Tirley (St. Matthew)

TIRLEY (St. Matthew), a parish, in the union of Tewkesbury, partly in the Lower division of the hundred of Westminster, and partly in that of the hundred of Deerhurst, E. division of the county of Gloucester, 8 miles (N. by E.) from Gloucester; containing 550 inhabitants. It comprises by admeasurement 1891 acres, about one-third of which is arable, and the remainder pasture; the soil is a rich loam. The river Severn flows through the parish, and is crossed at Haw by a handsome stone bridge, completed in 1824, on the new line of road leading from Cheltenham into Herefordshire, Monmouthshire, and South Wales. The living is a discharged vicarage, valued in the king's books at £9. 6. 8., and in the patronage of the Crown; net income, £375; impropriator, the Earl of Coventry: the tithes were commuted for land and corn-rents in 1795. The church is partly in the decorated and partly in the later English style. There is a place of worship for Wesleyans.