Pucklechurch

"PUCKLECHURCH, a parish in the hundred of Pucklechurch, county Gloucester, 8 miles N.E. of Bristol, its post town, and 2 E. of the Mangotsfield railway station. It is situated near the line of the Bristol and Gloucester railway, and contains the hamlet of Shortwood. The inhabitants are chiefly engaged in agriculture and in the collieries. The soil is of a loamy description, with a subsoil of clay and rock. The village, which is considerable, was formerly a market town. At this place was a palace of the Saxon kings, in which Edmund the Elder was stabbed by Leolf, a robber, in 946. The tithes have been commuted for a rent-charge of £765 8s., and there are about 60 acres of glebe.

The living is a vicarage* with the curacies of Abson, Wick, and Westerleigh annexed, in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol, value £765, in the patronage of the Dean and Chapter of Wells. The church, dedicated to St. Thomas-a-Becket, is an ancient stone structure with a square tower containing six bells. The church has been partly restored. The parochial charities produce about £65 per annum, of which £53 goes to Barrow's school. There is a National school for both sexes. There are places of worship for the Independents and Wesleyans. The Earl of Radnor is lord of the manor."

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