Fretherne

[Description(s) from The National Gazetteer (1868)]

"FRETHERNE, a parish in the upper division of the hundred of Whitstone, county Gloucester, 6 miles W. of Stonehouse, its post town, and 9 S.W. of Gloucester. Frocester on the Bristol and Birmingham railway is the nearest station, being distant about 5 miles to the S.E. The river Severn bounds the parish on the S., and the Gloucester and Berkeley ship canal and the Stroud canal pass through it. The banks of the Severn are here precipitously steep, and Fretherne Cliff rises to the height of 60 feet above the level of the river. Its Saxon name was Fethanieag, where the Saxon Chronicle relates that Ceawlin, King of Wessex, obtained a victory over the Britons in 584. An Act of Parliament was obtained in 1839 for enclosing the waste lands in this parish. At one time the manor was held by the Clifford family.

The living is a rectory* in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol, value £282. The church is a stone edifice of the present century, dedicated to St. Mary. There is an endowment producing nearly £100 per annum, for religious purposes. The Wesleyans have a chapel, and there is a National school. Fretherne Lodge is said to have been the birth-place of the celebrated Rosamond Clifford, known in history as Fair Rosamond."

 

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