Gloucester: Outlying hamlets

OUTLYING HAMLETS

Outside Gloucester but included in the parishes of some of its churches lay the hamlets of Barton Street, Kingsholm, Longford, Tuffley, Twigworth, and Wotton. (fn. 1) With the extraparochial places of Littleworth, North Hamlet, South Hamlet, and the vill of Wotton, which intermixed with them, they comprised an area of over 5,000 a. (2,023 ha.) in the early 19th century. It was irregular in shape and had many detached pieces, the complex boundary arising from the sharing of common fields and meadows with neighbouring parishes, particularly Barnwood and Upton St. Leonards. The main part, within which were many detached pieces of neighbouring parishes, lay east of the river Severn's eastern channel and in the south took in the west side of Robins Wood Hill. In places it was bounded by watercourses, including the Hatherley or Broadboard brook on parts of the north, the Sud brook on the southeast at Saintbridge, and Daniel's brook on part of the south-west. (fn. 2)

The origins of the hamlets are obscure. The complex boundaries between them suggest an early division of land between the six principal settlements in the area. Except in the case of Tuffley they correlated little with the parochial and manorial boundaries, which evidently derived from ancient divisions of land between the Crown, Gloucester Abbey, and St. Oswald's church. Much, though not all, of the extraparochial land belonged at one time to Llanthony Priory. The account printed here covers the hamlets, the extraparochial places, and Saintbridge, which was anciently part of Upton St. Leonards but was later absorbed by the city. Some pieces of South Hamlet islanded within or closely interconnected with Hempsted are treated with that parish below. This account describes the history of manors, agriculture, mills, and early local government. It also deals with early settlement in the area, apart from the suburbs of Gloucester in inner Barton Street and Littleworth, which are treated above with the city. Suburban growth of Gloucester into the hamlets after c. 1800 and related aspects of their history, including churches, schools, and public services, are also treated above.

The boundaries of the hamlets were defined at inclosure in 1799 and later. The parochial division within them was complex: Tuffley, most of Barton Street and Wotton, and parts of Kingsholm, Longford, and Twigworth were in St. Mary de Lode parish; most of Kingsholm and Twigworth and parts of Longford and Wotton were in St. Catherine's (earlier St. Oswald's) parish; and parts of Barton Street were in St. Michael's parish. (fn. 3) St. Mary de Lode parish originally represented the lands of Gloucester Abbey (fn. 4) but the intricate boundary in Kingsholm, Longford, and Twigworth between it and St. Catherine's, confirmed in a mid 16th-century perambulation, was achieved by a division between the land belonging to houses respectively east and west of the main road leading northwards from Gloucester. (fn. 5)

In Barton Street the boundary between St. Mary de Lode and St. Michael's parishes, said in the early 18th century to follow the main road leading south-eastwards from the city, (fn. 6) was also irregular (fn. 7) and was used to divide Barton Street for civil purposes by the late 17th. (fn. 8) Barton St. Mary, the part of Barton Street in St. Mary's parish, contained c. 700 a. (c. 283 ha.) and took in much of the land on both sides of the road in an area extending from Gloucester to the Sud brook. It also had detached pieces at Saintbridge and elsewhere around the city, including some within Churchdown to the north-east, and part of Oxlease on Alney Island, west of Gloucester, belonged to it. (fn. 9) Barton St. Michael, the part of Barton Street in St. Michael's parish, comprised c. 500 a. (c. 202 ha.). It intermingled with Barton St. Mary and had detached pieces within Upton St. Leonards to the south-east. (fn. 10)

Kingsholm included c. 160 a. (c. 65 ha.) north of Gloucester and in detached pieces to the north and north-east, to the south-east at Wotton, and within Upton. (fn. 11) Longford comprised 897 a. (363 ha.); most of it lay north of Kingsholm in an area including several pieces of Sandhurst and extending eastwards to Innsworth and Longlevens, and there were detached pieces to the north, to the south and south-east of Gloucester, and within Upton. (fn. 12) Twigworth covered 426 a. (172.5 ha.) in a compact area north of Longford and in detached pieces to the south near Kingsholm, to the north between Norton and Sandhurst, and to the east within Down Hatherley. (fn. 13)

Wotton took in much land north-east of Gloucester in an area extending to Longlevens and Innsworth and had detached pieces around the city, within Barnwood to the south-east, and within Upton, Churchdown, and Sandhurst. Wotton St. Mary, the part of the hamlet in St. Mary de Lode parish, covered 826 a. (334.5 ha.), while Wotton St. Catherine, the part in St. Catherine's parish, had only a few houses at Wotton. (fn. 14) Under the Extraparochial Places Act of 1857 some extraparochial houses and land at Wotton were annexed to Wotton St. Mary, (fn. 15) which at an inclosure in 1867 was allotted new pieces of land within Sandhurst. (fn. 16)

Tuffley lay 3 km. south of Gloucester, apart from the other hamlets, and shared open fields with neighbouring parishes. In the early 19th century it covered c. 770 a. (c. 312 ha.), the main part running up the west side of Robins Wood Hill to just below the summit. There were detached pieces on the east side of the hill, to the north and north-west, and within Quedgeley to the south and south-west. (fn. 17) The southern boundary was regularized at inclosure in 1866 to leave Tuffley with 765 a. (309.5 ha.). (fn. 18)

The extraparochial places of Littleworth, North Hamlet, South Hamlet, and the vill of Wotton became parishes under the Extraparochial Places Act of 1857. (fn. 19) Littleworth, recorded from 1665, (fn. 20) covered 12½ a. (4.25 ha.) south of Gloucester in and east of the Bristol road; (fn. 21) described sometimes as a hamlet, it was also known as Lower Southgate Street in the later 17th century and in the 18th. (fn. 22) The vill of Southgate Street mentioned c. 1500 (fn. 23) was probably the area called Southgate which by 1558 formed a separate tithing with Woolstrop, a hamlet of Quedgeley. (fn. 24) Both Littleworth and Southgate may once have belonged to St. Owen's parish. (fn. 25)

North Hamlet, recorded from the early 18th century, (fn. 26) comprised miscellaneous parts, namely Gloucester castle (later the county prison) on the south-west side of Gloucester, a small island called the Naight in the Severn's eastern channel just below the castle, part of Pool Meadow on Alney Island, pieces at Wotton including the hospitals of St. Margaret and St. Mary Magdalen, (fn. 27) and a piece near Over Mill. (fn. 28) The area in 1870 was 26 a. (10.25 ha.). (fn. 29) In the early 19th century part of Castle Meads on Alney Island and the tithes of Meanham north of Gloucester paid land tax as parts of North Hamlet, but Castle Meads belonged to St. Nicholas's parish and Meanham to St. Catherine's. (fn. 30)

South Hamlet, recorded from 1755, (fn. 31) had an area of 634 a. (260 ha.). (fn. 32) It was formed principally by land of the Llanthony and Sheephouse estates, which had once belonged to Llanthony Priory and presumably to the parish of St. Owen. (fn. 33) The main part, irregular in shape, lay south of Gloucester and Littleworth and centred on the site of the priory. To the west a large portion extended to the river Severn north and west of Hempsted village and to the south-east a detached portion extended beyond the Gloucester-Bristol road towards Tuffley. The many detached pieces also included parts of Sud Meadow, south-west of Gloucester, and land south-west of Hempsted village and near Wotton. (fn. 34) The Llanthony estate, which in the 18th century was sometimes treated on its own for civil purposes, (fn. 35) paid tithes to Hempsted from 1662, and in the early 19th century South Hamlet was occasionally described as a hamlet of that parish. (fn. 36)

The vill of Wotton, which may once have been part of Wotton hamlet, (fn. 37) had been formed by 1776 from small fragments of land belonging to St. Bartholomew's Hospital; most were at Wotton and some within Barnwood and Sandhurst. (fn. 38) At inclosure in 1799 small pieces, mostly allotted for tithes belonging to St. Mary Magdalen's Hospital, were assigned to the vill, (fn. 39) which in the early 19th century had 59 a. (24 ha.). (fn. 40)

Much of the land in the hamlets and extraparochial places was added to Gloucester in the 19th and 20th centuries. Littleworth and parts of Barton St. Mary, Barton St. Michael, Wotton St. Mary, and South Hamlet came within the city in 1835 when its boundary was extended on the south and south-east. (fn. 41) All the hamlets except Twigworth and all the former extraparochial places lost parts to the city in 1874, when the county asylum and prison remained in Gloucestershire, forming within the city islands of 42 a. and 4 a. respectively. (fn. 42) The boundaries of the hamlets and former extraparochial places and those of adjoining parishes were rationalized in 1882 and 1885. At the latter date Barton St. Michael, North Hamlet, and the vill of Wotton were dismembered and Kingsholm St. Mary, which had anciently been attached to St. Mary de Lode, and Longford St. Catherine and Longford St. Mary, into which Longford had been divided for civil purposes, also disappeared; Barton St. Mary, St. Catherine with Kingsholm St. Catherine, South Hamlet, and Wotton St. Mary were re-formed as civil parishes within the municipal boundary, with Wotton St. Mary being designated Wotton St. Mary (Within); the areas north and north-east of the city were included in the new civil parishes of Longford and Wotton St. Mary (Without); and Tuffley and Twigworth formed civil parishes. Walham and Sud Meadow, the principal meadows in which several hamlets had shared, were included in Longford and Hempsted respectively, and that part of Oxlease outside the city in Maisemore. (fn. 43) In 1896 Gloucester's civil parishes and St. Nicholas Without, a parish created from the prison in 1894, were merged in a single parish. The asylum had been detached from Wotton St. Mary (Within) in 1894 to form the civil parish of Wotton Vill; a small part was added to Gloucester in 1910 and the rest in 1951. (fn. 44)

Tuffley parish was dismembered in 1900 when the northern part was absorbed by Gloucester. The rest, transferred to Quedgeley and Whaddon, (fn. 45) was added to Gloucester in 1935 along with parts of Longford, Maisemore, and Wotton St. Mary (Without). The remainder of Wotton St. Mary (Without), save for a few acres given to Barnwood and Churchdown, was included with parts of Barnwood, Churchdown, and Hucclecote in the new civil parish of Longlevens, north-east of Gloucester. Parts of Longlevens were added to Gloucester in 1951 and in 1967 when the remainder was re-formed as Innsworth civil parish. In 1967 part of Longford was also transferred to Gloucester and a minor boundary adjustment made to the remainder. (fn. 46) In 1983 most of the land of the former hamlets and extraparochial places not absorbed by Gloucester was in Innsworth, Longford, and Twigworth civil parishes.

Upton St. Leonards, which lies south-east of Gloucester, anciently extended north-westwards to the Sud brook at Saintbridge and had many detached pieces around Gloucester, including several in Barton Street and Sud Meadow. (fn. 47) The irregularities in its boundaries were removed in 1882 and 1885; at the latter date the pieces within the city boundary from 1874 were transferred to Barton St. Mary. Land at Saintbridge was added to Gloucester in 1900 and 1935. (fn. 48)

The area is flat and lies at under 30 m., except in the south-east where it included part of a low rise at Coney Hill and in the south where it runs up almost to the summit at 198 m. of Robins Wood Hill, an outlier of the Cotswolds. The land lies mostly on the Lower Lias, on which are large deposits of gravel, but bordering the Severn, which is liable to flood, it is formed by alluvium. Robins Wood Hill is formed by strata of Marlstone, the Upper Lias, sand, and the Inferior Oolite. At Saintbridge (formerly Sandbridge) is a small area of alluvium. (fn. 49) The gravel at Kingsholm was worked for many years before 1819. (fn. 50)

The names of Tuffley and Wotton indicate that parts of the area were once thickly wooded. (fn. 51) Sutgrove or Sudgrove, recorded in the mid 12th century, was a wood south of Gloucester towards Tuffley. It had disappeared by 1593. (fn. 52) In 1086 Gloucester Abbey had a wood measuring 5 furlongs by 3 furlongs near Gloucester. (fn. 53) It probably represented woodland in Tuffley in which the abbot claimed free warren in 1287. (fn. 54) In the later 17th century Tuffley manor had a park on the south-west side of Robins Wood Hill. (fn. 55) In the early 18th century Tuffley remained heavily wooded and there were many woods and groves north-east of Gloucester, (fn. 56) where a small wood was recorded at Paygrove in the early 12th century. (fn. 57) At Twigworth a park mentioned in 1437 belonged to Kingsholm manor. (fn. 58) Much of the land of the hamlets was in open fields and common riverine meadows, principally Walham and Sud Meadow to the north and south-west of Gloucester respectively. Inclosure was a gradual process, which culminated in 1799 in parliamentary inclosure of a large area north and east of Gloucester. It was completed south and southwest of the city in 1815 and in Tuffley in 1866. (fn. 59) In 1983 the land in agricultural use was mainly pasture.

