BRAMPTON ABBOTTS is a parish distant 1½ miles N. from Ross, 16 S.E. from Hereford, and 20 N.W. from Gloucester; in Greytree hundred, Ross union, petty sessional division, county court district, and polling district. The population in 1861 was 257; in 1871, 241; inhabited houses, 51; families or separate occupiers, 52; area of parish, 1,450 acres; annual rateable value, £3,071. The Right Hon. Lord Ashburton is lord of the manor and principal landowner. William Dew, Esq., Miss Dew, Rev. Thomas Syer, and the Minor Canons of Hereford, are also landowners here. The soil is loamy; subsoil, clay, and rock; chief crops, wheat, beans, barley, and pasture. The parish extends to the river Wye, and the scenery is very beautiful, overlooking a vast expanse of finely wooded country. The living is in the diocese and archdeaconry of Hereford and rural deanery of Ross; it is a rectory, value, £323, with residence and 6 acres of glebe; patron, the Lord Bishop of Hereford; rector, Rev. William Hulme, M.A., of Balliol College, Oxford, who was instituted in 1855. The church is dedicated to St. Michael, and cannot be of much later date than the reign of William the Conqueror, by whom the manor was given to the Abbots of Gloucester. It consists of nave and chancel, and at the western end is surmounted by a square bell cot of timber in shingle-work. The turret is of pleasing proportions. The entrance is under a timber porch, and through a Norman door, with a plain tympanum and semicircular arch resting on capitals and shafts. In 1857 the church was restored and reseated at a cost of £350. In 1863 a side aisle was built by the rector and his family. There are three bells, an organ, font, and some stained glass windows, one of which represents St. Michael "trampling on the apostate's pride". A new painted window, on south side of chancel, was presented in 1873 by Dr. Syer. The churchyard is overshadowed by fine elms and yews, and has a modern shaft and cross. There is a national school for boys and girls, under Government inspection; average attendance, 28. Overton and Gatsford were occupied by the Romans.