Lower Swell

"LOWER SWELL, a parish in the upper division of Slaughter hundred, county Gloucester, 1 mile W. of Stow-on-the-Wold, its post town, and 4 miles W. of Addlestrop station on the Oxford, Worcester, and Wolverhampton railway. The village is situated near Dorrington Hill and the ancient Fosse Way. In the vicinity are two stones of great antiquity, respectively called Whittlestone and Hoarstone. A mineral spring was discovered here in 1807, and is covered over with a spa house. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol, value £100, in the patronage of Christ Church, Oxford. The church, dedicated to St. Mary the Virgin, is an ancient edifice, originally built in the Early Norman style, but altered in the reign of Henry VII. There is a National school for both sexes, erected in 1851. J. Hudson, Esq., is lord of the manor."

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