Above Gloucester the easternmost of the Severn's three channels, flowing near Kingsholm, was allowed to silt up at an early date and in 1799 was represented east of Walham by a strip of land called Tween Dyke and west of Kingsholm by a brook called the Old Severn; (fn. 60) Tween Dyke was in 1607 described as a highway but later was a common meadow, sometimes called Queen Dyke. (fn. 61) Just below Gloucester the Naight ceased to be an island during the building of a canal basin in the late 18th century. (fn. 62) The hamlets were drained by streams and ditches falling into the Severn. The river Twyver, the principal stream, divided into two channels east of Gloucester, one emerging from the town near Alvin gate before joining the Old Severn near Kingsholm. (fn. 63) The Sud brook, which ran south of Gloucester, was called Mare brook at Saintbridge in 1290. (fn. 64) The course of the Wotton brook north-east of Gloucester was known as the Winter ditch in the early 14th century. (fn. 65)

Main roads radiating from Gloucester ran through the hamlets. The Roman Ermin Street to Cirencester ran eastwards from the outer north gate to Wotton Pitch where it joined the route from Kingsholm; (fn. 66) the latter was known in 1799 as Gallows Road or Lane (fn. 67) and later as Denmark Road. Ermin Street has remained an important thoroughfare, linking Gloucester with London and Oxford, (fn. 68) and in the mid 13th century Wotton and Barnwood were responsible for, and travellers contributed to, the repair of a bridge over the Wotton brook. (fn. 69) Under an Act of 1698 the section between Gloucester and Birdlip together with the Oxford road climbing Crickley Hill in Badgeworth was a turnpike for 20 years, tolls being collected by the county justices to supplement parish highway rates. Those roads were turnpiked again between 1723, when trustees were appointed to administer them, (fn. 70) and 1871. (fn. 71) Gloucester corporation was responsible for maintaining the section between the city boundary and Wotton Pitch by 1651 (fn. 72) and until 1848. (fn. 73)

Gloucester was linked with Cheltenham and Winchcombe by a road leading north-eastwards from Ermin Street at Wotton Pitch. (fn. 74) In the mid 13th century Gloucester Abbey and the archbishop of York had responsibility for maintaining Cole bridge, which carried the road over the Wotton brook. (fn. 75) The road, which in the mid 16th century provided an alternative route to Tewkesbury, (fn. 76) was called Gallows Lane in the late 17th century, (fn. 77) a gallows standing near Cole bridge. (fn. 78) The Cheltenham road was turnpiked between 1756 and 1871. (fn. 79) The Innsworth road, which branched from it near Cole bridge, was known in its south part as Winterditch Road in 1799 (fn. 80) and as Oxstalls Lane later.

The Tewkesbury road ran northwards from Alvin gate through the settlements of Kingsholm, Longford, and Twigworth. (fn. 81) In Kingsholm it was joined by a road from the blind gate, (fn. 82) which in its south part was known in 1803 as Dean's Walk and in its north part in 1722 as Snake Lane (later Edwy Parade). (fn. 83) Bridges and a causeway carried the Tewkesbury road over water courses and low-lying meadows in Longford, which took its name from the crossing. (fn. 84) There was possibly a medieval chapel at the south end of the crossing, where a close east of the road was called Chapel Hay. (fn. 85) Offerings at a wayside cross, recorded nearby from 1501, (fn. 86) belonged to St. Mary de Lode rectory. (fn. 87) In the mid 13th century Longford was responsible for repairing a bridge and the lord of Kingsholm manor one near Twigworth. (fn. 88) The causeway was maintained in 1541 by two men, to whom Robert Gibbs left the reversion of a house. (fn. 89) The Twigworth bridge, for the repair of which Henry III, after crossing it, authorized the levying of tolls in 1251, (fn. 90) presumably spanned the Hatherley brook at the site of Broadboard bridge, recorded in 1824. (fn. 91) The Tewkesbury road was turnpiked between Gloucester and Norton Mill in 1756 under the same Act as the Cheltenham road and ceased to be a turnpike in 1871. (fn. 92) A road which leaves it at Twigworth was part of a lower road to Tewkesbury through Bishop's Norton until the 19th century. (fn. 93)

The Bristol road ran south-westwards from the south gate of Gloucester and in the mid 13th century Llanthony Priory was responsible for repairing the bridge which carried it across the Sud brook. (fn. 94) The road was a turnpike from 1726, when it also linked Gloucester with Bath, (fn. 95) until 1877. (fn. 96) South of the Sud brook a road called Sandy Lane in 1777 branched eastwards to join an old route from Barton Street. (fn. 97) That route, known in its north part as Barton Lane (later Park Road and Parkend Road), (fn. 98) ran south-westwards to Tuffley, where it crossed the lower slopes of Robins Wood Hill, and on to Edge in Painswick and Paganhill in Stroud. (fn. 99) Millbrook Street, which runs northwards from Barton Street, follows the line of Goosewhite Lane, recorded in the early 13th century and known later as Goose Lane. (fn. 100)

The road running south-eastwards from Gloucester's east gate along Barton Street once forked just north of the Sud brook at Saintbridge with one road, perhaps that known as Dancers Lane in the late 13th century, (fn. 101) apparently running south-eastwards over the Wheatridge towards Upton St. Leonards. The other, more important, road ran southwards to cross the brook, some way beyond which it forked in Upton for Cranham and Painswick. (fn. 102) In the mid 13th century Upton, Saintbridge, Matson, Sneedham, and Cranham were responsible for, and travellers contributed to, the repair of the bridge at Saintbridge. (fn. 103) Nearby, at a fork just north of the brook, the road passed a chapel or hermitage, (fn. 104) the lessee of which under a grant of 1531 was to spend 26s. 8d. a year on repairs to the highway between the town gate and Upton church. (fn. 105) The bridge presumably took the name of Mary bridge, recorded in 1589, (fn. 106) from the chapel. From c. 1672 the rent of a house left by John Wyman was used for the repair of the road between the bridge and the site of Abbot's Barton manor nearer the city (fn. 107) and in 1860 the county justices ordered repairs to be made to the bridge. (fn. 108) The Painswick road, which also linked Gloucester with Stroud, was administered as a turnpike by the trustees of the 1726 Act but their powers were disputed. An Act of 1746 confirmed the turnpiking of the section between the east gate and the top of Painswick Hill, (fn. 109) and in 1778 the road was placed under a separate trust. (fn. 110) The road was a turnpike until 1876, (fn. 111) but because of its steepness carriage traffic between Gloucester and Stroud at the beginning of the 19th century preferred the longer route by way of the Bristol road and Stonehouse. (fn. 112) A new Stroud road through Pitchcombe was built under an Act of 1818. (fn. 113) It left the Bristol road at the Sud brook, Sandy Lane being closed in 1822, and followed the Tuffley road for part of its course. (fn. 114) It remained a turnpike until 1875. (fn. 115)

The low-lying land outside Gloucester was not suitable for early settlement, which until the early 19th century remained small and mostly restricted to the main roads. (fn. 116) Kingsholm, which had been the site of a Roman military base at a passage of the Severn before the foundation of Gloucester, (fn. 117) lies 1 km. NNE. of the Cross. It was also the site of an Anglo-Saxon royal palace, which stood between the Old Severn and the Sandhurst road. The palace later became a manor house and was demolished before 1591. (fn. 118) In 1327 three men were assessed for the subsidy in Kingsholm, (fn. 119) which in the later 13th century included several houses scattered along the Tewkesbury road, then known as Kingsholm Street. (fn. 120) That occupied by a man surnamed 'atte vineyard' in 1304 presumably stood north of the river Twyver, where a vineyard was later recorded. (fn. 121) Most building took place around the junction of the Twkesbury road with the Sandhurst and Wotton roads where settlement remained predominantly rural in the early 17th century. It included the medieval White Barn north of the Wotton road (fn. 122) (later Gallows Lane), at the entrance to which had once been a green, (fn. 123) perhaps that belonging to the lord of Kingsholm manor in 1304. (fn. 124) To the south-west, by the road to the blind gate, was Tulwell, the site of a manor (fn. 125) described in the mid 14th century as a hamlet of St. Oswald's parish. (fn. 126) At the beginning of the siege of 1643 eleven houses and a barn at Kingsholm were fired or pulled down along with houses nearer the city, (fn. 127) and in 1672 only eight houses, one of them new, were assessed for hearth tax in Kingsholm. (fn. 128) In 1801 Kingsholm had a population of 139 in 30 houses, (fn. 129) most of which were replaced or demolished when the area was absorbed by Gloucester. The oldest surviving buildings are an 18th-century cottage on the Sandhurst road and a house, which dates from the 18th century, north of Kingsholm Square. A pound in the angle of the Tewkesbury and Sandhurst roads, recorded from 1607, (fn. 130) was maintained by the lord of King's Barton manor. (fn. 131) Following the erection of a tollhouse on that corner in 1822 the pound was moved to Gallows Lane. (fn. 132) In 1755 Kingsholm had two victuallers; (fn. 133) one kept the White Hart in 1778 (fn. 134) and the other presumably the Red Lion, recorded from the early 18th century. (fn. 135)

On the Sandhurst road outside Kingsholm a cottage was remodelled in the 1830s. (fn. 136) Further north two houses called Frogcastle in 1745 (fn. 137) formed a single dwelling by the end of the century. (fn. 138) It was destroyed by fire in 1983. A farmstead opposite dates from the 19th century. To the west in Walham in the early 19th century a farmstead was built where the Twyver joined the Severn, (fn. 139) and in the late 1830s there was a riverside inn higher up called the Jolly Waterman (fn. 140) and probably another, later called the Globe, at a public wharf alongside the Sandhurst road. (fn. 141) The latter inn closed in the 1970s. (fn. 142)

On the Tewkesbury road north of Kingsholm a house was converted into three cottages in the early 19th century. (fn. 143) Further north in Longford there was a small early settlement at the south end of the causeway, where a medieval cross and possibly a chapel stood. There was evidently a house there by the early 13th century, when a man surnamed of the plock was recorded, (fn. 144) and Plock Court, east of the road, occupied the site of a medieval manor house. (fn. 145) In the later 18th century the buildings opposite included a farm house belonging to the Gloucester poor-relief corporation and an inn recorded in 1799. (fn. 146)

The main part of Longford village lies 2 km. NNE. of Gloucester Cross along the causeway carrying the road between the Wotton and Horsbere brooks. It presumably included most of the 18 people assessed for the subsidy in Longford in 1327 (fn. 147) and most of the 26 houses assessed for hearth tax there in 1672. (fn. 148) The village had several farmhouses and other substantial residences in the late 18th century, (fn. 149) when R. B. Cheston, a Gloucester surgeon and aspiring landowner, built his seat there and the road and the village's appearance were improved. (fn. 150) In the north Manor Farm includes a timber-framed farmhouse with an early 18th-century brick wing. Longford Court dates from a late 18th-century rebuilding of the Olive family's farmhouse, which had been an inn. (fn. 151) Longford Lodge also dates from the 18th century when it was the centre of an estate which the Hyett family had inherited from the Webbs. (fn. 152) In the south Pleasure Farm, an early 18th-century brick farmhouse which in 1799 belonged to Anthony Ellis, (fn. 153) was used as a lorry depot for several years before 1983 when it was demolished to make room for a housing estate. In 1801 Longford St. Catherine and Longford St. Mary together had 36 houses with a population of 166. (fn. 154) Many buildings in Longford village date from the 19th century, including the Queen's Head inn, which had opened by 1851, (fn. 155) and in the 20th century the village's appearance was much altered by the building of houses for people working in Gloucester.

Twigworth village

Twigworth village, which is scattered along the Twekesbury road 4 km. NNE. of the Cross, had been founded by the early 13th century (fn. 156) and had a medieval chapel. (fn. 157) In 1327 only four people were assessed for the subsidy in Twigworth, (fn. 158) and the village remained small. In 1672 there were 13 houses assessed for hearth tax (fn. 159) and in 1801 there were 13 houses with a population of 59. (fn. 160) The main concentration of buildings, at the fork of the former lower road to Tewkesbury, includes a thatched timber-framed farmhouse of the early 17th century called the Manor House, (fn. 161) and a brick farmhouse of the 18th century. Opposite is a 17th-century timber-framed cottage. Some way north-east of the main group Court Farm comprises a timber-framed farmhouse and barn of the 17th century. Twigworth Court, the largest house, stands south-west of the main group and dates from a rebuilding of a farmhouse; it has large ranges of farm buildings. (fn. 162) The Dayhouse, a farmhouse recorded from 1607, was 1 km. to the south-west on the site of Twigworth Lodge, (fn. 163) which dates from a 19th-century rebuilding and was a hotel by the late 1970s. A number of houses were added to Twigworth in the 19th century, and a church was built on the main road towards Longford in 1842 and a vicarage house and school were built nearby in the 1850s. In the early 1980s, though there was a large caravan park in the village, Twigworth remained rural in character.

