BITTON, Gloucestershire - Extract from National Gazetteer, 1868

"BITTON, a parish in the upper division of the hundred of Langley and Swinehead, in the county of Gloucester, 6 miles to the E. of Bristol, its post town. It is situated in the southern extremity of the county, on the confines of Somersetshire, on the north bank of the river Avon. It is also watered by the Boyd, a small stream which here falls into the Avon, and is crossed by a stone bridge. The Great Western railway passes near this place.

The parish contains the chapelries of Hanham, Kingswood, and Oldland. The inhabitants of the district, which is part of the great coal-field of Gloucestershire, are chiefly employed in agriculture and the coal mines. Wesley and Whitfield, and other earnest men, by their labours here, contributed greatly to raise the moral character of the population, then very low and degraded.

The living is a vicarage* in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol, value £390, in the patronage of the Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol. The church is large, and partly in the perpendicular style, with a good tower, and is dedicated to St. Mary. The parochial charities amount to £26."

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