Westbury on Severn, Gloucestershire

Historical Description

Westbury-on-Severn, a village, a parish, and the head of a poor-law union, in Gloucestershire. The village stands near the river Severn, 2 miles SSW of Grange Court station on the G.W.R., 3 NNE of Newnham, and has a post and money order office under Newnham; telegraph office, Newnham. The parish includes the tithings of Adsett, Bollow, Boseley, Chaxhill, Cleeve, Eiton, Upper and Lower Ley, Northwood, Stantway, Rodley and Westbury, and the village of Broad Oak. It comprises 8243 acres of land and 21 of water, with 332 of adjacent tidal water and 304 of foreshore, population, 2005. There is an urban district council of twelve members. Westbury Court, Adsett Court, Chaxhill House, and The Broughtons are the chief residences. In the gardens at Chaxhill House is an old statue of Charles I., which till 1749 was part of the High Cross at Gloucester. The old mansion of Westbury Court was pulled down in 1806, but the gardens, laid out in the Dutch style of the 17th century, still remain, and here the lord of the manor built a handsome residence in 1895. The manor has been held by the Colchesters since 1641. Fruit-growing is the principal industry of the parish. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol; net value, £128 with residence. Patrons, the Custos and Vicars Choral of Hereford Cathedral. The church was built in 1530, and was restored in 1862 and 1878. It has a detached square tower of the 13th century date with a lofty spire. There are several monuments to the Colchester family. A chapel of ease is at Chaxhill. There are Congregational and Wesleyan chapels.

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	Westbury-upon-Severn St. Peter and St. Paul
Hundred	Westbury
Poor Law union	Westbury-upon-Severn

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

Church Records

The register dates from the year 1538, and there is a list of incumbents from 1170.

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

Churches

Church of England

SS. Peter and Paul (parish church)

The church of SS. Peter and Paul, built in 1530, is an edifice of stone, in the Decorated and Perpendicular styles, consisting of chancel, clerestoried nave of seven bays, aisles, north and south porches, and a detached tower on the north side, 50 feet distant, with a heavy wooden broach spire rising to a height of 160 feet, and containing a clock, provided in 1845, at a cost of £100, and 6 bells, all cast in 1711: the tower is of the late Early English period, c. 1260: in 1887 the bells were re-hung and one re-cast at the expense of the Misses Crawley, of Hempstead: the north arcade, with its aisle and the porch, probably date from c. 1300: on the west front of the church is a "Calvary," under a canopy: in 1878 a handsome reredos of stone and alabaster was erected: there are memorial windows to Cornelius Cadle and Sarah his wife, and to Miss Joanna Gibbs Crawley, besides others; and in the chancel are five marble tablets to the Colchester family, three to the Boughton family, and a piscina: near by are flat stones with the arms of Lysons of Lower Ley (1693-1702): the chancel retains two fine chandeliers of solid brass: the reredos of stone and alabaster was erected in 1878; in the porch lies a stone coffin, and the pedestal of a font with the royal arms of the Tudors and the date 1583: the communion plate dates from about 1570: the church was thoroughly restored in 1862 and 1878, at a cost of £3,000, under the direction of Messrs. Medland and Mabberley, architects, of Gloucester: and in 1888 was re-seated at a cost of £437, a new communion table being presented by the Rev. L. Wilkinson B.A. vicar 1888-1902, in the same year. The churchyard was enlarged and walled in at a cost of about £300 in 1869, the additional portion being consecrated in the following year by the bishop of the diocese. A chantry chapel of St. Mary, formerly existing in the churchyard, erected c. 1275 against the east face of the tower, and used till 1848 for the parish school, was removed in 1862.

St. Luke's chapel of ease, Chaxhill

St. Luke's chapel of ease, at Chaxhill, erected and consecrated in 1894, at a cost of £980, on a site presented by the late J. R. Bennett esq. of Chaxhill House, is of red brick, with free-stone facings, and will seat 144 persons.

Congregational

Congregational Chapel, Adsett

The Congregational chapel, at Adsett, erected in 1838, has 250 sittings.

Congregational Mission Chapel, Lower Ley

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Westbury on Severn from the following:

Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Westbury-upon-Severn (St. Peter and St. Paul))

Land and Property

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

Maps

Online maps of Westbury on Severn 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:

Visitations Heraldic

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