Wotton

Wotton was an early settlement on Ermin Street 1.5 km. ENE. of the Cross. In 1327 fourteen people were assessed for the subsidy in Wotton. (fn. 164) Wotton Pitch, where Ermin Street is joined by the Kingsholm and Cheltenham roads, was originally called Dudstone and was evidently the ancient meeting place of that hundred. (fn. 165) The hospital of St. Mary Magdalen stood to the south and that of St. Margaret lower down towards Gloucester. (fn. 166) By the early 18th century two mansions had been built near Wotton Pitch, Wotton Court to the east and Wotton House to the south-east. John Blanch, a clothier who bought the Wotton Court estate in 1683, (fn. 167) had by 1723 advanced a scheme to make Wotton a centre for the cloth and stocking trade and built at Wotton Pitch five houses and, for use as an exchange, a large inn. The inn, on the corner of the Cheltenham road and known in 1726 as the Golden Fleece (fn. 168) (later the Fleece), was of three storeys. The houses formed a brick terrace north of the Cirencester road; (fn. 169) later in the century the east part was replaced by a grander house and the west part was used as a tollhouse until 1792. (fn. 170) A house built south of Wotton Court in the 18th century was enlarged to the south in the 19th. (fn. 171)

Wotton, which in the mid 16th century included a great messuage called Seger's Lane or Place, (fn. 172) expanded eastwards along Ermin Street towards Barnwood at an early date. The Old Rectory, in the east end of Wotton, occupies the site of a farmhouse called Colliers, which belonged in the early 17th century to the Capel family (fn. 173) and was acquired for St. Aldate's rectory in 1759. (fn. 174) It was rebuilt in the mid 19th century, and some fittings were brought from the Tolsey in the early 1890s. (fn. 175) Further east the Old House incorporates a 17th-century timber-framed farmhouse, once probably L-shaped in plan, and 18th-century brick additions to the front and back. In 1755 Wotton had five victuallers. (fn. 176) The Plough alehouse recorded in 1750 was probably in Wotton. (fn. 177) The Swan at Wotton, which by 1750 occupied a building west of Colliers belonging to Barnwood, (fn. 178) closed in the late 1780s. (fn. 179) It had been the home of Mary Cole, who married Frederick Augustus Berkeley, earl of Berkeley, in 1796, an alleged earlier marriage resulting in the Berkeley peerage case of 1810. (fn. 180) Wotton, which had 28 houses with a population of 156 in 1801, (fn. 181) was thereafter subject to suburban development and most earlier buildings disappeared. The Fleece was demolished in 1964. (fn. 182)

On the Cheltenham road north-east of Wotton there was a farmhouse at Wellsprings in 1722. (fn. 183) The place was known as Puckstool in the mid 1780s when the farmhouse, which had been rebuilt, was an inn. (fn. 184) Early settlement at Innsworth north-east of Gloucester may have included the Norman's house recorded in 1126; (fn. 185) it presumably stood near the Horsbere brook, which was called Norman's brook in the early 16th century. (fn. 186) There were two early farmsteads at Innsworth. Drymeadow Farm was called Wicks Hay in 1640 when it belonged to Edward Capel, a Bristol merchant. (fn. 187) It was later rebuilt in brick and in 1983 the buildings were mainly derelict. Paygrove or Plackets Farm, by the Horsbere brook, (fn. 188) may have belonged to James Elly, an attorney, in 1724. (fn. 189) In 1779 its owner was Luke Hook, (fn. 190) master of Sir Thomas Rich's school, Gloucester. (fn. 191) In the 19th century several farmhouses and cottages were built at Innsworth, including Innsworth Farm, (fn. 192) demolished in the mid 20th century to make room for a housing estate, and Innsworth House Farm, which was new in 1870. (fn. 193) Field Farm, east of Longford, had been built by the early 1880s. (fn. 194)

Barton Street

Barton Street grew up outside Gloucester's east gate along the road on which were the bartons of manors of the Crown and Gloucester Abbey. (fn. 195) The inner part west of the Tuffley road formed an early suburb of Gloucester with which it is treated above. Settlement further out on Barton Street had apparently started by the 13th century when the Fokett family owned land there. (fn. 196) In the 1590s it extended beyond a bend in the road at the junction of a lane (later India Road), where several dwellings belonged to Upton St. Leonards. (fn. 197) One called the World's End in 1658 was later divided into three dwellings, which included the Red Lion inn in 1780; (fn. 198) by that time the World's End was used as the name of the area. (fn. 199) The India House, recorded there in 1780, was later an inn. (fn. 200) A house in which Alderman Lawrence Wilshire (d. 1612) lived (fn. 201) was probably that east of Goose Lane (later Millbrook Street) which Robert Halford had acquired by 1653. (fn. 202) Known later as Lower Barton House, it was demolished in the mid 1880s. (fn. 203) In the mid 18th century two farmhouses were built in outer Barton Street, (fn. 204) where in the 1770s houses were strung out along the road to the World's End. Further out was a dwelling called the Rudge House in 1789 and cottages extended along the south-west side of the road as far as one which in 1799 was the Chequers inn. There were also a few cottages in nearby Mop Lane (later Upton Street). (fn. 205) The pound in Barton Street in 1637 (fn. 206) may have been that for Dudstone hundred moved to waste ground opposite the Tuffley road in 1778. (fn. 207) On the Tuffley road there was an outlying homestead south of the Sud brook in 1731. (fn. 208) In 1801 Barton St. Mary and Barton St. Michael together had 136 houses with a population of 697, (fn. 209) most of it presumably in the city's older suburbs. In outer Barton Street, where there was considerable suburban development from the mid 19th century, the only early dwelling to survive in 1983 was an 18th-century brick building.

Further along the road at Saintbridge there was a small settlement south of the Sud brook in Upton parish in the late 12th century. (fn. 210) In 1327 ten people were assessed for the subsidy at Saintbridge, (fn. 211) which was described as a vill c. 1500 (fn. 212) and was joined temporarily to Matson parish between 1656 and 1660. (fn. 213) At the junction of a road known in 1290 as Bull Lane (later Cottes-wold Road) (fn. 214) stands a large house, partly timberframed and partly brick and probably 17th century in origin. East of the main road Saintbridge House dates from an early 19thcentury rebuilding. (fn. 215) Several buildings, including a farmhouse north of Saintbridge House, were demolished in the mid 20th century to make way for housing estates. (fn. 216) West of Saintbridge there was evidently a dwelling below Robins Wood Hill in 1531 on the site of the farmhouse called Boddenhams (fn. 217) in 1619, when John Robins bought it from the owners of Upton St. Leonards manor. (fn. 218) It later belonged to the Hyett family and was known as Starveall or Tredworth Farm in 1780. (fn. 219) It was demolished in the mid 20th century to make way for housing. (fn. 220) In the north-east corner of Upton towards Hucclecote a farmstead called the New House in 1799 (fn. 221) was presumably on the site of a tenement of the same name, which belonged to St. Oswald's Priory in 1498 (fn. 222) and was described as in Hucclecote when the Crown alienated it in 1575. (fn. 223) In the 19th century it was known as Botton Farm (fn. 224) and in the early 20th included a brick farmhouse. (fn. 225)

There was little early settlement in the area included in South Hamlet, which in 1801 had 8 houses and a population of 60. (fn. 226) The principal buildings were those at the site of Llanthony Priory, west of the Bristol road, (fn. 227) and, some way east of the road, the priory's sheephouse which later became the centre of an estate. (fn. 228) Of the farmhouses of that estate (fn. 229) one near the Tuffley road, described in 1632 as new and known later as the Upper Sheephouse, was cased in brick c. 1800 when the west end was extended or rebuilt (fn. 230) and later became a private residence. Another to the north on the Tuffley road at Sutgrove, where there had been an habitation in the early 13th century, (fn. 231) was built in the 18th century. It was demolished in 1984 following a fire. Opposite a farmstead belonging to Tuffley manor (fn. 232) included a 19th-century farmhouse, which survives as a private residence. Further south a small farmhouse built for the rector of Matson's glebe estate in the early 19th century (fn. 233) was demolished in the 20th.

Early settlement in Tuffley, which lies 3.5 km. south of Gloucester Cross, was scattered. In 1672 it included 17 houses assessed for hearth tax (fn. 234) and c. 1710 it comprised 26 houses with an estimated population of 110. (fn. 235) In 1801 Tuffley had 18 houses with a population of 112. (fn. 236) Most of the dwellings were strung out along the road crossing the west side of Robins Wood Hill, (fn. 237) where a 17th-century farmhouse, which became a lodge to a late 19th-century house, (fn. 238) comprises a long timber-framed range with a south cross wing. The focal point was at the junction with Tuffley Lane, from which a green extended southwards along the main road until inclosure in 1866. (fn. 239) Near the junction was Tuffley Court, a farmhouse which replaced an ancient manor house higher up the hill. (fn. 240) An inn recorded from 1779 opposite Tuffley Lane (fn. 241) was presumably kept by the victualler licensed in Tuffley in 1755. (fn. 242) There were some cottages at the south end of the green by 1824. (fn. 243) In the west at Lower Tuffley there were several farmhouses and cottages by the mid 17th century. (fn. 244) Most of the early houses in Tuffley were replaced or rebuilt following the break-up of the Tuffley Court estate in 1867. (fn. 245) In the 20th century Tuffley was subject to considerable suburban development, and in 1983 only one farmhouse, a 19th-century building south-east of Lower Tuffley, remained in use.

MANORS AND OTHER ESTATES.

A statement that Offa, king of the Mercians, gave 10 hides at Innsworth to Glastonbury Abbey (Som.) in 794 is uncorroborated. (fn. 246)

The royal manor of BARTON comprised 9 hides without its members in 1066 and included ½ hide in Droitwich (Worcs.), said in 1086 to belong to the hall of Gloucester. (fn. 247) By 1244 the manor was held at farm by Gloucester Abbey (fn. 248) and was called KING'S BARTON to distinguish it from the Barton estate held by the abbey in its own right. It included property in many of the hamlets and parishes outside Gloucester. (fn. 249) In 1265, the abbey having failed to pay the farm because of the civil wars, the Crown granted King's Barton at farm to Roger de Clifford. (fn. 250) The abbey became the farmer again in 1267 but in 1273 the estate was assigned with the town and castle in dower to Henry III's widow, Eleanor of Provence, (fn. 251) under whom it was known as Queen's Barton. (fn. 252) In 1299 it was included in the dower of Queen Margaret. Edward II made a grant of the estate in 1318 to his brother Edmund of Woodstock, (fn. 253) and in 1322 committed it during pleasure to Gilbert Talbot and appointed Hugh le Despenser the younger to a superior custody. (fn. 254) King's Barton was granted for life to Queen Isabella in 1327 and the reversion for life to Thomas de Bradeston in 1330. He held it in 1331 (fn. 255) and until 1345 when Edward III granted the manor to Gloucester Abbey at fee farm. (fn. 256) The abbey, which from 1316 also held Dudstone hundred at fee farm, (fn. 257) was granted free warren on the demesne in 1354 (fn. 258) and retained the estate until the Dissolution. (fn. 259)

The Crown, which sold part of the estate to Robert Milner in the later 16th century, granted the manor and the hundred or hundreds of King's Barton and Dudstone in March and August 1611 respectively to the brothers George and Thomas Whitmore of London. (fn. 260) Later that year George apparently released his interest to Thomas (d. c. 1612), who was succeeded by their brother Sir William Whitmore. (fn. 261) Because of his royalist sympathies Sir William's estates were sequestered in 1645. He recovered them and at his death in 1648 King's Barton passed to his second son Richard, who was discharged from the sequestration in 1653. (fn. 262) From Richard (d. 1667) the manor passed to his daughter Catherine. In 1694 she and her husband George Walcot, a London merchant, sold it to her cousin Sir William Whitmore and her nephew William Whitmore of Lower Slaughter, to whom Sir William released his interest in 1695. After William Whitmore's death in 1725 the manor passed first to his widow Elizabeth (d. 1735) and then to his second son William, (fn. 263) who sold it in 1754 or 1755 to Samuel Blackwell of Northaw (Herts.). (fn. 264) By 1769 King's Barton had been acquired by William Singleton (d. 1777), who left it to his widow Anne. In 1780 John Price and Thomas Mitchell held the manor as assignees of Messrs. Walker and Singleton, bankrupts, and by 1784 Edmund Probyn, a mortgagee, was in possession. (fn. 265) The manor, which comprised mainly rents from freehold and copyhold estates and fishing rights in the river Leadon, was sold under a Chancery decree in 1786. (fn. 266) The purchaser was Sir John Guise, Bt., with whose nearby Highnam estate it descended to Sir John Wright Guise. (fn. 267) After his death in 1865 King's Barton passed in the direct line to Sir William Vernon Guise (d. 1887), Sir William Francis George Guise (d. 1920), and Sir Anselm William Edward Guise, who relinquished the remaining manorial rights in 1946. (fn. 268)

The site of King's Barton manor, recorded in Barton Street in the early 13th century, (fn. 269) was let at farm at the Dissolution when it comprised a court house. (fn. 270) It has not been identified.

