Swell, Lower (St. Mary)

SWELL, LOWER (St. Mary), a parish, in the union of Stow-on-the-Wold, Upper division of the hundred of Slaughter, E. division of the county of Gloucester, 1 mile (W.) from Stow; containing 352 inhabitants. The parish is situated on the Stow and Cheltenham road, and comprises 2223 acres by admeasurement. Stone is quarried for building and for pavements. The living is a discharged vicarage, valued in the king's books at £6. 12. 3½.; net income, £100; patrons and appropriators, the Dean and Canons of Christ-Church, Oxford. The tithes were commuted for land and annual money payments in 1789; a glebe house was erected by the incumbent in 1838, and the glebe contains 105 acres. The church is a small and very ancient structure, originally built in the early Norman style, but altered in the reign of Henry VII. Here is a chalybeate spring, occasionally used for medicinal purposes; a neat building was erected over it in 1807.