Badminton, Great (St. Michael)

BADMINTON, GREAT (St. Michael), a parish, in the union of Chipping, Upper division of the hundred of Grumbald's-Ash, W. division of the county of Gloucester, 6½ miles (E. by N.) from Chipping-Sodbury; containing 552 inhabitants. This parish, together with Little Badminton, is nearly all included within the boundary wall of Badminton Park, the seat of the Duke of Beaufort, whose ancestor, the first duke, built a princely mansion in the reign of Charles II., on the site of an ancient house belonging to the Boteler family. The roads from Cheltenham and Cirencester to Bath unite here. The living is a discharged vicarage, valued in the king's books at £5. 5. 7½.; net income, £7; patron, the Duke of Beaufort, by whose family the church was rebuilt in 1785. Mary, Duchess Dowager, in 1705 gave a rent-charge of £94 for the endowment of an almshouse for three men and three women, and a school for poor children.