Pauntley, Gloucestershire

Historical Description

Pauntley, a parish in Gloucestershire, consisting entirely of scattered dwellings, on the river Leadon, at the boundary with Worcestershire, 2 miles NE by N of Newent, and 6 SSE of Ledbury. Post town, Newent, under Gloucester. Acreage, 1630; population of the civil parish, 155; of the ecclesiastical, 183. The manor formerly belonged to the Whittington family, one of whom was Sir Richard Whittington, lord mayor of London. The Pauncefotes family were afterwards in possession. There are some remains of the old manor house. The White House is the chief residence. Pauntley Court is a farmhouse, but was at one time the chief residence. There are saline springs. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol; net value, £70 Patron, the Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol. The church, dedicated to St John the Evangelist, is Norman, and consists of chancel with chapel, nave, S aisle, N porch, and a tower. The arch separating the chancel from the body of the church is a very fine example of Early Norman work, as is also the arch of the S doorway. There is a Wesleyan chapel. Pool Hill is a hamlet about 1½ mile W of the church and about the centre of the parish.

Transcribed from The Comprehensive Gazetteer of England & Wales, 1894-5

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	Pauntley St. John the Evangelist
Hundred	Botloe
Poor Law union	Newent

Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.

Church Records

The register dates from the year 1538.

The Gloucestershire Parish Registers are available online at Ancestry, in association with Gloucestershire Archives.

Churches

Church of England

St. John the Evangelist (parish church)

The church of St. John the Evangelist is a small but fine building of stone, in the Norman style, supposed to have been built soon after the Conquest by Walter de Pauntley, and consists of chancel with chapel dedicated to St. George, nave, south aisle, north porch and an embattled western tower containing 3 bells: the east window is a memorial to John Cowmeadow esq.: the chancel arch is a good example of Norman work, and the south doorway is an enriched specimen of the same period: a new south door was fixed in 1885: on the wall of the south aisle is a mural brass to Elizabeth (Whittington), wife of Sir Giles Pole kt. ob. 18 Sept, 1545: there is also mention of a Thomas Whittington kt. who was related through Elizabeth Pole to Sir Richard Whittington ("Dick Whittington"): there is also a handsome marble monument to Anne Somerset, ob. 1764, daughter of the Hon. Charles Somerset, and grand-daughter of Lord John Somerset, and son of the 1st Marquess of Worcester; to her sister Anna Carolina Brickendine, d. 1770, and to Henry Blachford Scudamore (late of Newent), nephew to the above, d. 1795: there are 120 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 Pauntley from the following:

Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Pauntley (St. John the Evangelist))

Land and Property

The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Gloucestershire is available to browse.

Newspapers and Periodicals

The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following newspapers covering Gloucestershire online:

Visitations Heraldic

The Visitation of the county of Gloucester, 1623 is available on the Heraldry page.