parish in Gloucestershire. The village stands under a knoll of the Cotswolds, 2 miles NW of Wotton-under-Edge, and 2 SW of Dursley; is supposed to have been the birthplace of Tyndale, the translator of the Bible, and has a post office under Dursley; money order and telegraph office, Dursley. A monument to Tyndale was erected in 1866 on Nibley Knoll, overlooking the village. It is a Gothic tower 111 feet high, surmounted by a cross. The parish comprises 3283 acres; population of the civil parish, 784; of the ecclesiastical, 801. The manor belongs to Lord Fitzhardinge, The right to the manor was fought between the Berkeleys and the Lisles in 1469 on Nibley Green. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol; net value, £180 with residence. Patron, Christchurch, Oxford. The church is mainly Perpendicular, but the chancel was rebuilt in I860, and is in the Early English style. A N porch was erected in 1874, and a reredos in 1873. There are a chapel of ease and a Congregational 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 | North Nibley St. Martin | |
| Hundred | Berkeley | |
| Poor Law union | Dursley |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The parish register dates from the year 1567.
The Gloucestershire Parish Registers are available online at Ancestry, in association with Gloucestershire Archives.
Churches
Church of England
Chapel of Ease, Ridge
The chapel of ease at Ridge is a small building of stone, standing in the private grounds of the Ridge House.
St. Martin (parish church)
The church of St. Martin, anciently a chapel to Wotton-under-Edge, is a building of stone, chiefly in the Early English and Perpendicular styles, with some remains of Norman work, consisting of chancel, nave of five bays, south aisle, north porch and a low embattled western tower with pinnacles and containing a clock and 6 bells: all the chancel windows are stained, and there is a memorial window to the Rev. H. Williams M.A. incumbent 1889-91, erected on the occasion of the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1897: the chancel was rebuilt in the Early English style in 1860, from designs by the late Mr. J. L. Pearson R.A.: the porch was erected in 1873, and a mosaic reredos added in 1874; the tower was partly rebuilt in 1896, the bells re-hung, and a new clock, with chimes, erected at a cost of nearly £800, as a memorial to the Rev. H. F. Jones M.A. incumbent 1892-5: a new oak screen was erected under the tower in 1905: the church affords 400 sittings.
Congregational
Congregational Chapel
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 North Nibley from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Nibley, North (St. Martin))
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Gloucestershire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of North Nibley 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.