Frocester (St. Peter)

FROCESTER (St. Peter), a parish, in the union of Wheatenhurst, Lower division of the hundred of Whitstone, E. division of the county of Gloucester, 5½ miles (W. by S.) from Stroud; containing 344 inhabitants. It is situated on the old road from Gloucester to Bath, and comprises about 1800 acres; the surface is varied, rising in some parts into considerable elevation, and on the hills are quarries of good stone for building and for the roads. The village is pleasantly seated at the foot of a lofty hill, from the summit of which is an extensive and interesting view of the vale watered by the Severn. The Gloucester and Bristol railway has a station here, 10¾ miles from the Gloucester station. The living is a discharged vicarage, valued in the king's books at £10. 5. 10.; patron and impropriator, Lord Ducie. The tithes have been commuted for £260, and the glebe comprises one small field, attached to the glebe-house. A college of prebendaries anciently existed here. Frocester Court, now a farmhouse, was originally a stately mansion, and it is on record that Queen Elizabeth paid a visit to its proprietor; a barn on the farm, probably the grand hall of the building, has still a roof of oak, of great length and solidity.