Tormarton, Gloucestershire
Historical Description
Tormarton, a village and a parish in Gloucestershire, 4 miles SE of Chipping Sodbury, and 5¼ SE by E of Yate station on the M.R. There is a post office under Chippenham; money order office, Acton Turville; telegraph office, Marshfield. Acreage, 2656; population of the civil parish, 347; of the ecclesiastical, with West Littleton, 447. There is a parish council consisting of five members. Stone is quarried. The manor belongs to the Duke of Beaufort. The living is a rectory, with the chapelry of West Littleton annexed, in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol; gross value, £679 with residence. Patron, the Duke of Beaufort. The church is Norman and Early English, and has been beautifully restored. It contains some ancient monuments and brasses.
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 | Tormarton St. Mary | |
Hundred | Grumbalds-Ash | |
Poor Law union | Chipping-Sodbury |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The Phillimore transcript of Marriages at Tormarton with West Littleton 1600-1812, Gloucestershire is available to browse online.
The register dates from the year 1679, and includes the register of baptisms and burials of West Littleton.
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, in the Norman and Early English styles, consisting of chancel, nave of three bays, south aisle, south and west porches and an embattled western tower containing one bell: the two lower stories of the tower, the chancel and font are Early Norman: the nave and south aisle are Early English, seven of the windows are stained, and on the south side is a hagioscope: in the aisle is a brass with effigy and marginal inscription in excellent preservation, to John Ceysyll, "famulus" to Sir John Sendlow, ob. 1493, and in the chancel a slab of black marble, from which the brasses have been removed, to Sir John de la Rivere, c. 1350, a benefactor to the church; there is also a mural monument with arms to Edward Topp of Witton esq. ob. 1699; and a curious epitaph to Gabriel Russell esq. ob. 1663: there are sittings for 230 persons.
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 Tormarton from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Tormarton (St. Mary))
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Gloucestershire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Tormarton 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.