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HARESFIELD, Gloucestershire - Extract from National Gazetteer, 1868

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The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland - 1868

[Description(s) from The National Gazetteer (1868)]
"HARESFIELD, a parish in the upper division of the hundred of Whitstone, county Gloucester, 6 miles S.W. of Gloucester. Stonehouse is its post town. It is a station on the Bristol and Birmingham section of the Midland railway. The parish is situated near the Berkeley canal, under Broad Ridge Camp. The soil is clayey, on a substratum of oolitic limestone, which is extensively quarried for building purposes. The river Severn passes near the lower part of the parish. A court-leet is held for the manor, which enjoys peculiar privileges, being exempt from the hundred court, and formerly, with Wheatonhurst and Newnham, conferring the dignity of lord high constable, held by grand serjeanty, from which circumstance its privileges arose. The tithes have been commuted for land under an Enclosure Act obtained in 1812, and the vicarage was rebuilt of stone by the patron of the living in 1837.

The living is a vicarage* in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol, value £260. The church, dedicated to St. Peter, is an ancient structure, with a tower, surmounted by a spire, containing a clock and six bells. It appears to have been erected by the Prior of Llanthony. In the chancel are effigies to the De Bohun family of Harescombe. The parochial charities produce about £15 per annum. There is a school for both sexes. Haresfield Court is the principal residence, the seat of J. Daniel Niblett, Esq., who is lord of the manor. Many Roman coins, and a beautiful bronze and silver fibula, have been found near Broad Ridge Camp, on the Beacon hill. The quarries are rich in fossil remains."

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