Preston on Stour, Gloucestershire
Historical Description
Preston-on-Stour, a village and a parish in Gloucestershire, on the river Stour, at the boundary with Warwickshire, 2½ miles ESE of Milcote station on the G.W.R., and 3½ S of Stratford-on-Avon. There is a post office under Stratford-on-Avon; money order office, Lower Quinton; telegraph office, Stratford-on-Avon. Acreage of parish, 1769; population, 276. Alscot Park is a spacious mansion standing in a well-wooded park. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol; gross value, £55. The church is of the 18th century date, with a 15th century tower which belonged to a church of that period; it contains monuments. of the Kemp and West families.
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 | Preston-upon-Stour St. Mary Magdalene | |
| Hundred | Deerhurst | |
| Poor Law union | Stratford-upon-Avon |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The Phillimore & co. transcript of the Marriages at Preston upon Stour 1541-1812 is available to browse online.
The register dates from the year 1540.
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 a plain building of stone, consisting of chancel, nave and an embattled western tower, with pinnacles, containing 3 bells: the chancel was restored by James Roberts-West esq. in 1904, at a cost of £800: there is a fine monument to the Kemp family, 1624, and several to the West family, including one to the late James Roberts-West esq. 1882, and others to William Mariett, 1719, and John Mariett, 1709: there are four stained windows, including the east window, presented by James West in 1754: in 1885 about a quarter of an acre of ground was given by James Roberts-West esq. as an addition to the churchyard, the old portion of which is closed: there are 150 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 Preston on Stour from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Preston-upon-Stour (St. Mary Magdalene))
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Gloucestershire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Preston on Stour 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.