In the mid 13th century the king's hall at Kingsholm was the centre of an estate held under King's Barton manor by the serjeanty of keeping the door of the king's pantry. (fn. 271) The estate, which was known as the manor of KINGSHOLM by 1287, (fn. 272) included land in Kingsholm, Longford, and Twigworth. (fn. 273) Wybert of the king's hall may have held it in the early 12th century (fn. 274) and Peter of Kingsholm, who was also surnamed of the king's hall, gave it to his son William of Kingsholm in or before 1239. (fn. 275) From William, who was also called William Daubeney, the estate, extended at 2 ploughlands, passed to his son John Daubeney, (fn. 276) who performed the serjeanty at Edward I's coronation. (fn. 277) John Daubeney (d. c. 1304) was succeeded by his son John, a minor. (fn. 278) He settled the manor in 1333 on his marriage, (fn. 279) and his wife Cecily survived him and died in 1345. She was succeeded by John's son Ellis Daubeney, (fn. 280) but William Marsh, whom she had married by 1337, retained a moiety of the manor for life. In 1359 Ellis was licensed to grant his moiety to his son and daughter-in-law, Richard and Joan Daubeney. (fn. 281) They both died in 1361 and were succeeded by Richard's sister Elizabeth, a minor, (fn. 282) to whom William Marsh's moiety had reverted by 1364. (fn. 283) Elizabeth, who married Gilbert Giffard (d. 1373) (fn. 284) and Andrew Walton, had forfeited the manor and been executed by 1388 on conviction for Walton's murder. (fn. 285) Her son and heir John Giffard died a minor in 1392 (fn. 286) and the Crown, which granted Kingsholm manor in 1394 to John Luffwyk and William Gold, (fn. 287) divided it in 1395 between Elizabeth's surviving heirs, Cecily Sage, Nicholas Matson Droys, John Swonhongre, and Eve wife of Simon Cadle. (fn. 288)

Kingsholm manor was fragmented further by divisions among coheirs, the parts being held from the Crown for fractions of knights' fees. Eve Cadle's quarter was divided after her death in 1413 between her five surviving daughters, including Alice wife of John Adams and Emme wife of John Hyett, and the son, a minor who died soon afterwards, of a sixth. (fn. 289) The share of Nicholas Matson Droys, later called Nicholas Matson, passed at his death in 1435 to his son Robert Matson. (fn. 290) Robert died in 1459 leaving a third of the manor to five coheirs, including Isabel wife of Walter Brickhampton. (fn. 291) Isabel, who in 1460 inherited the quarter of the manor once held by her grandmother Cecily Sage, was succeeded at her death in 1488 by William Hartland. (fn. 292)

John Swonhongre's share of the manor was divided in 1398 between his sisters Elizabeth, wife of James Gayner (d. 1434), and Isabel, later wife of John Thorpe (d. 1440). Both parts passed to Isabel's son John Thorpe, (fn. 293) who inherited another part from Robert Matson. (fn. 294) John died in 1469 seised of a third of the manor which passed to his son Richard. (fn. 295) Richard (d. 1514) was succeeded by his son Thomas but his wife Margery (d. 1517) retained a third of the estate in freebench. (fn. 296) From Thomas (d. 1525) the estate evidently passed in the direct line to Thomas (d. 1543), Nicholas (d. 1600), and George. George sold it in 1606 or 1607 to Sir William Cooke, who held another third of the manor in the right of his wife Joyce. (fn. 297)

Joyce's interest derived from a grant of the reversion of a moiety of a third of the manor by Hugh Griffith to John Arnold in 1529. (fn. 298) John, who acquired Highnam manor, died in 1545 and his son Nicholas, who was knighted before 1552, settled part of Kingsholm manor in 1557 on his son Rowland. Rowland (d. 1559) was survived by his wife Margaret and infant daughter Dorothy (d. 1580), and Dorothy's husband Thomas Lucy, who was knighted in 1593, retained a third of Kingsholm with the Highnam estate until his death in 1605 when it passed to his daughter Lady (Joyce) Cooke (d. 1613). After Sir William Cooke's death in 1619 (fn. 299) his Kingsholm estate, later described as a manor, descended with Highnam. Parts were sold in the 1760s and early 1770s. (fn. 300) In 1782 John Guise exchanged part with John Pitt, (fn. 301) to whom he sold the manor in 1783. (fn. 302) Pitt (d. 1805) (fn. 303) left it to his daughter Mary and her husband, the Revd. James Pitt (d. 1806), and Mary (d. 1836) to William Goodrich. (fn. 304) William (d. 1845) left his estates in trust for his son James, after whose death in 1890 the site of the ancient Kingsholm manor was offered for sale. (fn. 305) No later record of the manor has been found.

Fractions of the ancient manor of Kingsholm descended to Thomas Adams and Arthur Porter, (fn. 306) who sold them to Brasenose College, Oxford, in 1527 and 1533 respectively. (fn. 307) The college, which thereby acquired land in Kingsholm, Longford, and Twigworth (fn. 308) and in 1607 held a third of the manor, (fn. 309) retained land north of Gloucester until c. 1920. (fn. 310)

The royal palace at Kingsholm was recorded from 1051 and described as the king's hall and chamber in 1086. Excavations at the site have revealed timber buildings dating from before the Conquest. By the reign of Henry III the king had ceased to stay at the hall, (fn. 311) which by the late 13th century had become the Kingsholm manor house. (fn. 312) It had been demolished by 1591. (fn. 313) The chapel at the hall is treated above. (fn. 314)

By 1221 Maud had inherited a yardland in Twigworth, held from the Crown by the service of 5s., from her father Thomas of Twigworth. (fn. 315) She married Robert Marsh, apparently also called Robert Savage, whose service for the land included carrying royal writs in the county to the sheriff. (fn. 316) The writ-carrying service was remitted in 1251. (fn. 317) Henry Lovel, the king's cook, held the land in 1260, (fn. 318) and Robert Savage's son Robert had granted it by 1287 to John Daubeney, (fn. 319) after which it presumably merged with Kingsholm manor.

Eldred, under-king of the Hwicce, granted Gloucester Abbey 120 or 100 hides outside Gloucester in or before 767. (fn. 320) The abbey's estate, extended with its members at 22 hides less a yardland in 1086, was known as the manor of BARTON (fn. 321) and later as ABBOT'S BARTON. It included land in Barton Street, Longford, and Wotton, and in parishes outside Gloucester. (fn. 322) Among lands added to the estate were 6 a. in Longford granted in the late 12th or early 13th century by Wymark, widow of John Frenchevaler, for mending the ironwork of horses of monks visiting the hospice; a similar grant of that land was made by Ralph of Willington, who married Wymark's granddaughter Olympia and to whose Sandhurst fee it belonged. (fn. 323) The abbey, which was granted free warren on the demesne in 1354, (fn. 324) retained Abbot's Barton until the Dissolution together with the manors of Longford and Wotton created out of it. (fn. 325) Other property in Longford and Twigworth was administered with the abbey's Sandhurst estate. (fn. 326)

In 1540 the Crown granted a lease of the site of Abbot's Barton manor and over 300 a. to John ap Rice, who retained his interest after that estate was granted to Gloucester corporation in 1542. (fn. 327) From 1560 John Kirby held a lease of the estate, (fn. 328) which became known as Barton farm. Kirby's mortgagee Peter Romney acquired an absolute title to the leasehold but in 1578 Romney's widow Elizabeth assigned the estate in trust for Kirby's widow Bridget (d. 1579) with remainder to her son Thomas Kirby, who took the profits from c. 1585. (fn. 329) In 1604 the corporation granted Thomas a lease for 41 years, (fn. 330) but from 1621, when it bought out his widow Margaret who was also the widow of Roger Batherne, the farm was divided between leaseholders immediately under the corporation. (fn. 331) In 1731 the farm comprised c. 400 a. of the c. 505 a. belonging to the corporation in the hamlets. (fn. 332) The corporation, which sold some land c. 1800 to redeem land tax, (fn. 333) sold more in the mid 1850s to pay a debt to the municipal charity trustees and for public works. (fn. 334) The site of the manor in Barton Street, where buildings were destroyed at the beginning of the siege of 1643, (fn. 335) comprised in 1731 a house connected to a range of farm buildings on the east by a gateway to the Tuffley road (Barton Lane). South of the range were a barn and a bowling green. (fn. 336) The house, which was called the Court House or Barton House in 1773 when the Dudstone hundred court met there, (fn. 337) was demolished in the early 19th century, after the Gloucester-Cheltenham tramway and Tuffley road had encroached on the bowling green. (fn. 338) Most of the farm buildings had been pulled down by the early 1820s when the land fronting Barton Street east of the tramway was divided into building lots. (fn. 339)

The Crown broke up the rest of the Abbot's Barton estate in the mid 16th century (fn. 340) and granted the manor in 1557 to Dame Anne Fortescue, wife of Thomas Parry, with remainder to John Fortescue. (fn. 341) John, later Sir John (d. 1607), was succeeded by his son Sir Francis Fortescue (fn. 342) and both father and son claimed property in Longford, Wotton, Barnwood, and Upton St. Leonards for the manor. (fn. 343) Sir Francis (d. 1624) was succeeded by his son John, (fn. 344) who in 1632 was party to a grant of the manor for 70 years to Robert Halford, a London fishmonger (fl. 1651). Halford's estate passed to his nephew Robert Halford (d. 1683) of Barton Street, who was succeeded by his son William. Trustees under William's will dated 1695 sold land north of the city in 1700. (fn. 345) The manor has not been traced later.

Gloucester Abbey's manor of LONGFORD, recorded from 1520, (fn. 346) formed part of the endowment of the new bishopric of Gloucester in 1541. (fn. 347) The manor, which in the mid 17th century comprised leasehold and copyhold estates, (fn. 348) was transferred to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners in 1856. (fn. 349) In 1858 it covered 162 a., mostly leasehold belonging to the Longford House estate. (fn. 350) In 1904 the commissioners in an exchange with the trustees of that estate acquired 132 a. at Longford, including Manor Farm. (fn. 351) The commissioners, who bought the adjoining Drymeadow farm (66 a.) in 1940, retained their Longford estate until 1963 when they sold 235 a. to the tenants, J. W. and G. W. Sivell. (fn. 352)

The abbey's manor of WOTTON, recorded from 1519, (fn. 353) passed to the dean and chapter of Gloucester in 1541 (fn. 354) and was held on lease from them with Barnwood and Cranham manors, (fn. 355) save in 1638 when a lease of Wotton was granted to Edward Stephens's cousin Nathaniel Stephens (d. 1660) of Eastington. (fn. 356) From the late 18th century land in Wotton was held by lease or copy directly from the dean and chapter, who took the manorial rights in hand in 1783. (fn. 357) In 1855 the dean and chapter's reversionary interest in leasehold and copyhold estates covering c. 406 a. in and near Gloucester was transferred to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, who had enfranchised that land by the late 1880s; (fn. 358) part had belonged to the dean and chapter's Sandhurst estate (fn. 359) and part represented tithes commuted in 1799. (fn. 360)

An estate at Tuffley, said to have been given to Gloucester Abbey by Osbern, bishop of Exeter from 1072, (fn. 361) was a member of the abbey's Barton manor in 1066 (fn. 362) and was known as TUFFLEY manor by the early 13th century. (fn. 363) The abbey, which was granted free warren on the demesne in 1354, (fn. 364) retained the manor until the Dissolution. (fn. 365) In 1541 it passed to the dean and chapter of Gloucester, (fn. 366) from whom it was farmed in 1552 by Thomas Winston. Winston was followed as farmer in 1560 or 1561 by Edward and Richard Stephens. (fn. 367) By 1583 the farmer was Richard Atkyns of North Ockendon (Essex), whose father Thomas (d. 1552) had been granted a lease of the manor, presumably in reversion, by the dean and chapter. Richard, who sought to recover the demesne held by Thomas Hale under a lease of 1536, (fn. 368) was a justice in Welsh courts and lord of Hempsted manor. (fn. 369) He died at Tuffley in 1610 and his interest in Tuffley manor passed to his son Richard. (fn. 370) In 1636 the latter died and the dean and chapter granted his son and heir Richard a lease of the manor for 21 years. (fn. 371) Thereafter the estate was held under leases renewed every few years. (fn. 372) Richard Atkyns, who fell heavily into debt, raised a troop for the royalist cause in the early 1640s and his estates were sequestered. (fn. 373) He recovered Tuffley after being pardoned in 1646 (fn. 374) and sold it in 1670 to Henry Norwood, (fn. 375) who became M.P. for Gloucester in 1675 and a landowner in Leckhampton. (fn. 376) Norwood was followed as lord farmer of Tuffley manor in 1676 by Sir Paul Whichcot of Hendon (Mdx.), who inherited a baronetcy the next year, and in 1683 by Sir Thomas Hanbury of Little Marcle (Herefs.). (fn. 377) Sir Thomas (d. 1708) left the estate to his second son Thomas. (fn. 378) Samuel Mee, the lord farmer in 1717, left it at his death in 1749 to his son Thomas. From Thomas (d. 1757) it passed in turn to his widow Barbara (d. 1788) and son Thomas. (fn. 379) In 1792 the dean and chapter took the manorial rights in hand and thereafter land in Tuffley was held under them by lease or copy; (fn. 380) they enfranchised some in 1799 and 1800 to redeem land tax. (fn. 381) The manorial rights passed in 1855 to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, (fn. 382) who enfranchised much of the land. (fn. 383) In 1868 the commissioners sold the manorial rights to Henry Cecil Raikes and he to Richard William Attwood, owner of the Tuffley Court estate. (fn. 384)

