Welford on Avon, Gloucestershire

Historical Description

Welford or Welford-on-Avon, a village in Gloucestershire, and a parish partly also in Warwickshire. The village stands on the river Avon, 1½ mile W by N of Milcote station on the G.W.R., and 4 miles SW of Stratford-on-Avon, and has a post and telegraph office under Stratford-on-Avon; money order office, Bidford. The parish comprises 3120 acres, of which 1853 are in Gloucestershire; population, 591, of whom 461 are in Gloucestershire. The Warwickshire portion consists of the hamlets of Bickmarsh and Little Dorsington. There is a parish council consisting of five members. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol; net value, £252 with residence. Patron, Lord Sackville. The church is partly Norman, and was restored in 1867. The tower was destroyed by fire in 1884, but was rebuilt in 1885.

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

Church Records

The register dates from the year 1561.

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

Churches

Church of England

St. Peter (parish church)

The church of St. Peter, anciently called "Holy Trinity," is a building of stone, in the Norman and later styles, consisting of chancel, nave, aisles, south porch and a lofty embattled western tower with pinnacles and containing a clock and 6 bells: the church was thoroughly restored by the late Countess De La Warr, at a cost of about £1,200, under the direction of the late Sir G. Gilbert Scott R.A.; but the tower, with the exception of the walls, was completely destroyed by fire on the morning of Dec. 13th, 1884; the bells, ruined by the fire, were recast, and the fabric restored in 1885, at a cost of £520: there are 200 sittings.

Methodist

Wesleyan Chapel

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.