Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for NORTHLEACH

NORTHLEACH, a small town, a parish, and a district in Gloucester. The town stands among the Cotswolds, on the Fosse way, 1 mile N E of the Salt way, ½a mile E S E of the Seven Springs, the source of the river Leach, 5½ miles S W of Bourton-on-the-Water r.station, and 10 N E of Cirencester; was given by King Etheldred to Gloucester abbey, and by Henry VIII. to the Daltons; had once a corporation, but is now governedby a bailiff, elected annually at a court-leet; flourished long as a seat of cloth manufacture; went afterwards intodecay; consists now chiefly of one long irregularly-builtstreet; is a seat of petty sessions and county courts, and a polling-place; and has a post-office‡ under Cheltenham, a banking office, a good inn, a police station, a county house of detention, a church, Independent and Wesleyan chapels, a free grammar school, a national school, two suites of alms-houses for respectively six men and sixwomen, and several other charities. The church is later English; consists of nave, aisles, and chancel, with beautiful arched W porch, and lofty embattled tower; and contains an ancient font, and a number of rich brasses. The Independent chapel was built in 1860, and contains about 350 sittings. The grammar school was founded in 1607, by H. Westwood, Esq.; was enlarged and alteredinto a middle class school; and has £600 a year from endowment, and an exhibition at Pembroke college, Oxford. A weekly market is held on Wednesday; stock fairs are held on the Wednesday before 4 May and the first Wednesday of Sept.; hiring fairs are held on the Wednesday before and the Wednesday after 11 Oct.; and much business is done, especially once a year, in connexion with flocks of Cotswold sheep and herds of short-horned Hereford cattle, which abound in the neighbourhood and are held in high repute. Pop. of the town, 962. Houses, 195. The parish contains also the tything of Eastington, and comprises 3, 460 acres. Real property, £6, 294. Pop., 1, 404. Houses, 269. The manor belongs to Mr. Stevens. The parish is a meet for the Cheltenham staghounds. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol. Value, £270.* Patron, the Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol.

The district is divided into the sub-district of Bibury, containing the parishes of Northleach, Aldsworth, Coln, St. Aldwins, Farmington, Sherborne, Windrush, Little Barrington, East-Leach-Turville, East-Leach-Martin, Southrop, and the greater part of Bibury; and the sub-district of Chedworth, containing the parishes of Chedworth, Coln, St. Denis, Coln-Rogers, Compton-Abdale, Withington, Dowdeswell, Whittington, Sevenhampton, Shipton-Sollars, Shipton-Oliffe, Salperton, Hazleton, Stowell, Hampnett, Turkdean, and Aston-Blank, and the chapelry of Winson. Acres, 67, 647. Poor rates in 1863, £5,040. Pop. in 1851, 10, 984; in 1861, 10, 895. Houses, 2, 274. Marriages in 1863, 72; births, 389, of which31 were illegitimate; deaths, 181, of which 59 were at ages under 5 years, and 8 at ages above 85. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 722; births, 3, 415; deaths, 2,063. The places of worship, in 1851, were 30 of the Church of England, with 5, 580 sittings; 3 of Independents, with 382 s.; 7 of Baptists, with 735 s.; 3 of Wesleyan Methodists, with 346 s.; 2 of Primitive Methodists, with 120 s.; 1 undefined, with 100 s.; and 1 of Latter Day Saints, with 50 s. The schools were 27 publicday schools, with 1,120 scholars; 13 private day schools, with 221 s.; 34 Sunday schools, with 1, 656 s.; and 1evening school for adults, with 4 s. The workhouse is in Eastington; has capacity for 200 persons; and, at the census of 1861, had 89 inmates.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a small town, a parish, and a district"   (ADL Feature Type: "cities")
Administrative units: Northleach CP/AP       Northleach RegD/PLU       Gloucestershire AncC
Place: Northleach

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