Stanley, King's (St. George)

STANLEY, KING'S (St. George), a parish, in the union of Stroud, Lower division of the hundred of Whitstone, E. division of the county of Gloucester, 3¼ miles (W. by S.) from Stroud; containing 2200 inhabitants. This place is supposed to derive the adjunct to its name from having been the residence of some of the Mercian kings. The manufacture of woollen-cloth appears to have been introduced here at a very early period, and in the reign of Elizabeth was conducted by Richard Clotterbooke, who was interred in the church, and whose descendants for many generations carried on that business in various parts of the neighbourhood. The Stanley mills now employ from 800 to 1000 persons. The parish comprises 1679a. 2r. 5p., of which 220 acres are woodland, aud the remainder arable and pasture; the substratum contains good freestone for building, and also ragstone for the roads. The Severn and Thames canal passes near the village, and the Gloucester and Bristol railway within a mile, where it has a station from which a line diverges to the Great Western railway. A fair is held on the 23rd of April. The living is a rectory, valued in the king's books at £18. 15. 2½., aud in the gift of Jesus College, Cambridge: the tithes have been commuted for £410, and the glebe comprises 81 acres. The church, an ancient and handsome structure, has been enlarged. There is a place of worship for Baptists; and two national schools, one at each extremity of the parish, are supported partly by bequests producing about £26 per annum. Eight Roman altars, a large brass of Alexander Severus, and other relics of antiquity, were found some years since.