From 1792 Thomas Mee held a lease of Tuffley Court and the manorial demesne. (fn. 385) He enlarged the estate, which at his death in 1812 passed to his brother-in-law, the Revd. Richard Raikes. (fn. 386) Richard (d. 1823) (fn. 387) was succeeded by his nephew, the Revd. Henry Raikes (fn. 388) (d. 1854). Tuffley Court passed to Henry's son Henry (d. 1863), who was succeeded by his son H. C. Raikes. H. C. Raikes sold the estate of 480 a. to Joseph Lovegrove in 1867. (fn. 389) Lovegrove broke up the estate, selling most of it that year when R. W. Attwood bought the house and 270 a.; (fn. 390) Attwood offered his estate for sale in lots in 1872 (fn. 391) and sold the house and 109 a. to E. T. Bullock in 1873. Bullock sold that estate to the guardians of the Gloucester poor-law union in 1896, (fn. 392) and in 1930 it passed to Gloucester corporation, (fn. 393) which used it for housing after the Second World War. (fn. 394)

By the early 13th century Gloucester Abbey had built an oratory at the site of Tuffley manor. (fn. 395) In the early 17th century the manor house, Tuffley Court, was a substantial residence sometimes occupied by tenants under the Atkyns family. It was damaged by fire c. 1640 and had been repaired by Richard Atkyns for his residence by 1650 (fn. 396) when it comprised six bays and two storeys and the outbuildings included a barn of nine bays. (fn. 397) In 1672 Henry Norwood was assessed on 13 hearths for it. (fn. 398) The house, which probably stood in the park on Robins Wood Hill, (fn. 399) was uninhabited in 1764 and was demolished by the dean and chapter before 1785. It was replaced by a farmhouse below the hill in Tuffley Lane. (fn. 400) That house, which became a boys' home in the late 1890s, (fn. 401) was demolished in the mid 20th century.

Copyhold land in Tuffley, which John Morris held from 1768, passed to his son Robert. He enlarged the estate and in 1792 conveyed it to his brother William, later of Sevenhampton. William (d. 1834) was succeeded by his son Walter Lawrence, who had changed his surname to Lawrence and who owned c. 150 a. in the hamlet in 1840. In 1844 W. L. Lawrence sold his Tuffley estate, which included a reversionary right to other copyhold land, to John Curtis-Hayward. (fn. 402) John inherited an estate in Quedgeley with which the Tuffley land passed. His son John Frederick Curtis-Hayward (fn. 403) sold a farm with 56 a. at Tuffley in 1922. (fn. 404)

An estate of 2 hides at Wotton was held by Godric in 1066 and by William Froisselew in 1086. (fn. 405) It may have passed to Richard son of Niel, who in 1126 gave land, a mill, and tithes in Wotton to Gloucester Abbey; (fn. 406) that grant was confirmed by Robert, earl of Gloucester, and by Walter of Holcombe. (fn. 407)

A hide at Utone or Wotton, held by Pain in 1066 and by Hunfrid de Medehal in 1086, (fn. 408) possibly gave the name HYDE to the area between Wotton and Gloucester. In the early 13th century several tenants held land in Hyde under Walter of Hyde, (fn. 409) but the later descent of that lordship is unknown.

Land in Hyde held c. 1270 by Peter son of Herbert from Churchdown barony as ¹/5 knight's fee (fn. 410) was presumably among the lands of St. Oswald's church which had passed to the archbishop of York. (fn. 411) St. Oswald's Priory, which was given 48 a. at Innsworth by the Crown before 1216, acquired other land near Gloucester (fn. 412) and was one of the lords of Wotton in 1316. (fn. 413) Most of the priory's land was included in TULWELL manor, which at the Dissolution was held under lease by John a' Deane and his wife Anne. In 1546 the Crown granted the manor to the dean and chapter of Gloucester. (fn. 414) They granted leases in reversion to Thomas Davis, who may have married Anne a' Deane, in 1547 and to George Hatton in 1558. Eleanor Wannerton held the estate in 1650 when it was extended at 86 a. (fn. 415) In 1662 Robert Halford of Barton Street and Alderman Henry Cugley of Longford took leases for 21 years of 70 a. and 16 a. respectively; thereafter both parts were held under leases renewed every few years. From 1781 the land was in three tenancies. (fn. 416) Presumably the land was in that which the Ecclesiastical Commissioners had enfranchised by the late 1880s. (fn. 417) St. Oswald's Priory had built an oratory at the site of the manor by 1309. (fn. 418) The buildings, some of which were in ruins before being replaced in 1615, (fn. 419) were burnt at the beginning of the siege of 1643 when they comprised a house called Tulwell or Tully Court and a large barn. (fn. 420) The house was replaced by one, which in 1799 was held under lease by the dean Josiah Tucker (fn. 421) and later was known as Castle Grim. (fn. 422) It was demolished after the site was bought for Gloucester Football Club in 1891. (fn. 423)

St. Oswald's Priory had property also in Longford and Wotton, which was sold off by the Crown in the later 16th century. (fn. 424) By 1446 the priory paid Godstow Abbey (Oxon.) 10s. rent for land in Longford. (fn. 425)

In the late 11th century Walter of Gloucester held land outside the town, presumably held before him by his two predecessors as hereditary sheriffs and castellans of Gloucester. Walter's son Miles included part in his endowment of Llanthony Priory in 1137, and Miles's daughter Margaret de Bohun (fn. 426) had overlordship of land in Longford and Sud Meadow in the later 12th century. (fn. 427) Miles of Gloucester's endowment of Llanthony Priory included Castle Meads and a hide of land south of Gloucester. (fn. 428) The priory, which acquired more land, (fn. 429) retained LLANTHONY manor until the Dissolution when it covered over 390 a. (fn. 430) In 1540 the Crown granted the priory and its land near Gloucester to Arthur Porter. (fn. 431) After his death in 1558 or 1559 the estate, including Newark House and land in Hempsted, passed in the direct line to Sir Thomas Porter (d. 1597) and to Arthur Porter, who had married Anne, daughter of Sir John Danvers. (fn. 432) In 1609 Arthur, who was also knighted, conveyed the estate for the payment of his debts and a settlement on his wife and daughter Elizabeth to Henry Danvers, Lord Danvers. Danvers sold part to Leonard Bennett of Ebley in 1611 and settled the remainder, including the priory, on Anne Porter in 1615. From Anne (fl. 1630) it had passed to Elizabeth and her husband John Scudamore, Viscount Scudamore, (fn. 433) by the mid 1640s when he was in prison for his support of the royalist cause. Elizabeth died in 1651 and John, who under a private Act of 1662 endowed Hempsted church with tithes from the estate, in 1671. (fn. 434) The estate evidently passed with the viscounty in turn to his grandson John Scudamore (d. 1697) and to the latter's son James (d. 1716). James's daughter Frances, heir to his lands, married first Henry Somerset, duke of Beaufort, who divorced her, and second Charles Fitzroy, who took the name Scudamore. She died in 1750 when Llanthony became the inheritance of Frances, child of her second marriage. (fn. 435) In 1771 Frances married Charles Howard, who inherited the dukedom of Norfolk in 1786. (fn. 436) The duke, who in 1802 bought part of Sud Meadow from Giles Greenaway, (fn. 437) died without issue in 1815 and Frances, a lunatic, in 1820. (fn. 438) At the partition of her lands in 1829 the Newark and Llanthony estate went to John Higford (formerly Parsons) (d. 1852), who left it to Daniel Higford Davall Burr (d. 1885) of Aldermaston (Berks.). He was succeeded by his son, who was called Higford Higford (fn. 439) and who sold the site of Llanthony Priory in 1898 to the chemicals company of J. M. Collett. (fn. 440) After Higford's death in 1906 the estate passed to his wife Julia, and in 1919, when it comprised 428 a., mostly riverine meadow land with Newark House, it was put up for sale. (fn. 441) The site of the priory, which was acquired in 1908 by the G.W.R. and in 1974 by Gloucester city council, (fn. 442) is treated above. (fn. 443)

The estate bought by Leonard Bennett in 1611 comprised over 200 a. centred on the SHEEPHOUSE. (fn. 444) At his death in 1621 it passed to his daughter Edith (d. 1632), wife of William Selwyn. (fn. 445) In 1635 William (d. 1643) inherited an estate in Matson, (fn. 446) with which the Sheephouse descended. (fn. 447) In 1799 Thomas Townshend, Viscount Sydney, exchanged the freehold of most of the Sheephouse estate for that of the part of his Matson estate belonging to Upton St. Leonards parish. The freehold land he retained at Sutgrove (fn. 448) was sold in 1912 at the final break-up of the Matson estate and 18 a. were bought in 1922 by Gloucester corporation. (fn. 449) The Sheephouse estate which the dean and chapter of Gloucester acquired at the exchange in 1799 (fn. 450) was held under lease by the owners of the Matson estate until 1861 when the lease was assigned to E. S. J. Griffiths. He surrendered it in 1869 to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners who sold off the land between 1874 and 1876. (fn. 451) The Sheephouse incorporated a long range of one storey with an open roof in which lofts were created for hay storage, possibly by Llanthony Priory before 1507 when it was also called Shepherds Elms. In the early 17th century a small house adjoining a room at the east end of the range was used as a farmhouse. (fn. 452) The building, which by 1683 was known as the Lower Sheephouse, (fn. 453) was occupied as cottages in 1851. (fn. 454) In 1876 the Ecclesiastical Commissioners sold it with 34 a. to William Hemmings (fn. 455) and c. 1919 Gloucester corporation bought the site for housing. (fn. 456)

In the late 12th century Roger son of Nicholas held 2 ploughlands in Longford under Margaret de Bohun. (fn. 457) The estate, to which Bertram Mare had a claim, was assessed at ½ fee (fn. 458) and in 1214, when Roger sought a grant of it at farm from the Crown, was called LONGFORD manor; (fn. 459) later it was known as PLOCK COURT. In 1198 the overlordship belonged to Margaret's grandson Henry de Bohun, who was created earl of Hereford in 1200. (fn. 460) The overlordship passed with the earldom and in 1384 was assigned to Humphrey de Bohun's daughter Mary and her husband Henry of Lancaster, later Henry IV. (fn. 461) A mesne lordship was exercised by Henry son of Nicholas in 1236, (fn. 462) by the heirs of John de Burgh c. 1275, by Nicholas son of Ralph in 1301, and by John son of Nicholas in 1351. (fn. 463) In the early 16th century the manor was said to be held under Gloucester Abbey. (fn. 464)

In the early 13th century Ralph Avenel (d. by 1223) and his wife Margaret (d. by 1236) held the manor in demesne. In 1236 it formed part of the inheritance of Douce, the infant daughter of Ralph's son William Avenel. Later that year Roger of Lockington claimed land in Longford in marriage by the grant of Margaret Avenel, his mother-in-law. (fn. 465) The manor, which John de Mucegros held at his death c. 1275, (fn. 466) was the inheritance of his wife Cecily (d. c. 1301), who was succeeded by her granddaughter Hawise de Mucegros. (fn. 467) Hawise's second husband, John de Ferrers, was assessed at ⅓ fee in Longford in 1303, and her third husband, John de Bures, was described as lord of Longford in 1316. (fn. 468) The manor descended with Hawise's estate in Boddington to Richard Beauchamp, Lord Beauchamp of Powicke (d. 1503), who also held an estate called Twigworth manor. His lands passed to his daughter Anne, wife of Richard Lygon (d. 1512), and his grandsons Richard Read and Edward Willoughby. (fn. 469)

Although Anne's grandson William Lygon quitclaimed an interest in the estate in 1560, (fn. 470) Longford manor passed to Richard Read's son William, who was described in 1558 as one of the lords of Longford, Twigworth, and Kingsholm. (fn. 471) William and his brother and heir John both died in 1570, John having settled Longford on his wife Margaret and daughter Dorothy. (fn. 472) In 1588 the manor was held by Dorothy and her husband Oliver St. John, (fn. 473) who became Lord St. John of Bletsoe in 1596. Dorothy died in 1605, and by 1612 Plock Court manor had passed to her second son, Sir Anthony St. John, and his wife, Catherine. (fn. 474) They sold part to John Showle in 1614, (fn. 475) and another part, including the manor house, to Robert Dobbs (fl. 1656), a local landowner. Dobbs's estate passed to his son Thomas, who was dead by 1676 when it was settled on the marriage of his daughter Anne and William Jones of Usk (Mon.). In 1699 Anne, a widow, released the estate to her eldest son Thomas, (fn. 476) but in 1709 she and her son William sold it to Miles Beale of Newent (d. 1713), who was succeeded by his son Miles (d. 1748). (fn. 477) The estate presumably passed in turn to the latter Miles's son John (d. 1775), to John's uncle Thomas Beale (d. 1784), and to Thomas's son the Revd. Thomas Beale, who enlarged it and died in 1805. (fn. 478) He left Plock Court to his nephew Thomas Beale Cooper, who in 1852 sold the estate of 112 a. to the Revd. Thomas Sherwood (d. 1871). In 1890 Sherwood's daughter Anna, widow of the Revd. William Hedley (d. 1884), sold her interest in the estate to her brother Thomas. (fn. 479) From Thomas (d. 1891) the estate passed to his wife Anne, who died in 1912 soon after taking the additional surname Hale. In 1920 the estate was sold to Ernest Cloke, who broke it up by sales. (fn. 480) In 1936 Gloucester corporation bought the manor house and 57 a., part of which it used for playing fields. (fn. 481) The manor house, called Plock Court in 1540, (fn. 482) was occupied as a farmhouse by 1607. (fn. 483) It was rebuilt in the 17th century and cased in brick in the 19th. It housed two dwellings in 1852 (fn. 484) and had been uninhabited for several years when, following damage by fire, it was demolished in 1986. Its grounds, which the corporation had used as a nursery garden, were covered by houses in the mid 1980s.

