Oxenhall

OXENHALL, a parish, in the union of Newent, hundred of Botloe, W. division of the county of Gloucester, 1 mile (N. N. W.) from Newent; containing 306 inhabitants. The parish comprises by measurement 1886 acres, of which 42 are common or waste land: the soil is partly red-sandstone and partly stiff wet clay; the surface a constant undulation, and the scenery pleasing. The Gloucestershire and Herefordshire canal has a tunnel here more than a mile in length. The living is a discharged vicarage, valued in the king's books at £9. 12. 6.; net income, £80; patron, the Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol; impropriator, S. Beale, Esq., whose tithes have been commuted for £440, and who pays the vicar yearly £13. 6. 8. and the rent of an acre of land, decreed by the court of exchequer in 1639. The church has been recently repaired at the expense of the vicar. It has a very remarkable and handsome font, of much greater antiquity than the church: the bowl is of lead, bearing a representation, in low relief, of the Redeemer, the right hand raised in the act of benediction, the left resting on a book; the bowl is Norman, the base in the decorated style. The mutilated shaft and base of a preaching-cross, standing in the churchyard, have lately been converted into a sun-dial. In 1841 the vicar built a Sunday school, and in 1845 established an agricultural and commercial school for the instruction of the sons of farmers and shopkeepers, under the conduct of a master from St. Mark's College, Chelsea. He also established, in the same year, a provident club for assuring medicine and medical attendance, with 8s. weekly, during sickness, to day labourers within the parish. In a wood here, is an artificial mound covered with trees, in the form of a horse-shoe, called "the Danes' Mound," and supposed to be of great antiquity. The whole line of country contains mineral springs, which vary in strength, and bear some resemblance to those of Cheltenham.