Stapleton

"STAPLETON, a parish in the hundred of Barton Regis, county Gloucester, 2 miles N.E. of Bristol, of which it may be considered a suburb. The Midland and the Bristol and South Wales Union railways have stations here. This parish is situated at the north-western angle of the South Gloucester and Somerset coalfield, and is bounded on the N. by a range of hills 200 feet high, to which elevation the strata of the coal measures has been lifted up by a mass of millstone grit. It is traversed by the river Frome flowing through a glen, and contains the villages of Stapleton and Fishponds. The hat manufacture formerly carried on has declined, but there is a flock manufactory, coal mines, and stone quarries. The palace of the Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol, the diocesan training institution for National schoolmistresses, and the Clifton union workhouse, &c., are in this parish.

The living is a perpetual curacy* in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol, value £160. The church is dedicated to the Holy Trinity. There is a chapel-of-ease at Fishponds, built by subscription in 1817. A portion of the township is comprised within the ecclesiastical district of Easton. The parochial charities produce about £69, of which £45 go to Mrs. Webb's free school and almshouses. The Wesleyans have a chapel, and the Baptists two. Hannah More was born herein 1744, and died in 1833. Heath House, Stoke Court, Stapleton Grove, and Stapleton House are the principal residences, besides several others."

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