Tewkesbury Abbey acquired a small estate in Longford, including a yardland confirmed to it by Henry I in 1106 (fn. 485) and a messuage and 7 a. quitclaimed to it by Cecily, countess of Hereford, in 1201. (fn. 486) At the Dissolution the abbey's land was called the Plocks. (fn. 487) Deerhurst Priory may have had land in Longford and Twigworth. (fn. 488) The Carmelite friars of Gloucester acquired land in Twigworth and, by the grant of Llanthony Priory, in Barton Street. (fn. 489) The Knights Hospitallers apparently had land in Twigworth, Down Hatherley, and Sandhurst attached to their preceptory at Quenington. (fn. 490)

St. Bartholomew's Hospital, Gloucester, acquired lands and rents outside the town, mostly to the north and east. (fn. 491) In 1311 it was said to have a manor at Kingsholm, (fn. 492) the site of which was presumably the White Barn from which over 35 a. were farmed in 1505. (fn. 493) The hospital acquired 4 a. at Saintbridge by exchange in the mid 13th century, (fn. 494) and in 1731 Gloucester corporation as the hospital's trustee held 52 a. in the hamlets and Saintbridge. (fn. 495) The White Barn appears to have survived the firing of Kingsholm in 1643, (fn. 496) and in 1731 there were two houses and outbuildings on the site. (fn. 497)

St. Margaret's Hospital at Wotton acquired land north and east of the town, including in Longford and Twigworth. (fn. 498) St. Mary Magdalen's Hospital at Wotton was granted a yardland there by Henry III. (fn. 499) In 1731 Gloucester corporation as the hospitals' trustee held 31 a. and 27 a. respectively in the hamlets. (fn. 500) Under the Municipal Corporations Act of 1835 control of the endowments of the three hospitals passed to a new body, the municipal charity trustees. (fn. 501)

The estates of Sir William Nottingham (d. 1483) included land in Twigworth, called Twigworth manor in 1480, and Wotton. Richard Poole, who married Sir William's widow Elizabeth and bought the estates from trustees in 1487, was later said to hold an estate called Wotton manor. (fn. 502) The descent of an estate known sometimes as Down Hatherley and Twigworth manor (fn. 503) is reserved for a later volume.

Many estates were built up in the hamlets, comprising land held under a variety of tenures from the ancient manors. The WOTTON COURT estate had its origins in a small estate which had been divided by the early 16th century. A moiety belonged to George Twissell (d. 1534) of King's Stanley, whose son Edward sold it in 1542 to John Falconer. (fn. 504) Falconer left his property to Gloucester corporation, to which his widow Margaret released her life interest in 1546. (fn. 505) In 1608 Grey Brydges, Lord Chandos, and others sold the other moiety including a house at Wotton called Spencers to Lewis Roberts. (fn. 506) Lewis (d. 1629) was succeeded by his son Lewis (fn. 507) (d. 1679), whose daughters, Elizabeth Atkyns, Mary, and Hester, sold the property in 1683 to John Blanch of Eastington, a clothier. (fn. 508) Blanch, M.P. for Gloucester 1710–13, (fn. 509) bought 36 a. near Wotton for his daughter Mary Horton in 1715. (fn. 510). He died in 1725 (fn. 511) and his estate passed to his nephew William Blanch. William, who held part of the house with 57 a. by lease under the corporation, enlarged the estate, Mary Horton's land being settled in 1728 on his marriage. He died in 1758 and his son and heir William (d. 1766) left his estates for life to his widow Anne with reversion to James Rogers. (fn. 512) Anne married Samuel Walbank and in 1776 they and Rogers's heirs conveyed the estate of over 200 a. to trustees for sale. (fn. 513) Walbank purchased the house and much of the land in 1777 and sold them to Thomas Cother in 1779. (fn. 514) Cother, who had bought much land in the hamlets, particularly at Longford and Wotton in the 1770s, died in 1781 leaving the house for life to his widow Sarah (d. 1786) and the estate in trust for his sons William, Thomas, and Charles. (fn. 515) In 1790 George Caesar Hopkinson, an army officer, bought the house, known later as Wotton Court, and some land. (fn. 516) Hopkinson, who by 1812 had bought c. 95 a. in the adjoining part of Barnwood from Robert Morris, (fn. 517) died in 1825 and the estate passed in the direct line to Charles (d. 1830) and Charles (d. 1882). (fn. 518) Parts of the estate adjoining the Barnwood road were sold off at the end of the century leaving 208 a., which Ralph Fream bought in 1899. (fn. 519) In the early 20th century the land, title of which was vested in 1905 in a limited company, was used for residential development. (fn. 520) In the early 18th century Wotton Court, which incorporated the house called Spencers, was of two storeys with attics and tall cross wings at each end of the main south front. There were formal gardens to the north and south and a short avenue led westwards to Wotton Pitch. (fn. 521) In 1799 the landscaped grounds, in which another house had been built, included a short canal. (fn. 522) In the 19th century the front of the centre range of Wotton Court was cased in brick and heightened to three storeys. The house was demolished c. 1900 (fn. 523) and part of the fabric may have been used in a new building nearby. A lodge on the Cheltenham road at Cole bridge was standing in 1925. (fn. 524)

In 1791 the remaining part of Thomas Cother's estate was divided between his sons. Most of the Wotton land was assigned to William, the eldest, most of the Longford land to Thomas, and a few acres at Wotton to Charles, the youngest. William, who in 1795 bought much of Thomas's land and sold it to the Revd. Thomas Beale, (fn. 525) enlarged his own estate (fn. 526) and at his death in 1838 (fn. 527) left it, including a farm at Puckstool, to Charles. (fn. 528) Charles died in 1855 (fn. 529) and under his will the Puckstool or Wellsprings land passed in 1873 to Thomas Commeline, who sold it that year to James Witcombe (fn. 530) (d. 1899). (fn. 531) In 1913 Thomas Witcombe's Wellsprings estate covered 54 a. It was sold in 1916 (fn. 532) and was later broken up.

A small estate was attached to WOTTON HOUSE, which in the early 18th century was the seat of Thomas Horton, John Blanch's son-in-law and owner of the Combend estate in Elkstone. (fn. 533) Thomas (d. 1727), a lunatic, was succeeded by his son Thomas, who was declared a lunatic in 1746. His estates, which were placed in the custody of his brothers-in-law, were disputed after his death in 1755, for, although by will dated 1735 he had devised them to members of the Brereton family, in 1739 he had settled them on his two sisters. Agreement for a threefold partition was reached in 1758, and in 1763 Wotton House was confirmed as part of the share of the Revd. Richard Brereton, (fn. 534) who enlarged the estate (fn. 535) and died in 1801. The estate passed to his son Thomas, who had changed his name to Westfaling, and with the latter's Edgeworth estate to the Revd. Edward Colston Greville (d. 1830), who left it to be sold for the benefit of his seven children. (fn. 536) In 1838 Kitty Niblett owned the Wotton House estate (fn. 537) and it passed to her son D. J. Niblett (d. 1862). (fn. 538) Trustees under his will sold the house in 1873 to C. B. Walker. (fn. 539) Wotton House, which is dated 1707, (fn. 540) was built for Thomas Horton. It is of two storeys with attics and originally had outbuildings flanking a small forecourt on the east and a large walled garden on the west. (fn. 541) Many original fittings, including two staircases with twisted balusters, remain. The house was extended and some rooms were redecorated in the early 19th century by which time the formal garden had been destroyed, although part of the outer walls remains. (fn. 542) In 1925 it was acquired by Gloucestershire county council and converted as a hostel for its school of domestic science; (fn. 543) a large extension was made on the north in 1931. (fn. 544) Gloucestershire area health authority bought the house in the late 1970s.

In the mid 18th century Joseph Cheston, a Gloucester apothecary, acquired land north-east of the city (fn. 545) and after his death in 1779 (fn. 546) it passed to his son Richard Browne Cheston, a surgeon. R. B. Cheston acquired piecemeal an estate of over 300 a. (fn. 547) centred on LONGFORD HOUSE, which he built for his residence. (fn. 548) He left the estate at his death in 1815 to his son, the Revd. Joseph Bonnor Cheston (d. 1829), from whom it passed first to his wife Rebecca (d. 1838) and then to his daughters Mary and Maria, wife of Robert Canning (d. 1843) of Hartpury. (fn. 549) Mary's undivided moiety passed at her death in 1844 to Maria, who later married Alexander Wright Daniel. Daniel retained that interest at her death in 1868 when the other moiety passed to her daughters by her first marriage, Maria, whose husband Patrick Gordon had taken the additional surname of Canning, and Frances, who later married Edmund Herbert. Daniel (d. 1882) left his interest to Frances and to trustees for Maria (d. 1887) and some of her children including Robert (d. 1900) and William. Patrick Gordon-Canning died in 1893. (fn. 550) The estate was broken up by sales in the early 20th century. (fn. 551) Longford House was built in brick west of the Tewkesbury road before 1799. (fn. 552) In 1811 R. B. Cheston granted a lease of the house for five years. (fn. 553) It was demolished c. 1916. (fn. 554) Part of the stabling remained in 1983.

A small freehold estate based on the MAYHOUSE in Twigworth was settled in 1631 on Robert Herbert and in 1639 the reversion was bought by James Clent. In 1723 Samuel Mee bought the estate and in 1726 he settled it with other lands on the marriage of his son Thomas. (fn. 555) Thomas sold it in 1750 to Samuel Hayward, formerly a London linen draper, who under his marriage settlement was enlarging an estate centred on Sandhurst. (fn. 556) He purchased other land at Twigworth and Longford (fn. 557) and after his death in 1790 his land there descended with Wallsworth Hall in Sandhurst to Thomas de Winton (d. 1901). (fn. 558) J. T. Dorrington bought some Twigworth land with Wallsworth Hall in 1904, but most passed to de Winton's son Henry and was acquired c. 1920 by Frank Vines and in the later 1930s by Walter Cooke. (fn. 559) In 1945, following Cooke's death, 236 a. were sold with Twigworth Court to Percy House, whose son Frederick was the owner in 1983. (fn. 560) The Mayhouse evidently occupied the site of the farmhouse, which was rebuilt c. 1840 and renamed Twigworth Court. (fn. 561)

Land at Saintbridge belonged to the manor of Upton which Robert son of Henry inherited and in 1239 granted to his younger brother William. (fn. 562) The descent of the estate has not been traced, but it may have been included in Abbot's Barton and in the manor of Upton St. Leonards or Barton Upton, which had been formed from Abbot's Barton by 1536 and had land at Saintbridge. (fn. 563) The descent of Upton St. Leonards manor is reserved for a later volume. The Saintbridge tithing of Upton was described as a manor in 1541. (fn. 564)

A copyhold estate held by Margery Webley from Upton St. Leonards manor in 1589 (fn. 565) formed the basis of the estate later attached to SAINTBRIDGE HOUSE. Margery's son John Webley (fn. 566) sold the freehold to John Badger in 1620, and Joseph Phelps, who acquired land at Saintbridge in 1704, bought the Badger family's land in 1706. In 1735 Phelps sold the estate to the printer Robert Raikes (fn. 567) (d. 1757), from whom it passed in turn to his wife Mary and his son Robert. In 1809 the estate was broken up by sale, the largest part being bought by James Wintle. (fn. 568) Wintle's purchase included Saintbridge House, which he had rebuilt by 1835. (fn. 569) In the late 1860s the house and 110 a. were owned together with a mill in Barnwood by Arthur Stewart (d. 1879). (fn. 570) Saintbridge House and its land, which Charles Brown bought in 1887, later belonged to J. D. Birchall of Bowden Hall in Upton St. Leonards. He sold most of the land in 1908, when Gloucestershire county council bought 76 a. for its asylum in Barnwood, and in 1912 he sold the house to his brother E. V. D. Birchall. After the latter's death in 1916 the house passed to his sisters Violet and Linda, wife of the Revd. C. H. Verey. (fn. 571) Gloucester corporation made it into a home for the elderly in 1954. A new wing was opened in 1962. (fn. 572)

