NORTH NIBLEY, Gloucestershire - Extract from National Gazetteer, 1868

"NORTH NIBLEY, a parish in the hundred of Upper Berkeley, county Gloucester, 2 miles N.W. of Wotton-under-Edge, its post town, 3 N.E. of Charfield, and the same distance S.W. of Dursley. The village is of considerable antiquity, and was formerly famed for the manufacture of woollen cloth, but this industry has considerably declined. The soil is loamy, on a subsoil of blue clay. Stone is quarried for building purposes.

The right to the manor was litigated between the families of Lord Berkeley and Lord Lisle for nearly 200 years, during which William, Lord Berkeley, and Thomas, Lord Lisle, had recourse to arms to decide their right; and on 20th May, 1470, both parties met on Nibley Green with their respective followers, amounting to about 1,000 men, of whom 150 fell in the combat, and amongst them Lord Lisle, who was shot in the mouth with an arrow, which decided the contest.

The living is a perpetual curacy in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol, value £160, in the patronage of Corpus Christi College, Oxford. The church, dedicated to St. Martin, is an ancient stone structure. The interior was restored in 1850, and a new stone font presented. The parochial charities produce about £5 per annum. There is a boys' endowed school, also a mixed school, supported by subscriptions. The Wesleyans and the Independents have each a place of worship. Earl Fitzhardinge is lord of the manor."

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