Randwick (St. John)

RANDWICK (St. John), a parish, in the union of Stroud, Upper division of the hundred of Whitstone, E. division of the county of Gloucester, 1 mile (N. W. by W.) from Stroud; containing 979 inhabitants. This was anciently part of the parish of Thornbury; the first notice of it as a parish is in the reign of Edward III. It comprises by measurement about 590 acres, besides land in Standish Park: the pasture consists of rich loam, the arable is light and stony; the surface, for the most part, is hilly, and there are some fine plantations of beech and larch. The summit of the hill on the slope of which the village stands, called Randwick-Ash, commands a beautiful view of the river Severn, of Wales, and the surrounding counties. The Stroud canal passes through the southern part of the parish. Oolite stone is quarried for building purposes. The living is a perpetual curacy; patron, the Vicar of Standish; appropriator, the Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol. The rectorial tithes have been commuted for £84, and those of the incumbent for £72: there are 56 acres of glebe. The church was considerably improved a few years since, and a new chancel was built by Lord Sherborne. There are places of worship for Wesleyans and the Connexion of the Countess of Huntingdon. A national school is endowed with about £40 per annum. On a hill called The Castles are traces of an ancient settlement, supposed, from the discovery of a burial-vault of stone, containing human remains, to be of Saxon origin; and in many parts of the parish have been found small balls of stone, rudely turned, indicative of some battle having been fought in the neighbourhood. The petrifaction termed by geologists calcareous tufa abounds, and the ancient porch of the church is constructed of it. The late Professor White, of Oxford, was born near Randwick.