Gloucester Abbey, which appropriated St. Mary de Lode rectory, (fn. 573) took the tithes of Abbot's Barton by the later 12th century. (fn. 574) In the early 16th century it granted leases of tithes for years or lives. (fn. 575) The abbey's possessions granted to the dean and chapter of Gloucester in 1541 included the impropriate rectory and tithes from Abbot's Barton, Wotton, and land called king's furlong which belonged to the King's Barton demesne. (fn. 576) The dean and chapter also acquired corn and hay tithes in the hamlets and Sandhurst known as the Kingsholm tithing, which had belonged to the abbey, (fn. 577) and they granted leases of corn and hay tithes for 21 years renewed every few years. James Elly (d. 1728), an attorney who acquired several leases, became the principal tithe holder. (fn. 578) The dean and chapter's tithes in the hamlets except Tuffley were commuted at inclosure in 1799 for land and corn rent charges. Of the lessees John Pitt received 14 a. and rent charges for that part of the Kingsholm tithing commuted. John Whithorne, the principal lessee, received 116 a. at Innsworth and rent charges. (fn. 579) That land, on which Innsworth Farm was built, passed in 1808 to William Ireland Newman and in 1816 to Samuel Lovesy. Lovesy's mortgagee, Esther Hartlebury, sold it to John Aubrey Whitcombe, a solicitor, in 1830. Whitcombe enlarged the estate in 1854, (fn. 580) and in 1863 it was broken up by sale. (fn. 581)

The tithes of Tuffley manor belonged to Gloucester Abbey, which in 1536 granted a lease of them to Thomas Hale. (fn. 582) They passed with St. Mary de Lode rectory to the dean and chapter of Gloucester under whom Richard Arden and John Morse claimed to hold them in the mid 1590s. (fn. 583) Later the tithes were held under leases for 21 years renewed every few years. By 1706 the lord farmer of the manor was lessee and from 1792 the tithes were held with the Tuffley Court estate. (fn. 584) In 1840 the tithes from c. 636 a. were commuted for a corn rent charge of £141 to the Revd. Henry Raikes as lessee, and those from another 70 a. at Tuffley, said to be tithable to Whaddon, were commuted for a corn rent charge of £13 13s. to Thomas Lediard. (fn. 585)

Gloucester Abbey also took the Upton tithes, (fn. 586) and in 1541 those of the Saintbridge tithing scattered throughout that parish were granted to the dean and chapter of Gloucester. (fn. 587) By the mid 17th century the Saintbridge corn and hay tithes were held under leases for 21 years renewed every few years. (fn. 588) In 1842, when they were leased to the landowners, they were commuted for a corn rent charge of £46 3s. 6d. (fn. 589)

Llanthony Priory acquired corn and hay tithes in Longford valued as a portion of St. Mary de Lode church at £1 6s. 8d. in 1291. (fn. 590) By the Dissolution, when those tithes were held with Hempsted rectory, the priory paid part to the inmates of St. Mary Magdalen's Hospital. (fn. 591) In 1609 the Crown granted the priory's Longford and Wotton tithes to Francis Morris and Francis Phillips. (fn. 592) They were later bought by Henry Cugley, (fn. 593) whose descendant John Twyning sold them in 1729. They were sold three more times before 1774 (fn. 594) when Thomas Cother bought them. At the division of his estate they were assigned to his son Thomas but in 1795 Thomas's brother William acquired them (fn. 595) and sold parts to two other landowners, the Revd. Thomas Beale and Anthony Ellis. The tithes were commuted at inclosure in 1799 for land and corn rent charges. (fn. 596)

The bishop of Gloucester acquired corn and hay tithes from 51 a. near Longford. (fn. 597) In 1720 they were held under lease by Charles Hyett (fn. 598) and at inclosure were commuted for 9 a. (fn. 599)

St. Oswald's Priory took the tithes of St. Oswald's (later St. Catherine's) parish. (fn. 600) In 1542 the impropriate rectory and tithes in Longford, Twigworth, and Wotton were granted to the dean and chapter of Bristol cathedral. (fn. 601) The rectory and corn and hay tithes were held under lease from the dean and chapter, the leasehold passing in the early 18th century to James Elly. (fn. 602) In the late 18th century the dean and chapter and John Pitt, the lessee in 1771, claimed for the rectory the Tulwell tithes which had been included in leases of that estate from the mid 16th century. (fn. 603) The dean and chapter's tithes in the hamlets were commuted at inclosure in 1799 when Pitt received 45 a. and corn rent charges and William Jackson, lessee of tithes in Twigworth, 24 a. (fn. 604) Pitt bought the rectory except for its tithes in Sandhurst from the dean and chapter in 1801. (fn. 605)

In the later 16th century the Crown sold tithes in Wotton which had belonged to St. Oswald's Priory. (fn. 606) Those bought in 1577 by Peter Grey and his son Edmund passed to Benjamin Burroughs, who owned tithes from 120 a. in the mid 1780s. (fn. 607) James Laurence, William Cother, Robert Hopton, and the rector of St. John the Baptist owned St. Oswald's tithes at inclosure in 1799 when those tithes were commuted for 13 a. in Barton St. Mary and Wotton and for corn rent charges, one of which was claimed by a lessee of the bishop of Bristol. (fn. 608) Outside the hamlets St. Oswald's Priory's tithes in Meanham were granted in 1540 to John Jennings (fn. 609) and were commuted in 1850 for a corn rent charge of £12 to the Revd. John Fendall Newton. (fn. 610)

Tithes in Longford, apparently acquired by St. Augustine's Abbey, Bristol, were granted to the bishop of Bristol in 1542. (fn. 611) They were held under lease with Sandhurst rectory and were commuted in 1799 for 8 a. and a corn rent charge. That land passed to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners in 1856. (fn. 612)

St. Mary Magdalen's Hospital acquired tithes, including by 1265 hay tithes from Sud Meadow. (fn. 613) At inclosure in 1799 the tithes, which were held under Gloucester corporation as the hospital's trustee, were commuted for small plots of land and corn rent charges. (fn. 614)

AGRICULTURE.

There was extensive arable farming outside Gloucester in the early Middle Ages. In 1066 there were 12 ploughteams on King's Barton manor, of which 3 belonged with 7 servi to the demesne. The manor rendered £9 5s. and 3,000 loaves for the king's hunting dogs. The king's reeve had added a team and more tenants and mills by 1086 when the manor, which apparently had 22 teams, rendered £20, 20 cows, 20 pigs, and 16s. for bread. In 1086 the number of teams on Abbot's Barton manor was 54, of which 9 were in demesne with 12 servi. The manor's value had trebled from £8 in 1066. Of the two estates in Wotton surveyed in 1086 that of William Froisselew, which had doubled in value since 1066, had 4 teams in demesne with 4 servi, and that of Hunfrid de Medehal, which had fallen in value by a third, 1 team in demesne with 3 servi. (fn. 615) In 1220 there were 17 teams in King's Barton, 3 in Twigworth, 2 in Longford, and 1½ in Wotton. (fn. 616)

In the 1260s the King's Barton demesne comprised 275 a. of arable, 58 a. of meadow, and 4½ a. of pasture in a moor. The king also took the profits of a beech wood, which contained c. 30 a. and was subject to common pasture rights; it was evidently on the Cotswold escarpment near Pincott in Upton St. Leonards. The king had 15 oxen, 1 cow, and 1 heifer on the manor and Gloucester Abbey was required to supplement the small amount of demesne pasture, which could support only 12 oxen for a month, by finding pasturage for 18 oxen, 2 cows, and 2 horses before haymaking. The manor could keep 200 wethers and 24 pigs between Easter and Martinmas. (fn. 617) The demesne of Kingsholm manor in 1304 included 155 a. of arable, 28 a. of meadow, 11 a. of pasture, and pastures called the Stath and Kingsholm green. (fn. 618) In 1607 the demesne on Sir William Cooke's two parts of the manor was extended at 224 a., of which only 18 a. were in hand and the rest was held as 14 tenements ranging from 1 a. to 40 a. (fn. 619)

In 1291 there were 6 and 2 ploughlands in Abbot's Barton and Tuffley respectively. Tulwell manor included 1½ ploughland. (fn. 620) In 1535, following the creation of manors at Longford and Wotton, the demesne of Abbot's Barton, part of which lay outside the hamlets, included 266 a. of arable, 117 a. of meadow, and 42 a. of pasture. The Tuffley demesne comprised 125 a. of arable, 53 a. of pasture, and 33 a. of meadow excluding Monk Meadow which had been let at farm. (fn. 621) In 1536 the demesne remaining in hand was let at farm with pasture rights and 10 loads of firewood a year from Standish wood. (fn. 622) Arable husbandry was relatively less important on the demesne of Llanthony Priory's estate which in 1535 included 102 a. of arable, 160 a. of meadow, and 130 a. of pasture. (fn. 623) The priory had a sheephouse at Shepherds Elms (fn. 624) and the meadows around Llanthony were used for dairy farming and cheese making. (fn. 625)

After its inclusion in the Barnwood estate the demesne of Wotton manor was not distinguished in estate surveys from that of Barnwood. (fn. 626) In 1650 the demesne of Tuffley manor, represented by 236 a. extended with Tuffley Court and comprising more pasture than arable, was evidently grouped as holdings of 190 a., 27 a., 13 a., and 6 a. The largest was farmed with Tuffley Court which had a large buttery. The Tulwell estate remained mainly arable. (fn. 627)

The tenants on King's Barton manor in 1066 were 14 villani and 10 bordars with 9 ploughs. Eight bordars had been added by 1086 when 2 freemen held 2 hides with 9 ploughs. (fn. 628) In the 1260s there were 38 free tenements of varying sizes on the manor, excluding those in Gloucester's suburbs, and most were ancient tenures. Many represented estates in parishes outside the hamlets and there was also a salt pan at Droitwich for which Gloucester Abbey rendered a fixed quota of salt. Save for the Kingsholm estate, which was a serjeanty, the tenements were of three yardlands or less. Most owed cash rents and several also customary payments or else some specific service; six were held by the service of carrying writs through the county. One tenant had to supply an archer in war, a smith owed 200 arrows, and one tenant surnamed of Pincott kept the king's wood. The customary payments included wiveneweddinge on the eve of the feast of St. John the Baptist and a hen at Christmas. One tenant owed bedrips. (fn. 629) The customary tenants on the manor were 6 holding ½ yardlands, 4 pairs holding ½ yardlands jointly, 3 holding ¼ yardlands, and 1 holding 9 a. Most halfyardlanders paid cash rents and were required to work four days and plough ½ a. every other week. They also owed ploughing boonwork and bedrips, performed a custom called benherthe by which they cultivated ½ a. and received a sheaf, and paid the customary payments mentioned above; for the Christmas hen they received a load of wood. The tenant of 9 a. worked four days a week from July to September and two days a week for the rest of the year. (fn. 630) The rents of assize said to belong to King's Barton manor in 1535 may have included payments from tenants of Abbot's Barton manor. (fn. 631) Copyhold tenure had been introduced in King's Barton manor by the mid 16th century. (fn. 632) In 1637, when some copyholders claimed never to have received copies, some tenants at rack rent in Barton Street were granted leases for 21 years. (fn. 633) In the later 18th century the manor comprised freehold and copyhold estates, cottages on waste ground in many parishes and hamlets near Gloucester, and fishing rights in a stretch of the river Leadon. (fn. 634)

In 1304 Kingsholm manor had 26 free tenants, most paying cash rents. One held a ploughland and one a yardland, but most, including a smith, a few acres or a cottage. There were also 6 villeins, who held 12 a. or 8 a. and paid cash rents. They each spent 1½ day in digging and treating loam, mowed for 10 days, and provided a man to reap and work during the autumn for 32 days. (fn. 635) In 1607 Sir William Cooke's Kingsholm estate had free tenements of 52 a. and 17 a. on one part and copyholds of 11½ a. and 1½ a. on the other. (fn. 636) Copyhold tenure in Kingsholm had been extinguished by the end of the 18th century. (fn. 637)

The tenants on Abbot's Barton manor and its members in 1086 were 42 villani and 21 bordars with 45 ploughs. (fn. 638) In the 1260s Abbot's Barton included 51 holdings of varying sizes, some being estates in parishes outside the Gloucester hamlets. The two largest were each a ploughland, held by the serjeanty of providing a squire equipped with a horse and harness and owing heriots and reliefs. Two of a yardland, one of which was held by two tenants, owed the same service for half a year, and another tenant provided a squire for two holdings of ½ yardland. Cash rents owed by four holdings of ½ yardland and two of ¼ yardland possibly represented that service commuted. Three holdings, ¾, ½, and ¼ yardland, owed cash rents and customary payments, and tenants of several mills owed heriots. The other holdings, which owed cash rents and aid, included five ½ yardlands, of which one was held with two mondaylands, and nine ¼ yardlands, of which three were held with a mondayland. (fn. 639) A ½ yardland was apparently also included among the customary tenements. Those included thirty of ½ yardland (a ½ yardland being 32 a.), fifteen of ¼ yardland, and thirty-two mondaylands, each of 4 a. There were also 6 cottars. Most half-yardlanders were apparently required to work three days a week from October to July and five days every other week in August and September. The one day owed by the mondaymen was increased (except in the case of one tenant) to two in the harvest months. Other customs included two heriots to Gloucester Abbey, one as lord and the other as rector of St. Mary de Lode, and pannage. (fn. 640)

