Briavell's (St.

BRIAVELL'S (ST.) a parish, in the hundred of St. Briavell's, union of Chepstow, W. division of the county of Gloucester, 8 miles (W. by S.) from Blakeney; containing, with Hucknalls and other extra-parochial portions, 1287 inhabitants. This is a place of considerable antiquity, having given name to the hundred. Milo, Earl of Hereford, built a castle here in the reign of Henry I., as a frontier fortress against the Welsh: the north-western front, including two circular towers, now used as a prison for the hundred, is all that remains. Edward II. granted the inhabitants a charter for a weekly market, which has long been disused; and Edward III. exempted the burgesses from the payment of toll throughout the kingdom: this exemption is not now claimed, but the inhabitants still enjoy the right of cutting wood in the Forest of Dean, which they form into hoops and other articles, and send to Bristol. The parish comprises by computation 3312 acres, of which 1477 are meadow and pasture, 1307 arable, 508 woodland, and 20 waste. There are several coal-works in the vicinity; and until lately a court was held for regulating matters in dispute among the miners, but an act was passed in 1842 for abolishing this court. The living is annexed to the vicarage of Lidney: the appropriate tithes, belonging to the Dean and Chapter of Hereford, have been commuted for £215, the vicarial tithes for £229, and the impropriate for £8. The church is a small cruciform edifice, principally in the Norman and early English styles.