Olveston, Gloucestershire
Historical Description
Olveston, a village and a parish in Gloucestershire. The village stands 2½ miles ESE of the Severn, and 3 SW of Thornbury, and has a post office under Almondsbury (R.S.O); money order and telegraph office, Tockington. The parish contains also the tithing of Tockington, the hamlet of Inst, and part of the hamlet of Rudgeway. Acreage, 4571; population of the civil parish, 1427; of the ecclesiastical, 1435. There is a parish council consisting of nine members. The manor of Olveston belonged anciently to the Dennis family, and belongs now to the Cann-Lippincott family. The manor of Tockington belongs to the Salmon family. Friezewood, Oakleaze, Woodhouse, Oldown House, and Tockington Manor House are chief residences. Fairs are held at Tockington on 9 May and 6 Dec. for cattle. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol; net value, £550 with residence. Patrons, the Dean and Chapter of Bristol. The church is partly Norman and partly Perpendicular. It was repaired and considerably enlarged in 1840, and the interior was restored in 1888; consists of nave, transepts, aisles, and chancel, with S porch and pinnacled tower; and contains an old brass of Sir W. Dennis. There are Wesleyan and United Free Methodist chapels.
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 | Olveston St. Mary | |
Hundred | Langley and Swinehead | |
Poor Law union | Thornbury |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The Phillimore transcript of Marriages at Olveston 1560-1812, Gloucestershire is available to browse online.
The parish register dates from the year 1560.
The Gloucestershire Parish Registers are available online at Ancestry, in association with Gloucestershire Archives.
Churches
Church of England
St. Mary (parish church)
The church of St. Mary is an ancient building of stone, consisting of chancel, nave, aisles, south porch and an embattled central tower, with crocheted pinnacles, containing a clock and 8 bells: the base of the tower, with its piers and arches, and the nave arcades are Norman work, end there is a sepulchral arch of the Transition period in the north aisle: the windows, the upper part of the tower and a sepulchral arch in the south aisle are Perpendicular: there is a brass with effigies in tabards to Morys Denys esq. and his son, Sir Walter Denys K.B. one of the knights made on the creation of Prince Arthur as a knight of the Bath, Nov. 29, 1489; Sir Walter was lord of the manor, and died in 1496: within the sepulchral arch in the north aisle is a gravestone (removed from the chancel), and inscribed to Ralph Greene, vicar 1590-1639: the church plate, consisting of two chalices, a paten and an alms dish, is inscribed with his initials and the date 1634: in November, 1604, the tower, then surmounted with a lofty steeple, was destroyed by lightning: under the parapet of the present tower is the date 1606: the church was considerably enlarged and repaired in 1840, and in 1888-9 the interior was thoroughly restored and reseated with open benches, and now affords 500 sittings.
Methodist
United Methodist Chapel, Tockington
Wesleyan 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 Olveston from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Olveston (St. Mary))
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Gloucestershire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Olveston 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.