HAWKESBURY, Gloucestershire - Extract from National Gazetteer, 1868

"HAWKESBURY, a parish in the upper division of the hundred of Grumbalds Ash, county Gloucester, 4 miles N.E. of Chipping Sodbury, 15 N.E. of Bath, and 16 E. of Bristol. The nearest station is Wickwar, on the Bristol and Birmingham line, and the old road from Bath to Cirencester runs through the parish. It contains the tythings of Hawkesbury, Little Badminton, Hillsley, Kilcott, Tresham, Saddlewood, and Upton. The soil is clay alternating with sand, upon a subsoil of blue lias and sand. The vicarial tithes have been commuted for a rent-charge of £350, and the impropriate, which belong to the Duke of Beaufort and others, for £231 17s. On the summit of a hill commanding an extensive view is a tower, erected in 1846 to the memory of General Lord R. E. H. Somerset. This place gives name to a deanery in the archdeaconry of Bristol, and diocese of Gloucester and Bristol.

The living is a vicarage* in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol, value £300. The church, dedicated to St. Mary, is an ancient structure with a tower, chiefly in the perpendicular style, though portions show traces of Norman architecture. It contains monuments and tombs of the Jenkinsons, earls of Liverpool, who took from this place the title of baron. There are chapels-of-ease at Badminton and Tresham, and a district church dedicated to St. Giles, at Hillsley, the living of which is a perpetual curacy*, value £56, in the patronage of the bishop. There are chapels for Independents, Baptists, and Primitive Methodists, also a National school, and a fund for the education of poor boys, in the hands of trustees. Sir George Samuel Jenkinson is lord of the manor. A fair for cattle and sheep is held on the last Friday in August."

"TRESHAM, a tything in the parish of Hawkesbury, upper division of Grimbald's-Ash hundred, county Gloucester, 6 miles S.W. of Tetbury, and 312 S.E. of Wotton-under-Edge. It is joined with Killcott."

"KILLCOTT, a tything in the parish of Hawkesbury, upper division of the hundred of Grumbald's-Ash, county Gloucester, 3 miles S.E. of Wootton-under-Edge, and 4 E. of Wickwar. It is joined with Saddlewood and Tresham to form a township."

"LITTLE BADMINTON, a tything in the parish of Hawkesbury, upper division of the hundred of Grumbalds Ash, in the county of Gloucester, 1 mile to the N. of Great Badminton."

"SADDLEWOOD, a tything in the parish of Hawkesbury, upper division of Grumbalds-Ash hundred, county Gloucester, 5 miles S.W. of Tetbury. It is in connection with the hamlets of Killcott and Tresham to form a township."

"UPTON, a tything in the parish of Hawkesbury, upper division of Grumbald's-Ash hundred, county Gloucester, 8 miles S.W. of Tetbury."

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