CHURCHDOWN, Gloucestershire - Extract from National Gazetteer, 1868

"CHURCHDOWN, (or Choren), a parish in the upper division of the hundred of Dudstone, in the county of Gloucester, 3½ miles from the Gloucester railway station on the old road leading from Gloucester to Cheltenham. The Great Western and Midland railways pass through the parish. The village is pleasantly situated in an extensive vale, but the church is built on Marlstone Hill, about 2,500 feet in height; from this circumstance the parish was called by the Saxons Circes dune, or "The church on the down".

The living is a perpetual curacy* in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol, value £78, in the patronage of the Dean and Chapter of Bristol. The church, dedicated to St. Bartholomew, is an ancient structure with square tower, in which is inscribed, 11 This belhous was bnylded in the yere of our Lord God, 1601". The commuted tithe is £1,211 a year. An elegant stone parsonage house was built in 1862 through the exertions of the incumbent, the Rev. Fred. Smithe, F.G.S.

There is also a district church at Hucclecote, the living of which is a perpetual curacy; in the patronage of the bishop. The Wesleyans have a chapel. There is a charity school, endowed in 1734 with £25 a year by H. Windowe, Esq., and four almshouses for poor widows. The celebrated Greek professor, John Harmer, was born here in 1594. He wrote Latin and Greek panegyrics on Oliver Cromwell, on Richard his son, and on Charles II., but the works for which he is remembered are "Lexicon Etymologicum", "Praxis Grammaticæ", and "Janua Linguarum"."

[Description(s) from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868)
Transcribed by Colin Hinson ©2003]