Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for DURSLEY

DURSLEY, a small town, a parish, a sub-district, and a district in Gloucester. The town stands at the base of a steep hill, amid very fine scenery, at the terminus of a short branch of the Bristol and Gloucester railway, 5 ½ miles ESE of Berkeley, and 15 SSW of Gloucester. It is irregularly built, and contains many old houses. It was a borough so early as the time of Edward I., but does not appear to have ever been represented in parliament; and it was governed by a chief officer styled præ- positus, who has been succeeded by a bailiff of little authority. It is a seat of petty sessions, and a polling-place; and it has a head post office, ‡ a railway station, two banking offices, a chief inn, a market-house, a church, two dissenting chapels, alms-houses, a workhouse, and charities £179. The market house was built about the year 1738; and has, at its east end, a statue of Queen Anne. The church is later English, beautifully decorated; has a handsome modern Gothic tower at the west end; and includes a chantry-chapel erected, in the time of Henry VI., by Thomas Tanner. Copious springs arise on the south-east side of the churchyard; have a perennial volume of such power as to drive a fulling-mill at about 100 yards distant; and are supposed to have given rise to the name Dursley, as a corruption of dur and ley, signifying "water-meadow." A weekly market is held on Thursday; and fairs are held on 6 May and 4 Dec. A woollen manufacture was formerly carried on, to the extent of employing 115 persons, in 4 mills, in 1838; but has materially declined. The town had Bishop Fox, of Henry VIII. 's time, as a native; and it gives the title of Viscount to the Earl of Berkeley.—The parish comprises 1, 059 acres. Real property, £8, 008; of which £300 are in railways, and £146 in gas-works. Pop., 2, 477. Houses, 550. The property is much subdivided. The manor belonged to the Berkeleys, from Domesday till the time of Richard II.; and passed through the Cantelupes, the Chedders, and others, to the Escorts. A baronial castle of the Berkeleys stood at the north-west end of the town; was pulled down about the time of Queen Mary; and is still-commemorated by vestiges of its moat, and by the name of Castle fields borne by the neighbouring fields. A peculiar kind of building material, called puff-stone, very soft when first excavated, but becoming hard and durable on exposure to the air, is worked. The living is a rectory, united with the p. curacy of Woodmancote, and was till Feb. 1865 annexed to the archd. of Gloucester, in the diocese of Gl. and Bristol. Value, £228.*-The sub-district contains also the parishes of Stinchcombe, Cam, and Slimbridge. Acres, 9, 899. Pop., 5, 106. Houses, 1, 172. The district comprehends also the sub-district of Wotton-under Edge, containing the parishes of Wotton-under-Edge, North Nibley, and Kingswood; and the sub-district of Uley, containing the parishes of Uley, Owlpen, Nymphs-field, and Coaley. Acres, 26, 521. Poor-rates in 1862, £7, 424. Pop. in 1851, 14, 803; in 1861, 13, 331. Houses, 3, 234. Marriages in 1860, 75; births, 383, -of which 27 were illegitimate; deaths, 299, -of which 69 were at ages under 5 years, and 23 at ages above 85. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 850; births, 3, 805; deaths, 2, 977. The places of worship in 1851 were 14 of the Church of England, with 5, 618 sittings; 8 of Independents, with 3, 128 s.; 4 of Baptists, with 1, 173 s.; and 7 of Wesleyan Methodists, with 1, 466 s. The schools were 22 public day schools, with 1, 615 scholars; 33 private day schools, with 581 s.; and 31 Sunday schools, with 3, 217 s.


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

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

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