Westerleigh, Gloucestershire

Historical Description

Westerleigh, a village and a parish in Gloucestershire. The Village is 1½ mile S of Yate station on the M.R., and 3 miles SW of Chipping Sodbury. It has a post office under Chipping Sodbury; money order and telegraph office, Chipping Sodbury. The civil parish includes Nibley hamlet and Coalpit Heath ecclesiastical parish. Acreage, 4466; population of the civil parish, 1233; of the ecclesiastical, 392, There is a parish council consisting of nine members. A fair is held on 19 Sept. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol; gross value, £160. Patrons, the Dean and Chapter of Wells. The church was built in the latter part of the 12th century. The S aisle is an addition of early 15th century date, and it opens into the nave with an arcade of seven bays. The western tower is an extremely fine specimen of 15th century work, and is adorned with elaborately traced parapets and angle turrets, which have been restored. There is a Congregational chapel.

Administration

The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.

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

Church Records

The register of baptisms and burials dates from the year 1693; marriages, 1694.

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

Churches

Church of England

Congregational

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 Westerleigh from the following:

• Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Westerleigh (St. James))

Land and Property

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

Maps

Online maps of Westerleigh 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.