In the early 16th century the abbey granted leases of demesne and other land held under the manors of Abbot's Barton, Longford, Wotton, and Tuffley for terms of years or lives with heriots payable. Some Abbot's Barton and Wotton tenants were required to carry several loads of firewood a year to the abbey from Buckholt wood, which centred on Cranham, and a Longford tenant to collect timber in the abbey's wood at Woolridge between Maisemore and Hartpury for repairs. (fn. 641) In 1535 Longford, Wotton, and Tuffley manors had customary tenants owing rents of assize. (fn. 642) Barton farm, the Abbot's Barton land which passed to Gloucester corporation, was held by leaseholders under the corporation's lessee and from 1621 under the corporation itself. (fn. 643) In 1650 the Barnwood estate included nine copyholds in Wotton, of which two had been divided. They ranged from 4 a. to 41½ a. The surviving customs included pannage in Buckholt wood. (fn. 644) In later surveys the Barnwood and Wotton copyholders were not usually distinguished (fn. 645) and at inclosure in 1799 most were said to be in Barnwood. (fn. 646) Only 28 a. in Wotton remained copyhold in 1856. (fn. 647) On Tuffley manor there were 6 freeholders and 15 copyholders in 1650. Of the copyholders five had c. 25 a. (described as ½ yardland), two c. 20 a., and eight 10–17 a. The surviving customs included swine tack or pannage, and every tenant owning a cart had to fetch wood once a year from Buckholt for the dean and chapter. (fn. 648) Three were 10 copyholders on the manor in 1760. Several extensive copyhold estates were built up in the 18th century and a large part of Tuffley continued to be copyhold until the mid 19th. (fn. 649) The bishop's Longford manor in 1647 comprised nine tenements held by lease for terms of years or lives and six held by copy. Of the leaseholds one had 28 a., four 10–20 a., and four less than 10 a., and of the copyhold two had 18 a. and the others less than 9 a. (fn. 650) In 1858 the manor comprised 127 a. held under leases for lives, 16 a. under leases for 21 years, and only 19 a. under copy. (fn. 651) Much land in Longford continued to be held under leases for lives until 1904. (fn. 652)

The tenants on the two Wotton estates in 1086 were 4 bordars on that of William Froisselew and 4 bordars with 2 ploughteams on that of Hunfrid de Medehal. (fn. 653)

Open-field land outside Gloucester is recorded from the 13th century. (fn. 654) There had been major changes in the fields by the 16th century, including the absorption of a field at Paygrove by another and the division of a north field at Wotton. (fn. 655) There had also been piecemeal inclosure, some of which accompanied consolidation of the demesne of Abbot's Barton, and much land near Gloucester was in several meadows or pasture. (fn. 656) In the 16th century areas of open-field land remained near Gloucester's suburbs, including one at Ryecroft near Barton Street, but the main fields lay further away. (fn. 657) There is no evidence that the fields, apart from those at Tuffley, formed groups. Orders regulating the use of fields near Longford and Wotton were made in Plock Court and Barnwood manor courts, (fn. 658) but the land of the hamlets and manors mingled in the fields, in which neighbouring parishes shared. (fn. 659) There were at least 12 fields to the north and north-east of Gloucester, namely West and Pedmarsh fields north and east of Kingsholm respectively; Apperley and Longford fields at Longford; Twigworth or Brook, Burcott, and White Cross fields at Twigworth; Chamwell, Wyatts, and Innsworth fields east of Longford; and Colebridge and Elbridge fields north of Wotton. East of Gloucester was Windmill field, which covered a large area extending southeastwards from Wotton to the Twyver at Coney Hill. There were several small fields by the Painswick road north-west of Saintbridge, including Sand field and Tween Brooks. South of Gloucester there was open-field land at Drakes Croft south of the Sud brook, and further out Tredworth field included a large area stretching to the lower slopes of Robins Wood Hill; the areas east and west of the Tuffley road were known by 1699 as Upper and Lower Tredworth fields respectively. (fn. 660) There was open-field land to the west at Madleaze and to the south at Shepherds Elms in the early 16th century. (fn. 661)

Tuffley had at least eight open fields which were shared not with other hamlets but with neighbouring parishes, for example West field with Quedgeley and Hempsted and Whaddon's Hill with Quedgeley and Whaddon. Markham field, which was on the south side of Robins Wood Hill and was recorded from the mid 13th century, (fn. 662) was shared with Matson, Upton St. Leonards, and Whaddon. Tuffley also had fragments in Tredworth field and in two fields within Quedgeley to the south-east. (fn. 663)

Most of the 120 a. of meadow recorded in 1086 in Abbot's Barton and its members (fn. 664) presumably comprised Oxlease and other meadows north-west of Gloucester in which the burgesses shared commoning rights with the abbey and its Maisemore tenants. (fn. 665) Oxlease, which passed with the site of the manor, covered 39 a. on Alney Island. (fn. 666) Two large common meadows, Walham with c. 100 a. and Sud Meadow with c. 180 a., bordered the Severn north and south-west of Gloucester respectively. (fn. 667) That part of Walham known as Coberley's dole in the early 16th century had presumably been attached to Gloucester Abbey's manor in Coberley parish. (fn. 668) A dole stone recorded in 1607 marked the boundary of eight holdings in the meadow. (fn. 669) In the late 18th century pasture rights in Walham after haymaking were enjoyed without stint by landholders in the neighbouring hamlets. (fn. 670) In 1304 the lord of Kingsholm manor had the right to pasture a foal in Walham (fn. 671) and in 1607 Sir William Cooke by ancient right ran two horses in the same from the feast of St. George (23 April) until it had been mown. (fn. 672) That right, which adversely affected the hay crop, was commuted at inclosure in 1799. (fn. 673) Much of Sud Meadow belonged to Llanthony Priory after an exchange with the Crown in 1265, (fn. 674) and in 1416 the priory claimed that Gloucester Abbey's tenants had overburdened the meadow. (fn. 675) The meadow included parts which were lot meadow. (fn. 676) By the mid 17th century the lord of Llanthony had exclusive pasture rights over Sud Meadow between the feasts of All Saints and St. George, (fn. 677) a custom which inhibited the growth of grass. After the hay harvest in the late 18th century landholders in the meadow observed a stint of 2 cows to the acre and the duke of Norfolk, owner of the Llanthony estate, also had unstinted pasture rights for horses and sheep. (fn. 678)

There were small common meadows at Longford and Twigworth, including Hatherley Meadow, Dry Meadow, and Frize Meadow between the Horsbere and Hatherley brooks. (fn. 679) In the early 16th century a flock of ewes from Gloucester Abbey's estate at Sandhurst had winter pasture in Walham and Frize Meadow. (fn. 680) Monk Meadow with c. 18 a. between Gloucester and Hempsted belonged to the Tuffley demesne (fn. 681) and in 1535 was in the hands of a tenant or tenants. (fn. 682) Under an agreement of 1287 Llanthony Priory enjoyed common of pasture and a right of way in the meadow after haymaking, (fn. 683) but in the early 15th century it was again in dispute with Gloucester Abbey over the meadow, parts of which had been brought under the plough. (fn. 684) In the mid 17th century the lessee of Tuffley manor shared the aftermath with the lord of Llanthony. As well as in Sud Meadow, Tuffley manor had pieces in Coberley Meadow and Long Meadow, two small common meadows south-west of Gloucester. (fn. 685)

The times at which the common meadows were opened and closed to livestock varied. (fn. 686) In the early 16th century Frize Meadow was opened at Michaelmas. (fn. 687) In the mid 17th century the Wotton leaseholders and copyholders had common of pasture in the open fields, Walham, and Dry Meadow at the rate of 80 sheep and 16 cows or horses for the yardland; some copyholders had additional rights for cattle in Walham or Sud Meadow from haymaking to the feast of All Saints. The lessee of the Tulwell estate had common of pasture in Walham for 16 cattle. (fn. 688) Some Longford landholders had common of pasture for cattle in Longford Ham, bordering the Severn west of Longford. (fn. 689) Sheep farming was carried on near Gloucester in the Middle Ages and a sheep pen was recorded in Wotton in 1330. (fn. 690)

In 1547 the demense of Abbot's Barton included four areas of open-field land, at Ryecroft and elsewhere, which were cropped each year and were described as every year's land. (fn. 691) The practice of annual cropping, also followed in Longford field in 1534, (fn. 692) resulted from the high rent of land near Gloucester and was observed in most if not all the open fields outside the city in the late 18th century, when corn and pulses were grown alternately. (fn. 693) The area under arable declined from the 16th century and the estates, particularly in Tuffley, included a large proportion of permanent pasture in closes in the early 17th century. (fn. 694) The Sheephouse estate south of Gloucester was formed in 1611 mostly from meadow and pasture closes. (fn. 695) The piecemeal inclosure of the open fields continued in the 17th and 18th centuries. (fn. 696) By 1762 meadow and pasture closes covering 48 a. had been created in the open fields at Innsworth. (fn. 697) By 1799 some smaller open fields had disappeared and part of West field adjoining Walham had been laid down as grassland, known as Green West field. (fn. 698) In the late 18th century much of the countryside around Gloucester was devoted to dairy farming and some large farms were made up entirely of grassland. (fn. 699) Some closes were leased by city butchers and innkeepers. (fn. 700)

An orchard was recorded at Wotton in 1429. (fn. 701) In the 17th and 18th centuries there were numerous orchards around Gloucester, where several varieties of apple and pear were raised. (fn. 702) In the hamlets the number of market and nursery gardens supplying the needs of the city increased. In 1653 a nursery of fruit trees was recorded in outer Barton Street, (fn. 703) and in the 1790s James Wheeler, a leading Gloucester nurseryman, had several nurseries in Kingsholm. (fn. 704)

The inclosure of the open fields and common meadows in the hamlets, excluding most of Tuffley and meadows in which the Gloucester burgesses had common rights, was largely completed in 1799 under an Act of 1796 which also covered the vill of Wotton, Barnwood, and Matson. The award re-allotted many existing inclosures. In the hamlets allotments were made, some for tithes, to 108 proprietors holding under a variety of tenures. Nearly a quarter of them each received less than 2 a. Each landholder's share of the inclosure cost was met by the sale of a small part of his or her allotted land. Property exchanges under the award included land in South Hamlet and Upton St. Leonards and led to the acquisition of 53 a. in South Hamlet by the rector of Matson. (fn. 705)

Sud Meadow was inclosed in 1815 under an Act of 1814. The award, which also dealt with Coberley Meadow and open-field land in Lower Tredworth field, re-allotted a few existing inclosures and gave Monk Meadow, an adjoining meadow called Little Coberley Meadow, and part of Coberley Meadow to the duke of Norfolk. He was also awarded a group of former common meadows lying west of Hempsted in which the rights had been shared between his Llanthony estate and estates in Hempsted. (fn. 706) Of Sud Meadow 140 a. were allotted to the duke and the rest was divided between seven other landholders. Seven people received land in Lower Tredworth ranging from ¼ a. to 18½ a. Exchanges of land under the award made for the consolidation of a few holdings in Tuffley. (fn. 707) Inclosure in Tuffley was piecemeal and by 1802 had reduced Markham field to two separate areas. (fn. 708) Parts of the park had been inclosed by 1684. (fn. 709) Tuffley's inclosure was completed with that of adjoining parishes in 1866. The award, which re-allotted many existing closes, dealt with a green, five or six areas of open-field land in the south and west of Tuffley, Long Meadow, and an adjoining meadow. Of the eight people receiving allotments in Tuffley, J. Curtis-Hayward had 50 a., H. C. Raikes 23½ a., and the others less than 10 a. each. (fn. 710)

In the early 19th century most agricultural land near Gloucester was under grass and supported cattle, some of which were fattened for London's Smithfield market, and flocks of Ryeland sheep. (fn. 711) In 1801 the parishes of St. Mary de Lode and St. Michael had 821 a. under crops, mainly wheat, barley, and beans, with some peas, vetches, and potatoes. (fn. 712) Tuffley in 1840 had 600 a. of meadow and pasture compared with 120 a. of arable. (fn. 713) In 1866 most agricultural land in the hamlets was devoted to permanent grassland and only southeast of Gloucester in Barton St. Mary was as much land under arable crops as under grass. The hamlets returned 562 cattle, including 190 milk cows, 685 sheep, of which Longford accounted for 415, and 672 pigs, most of them in Barton St. Mary, Longford, and Wotton. The principal arable crops were wheat and potatoes, and significant acreages in Longford were also used for other roots and in Tuffley for beans. (fn. 714) The land remained principally meadow and pasture and the parishes of Gloucester, Longford, Twigworth, and Wotton St. Mary (Without), which in 1905 included 2,372½ a. of permanent grass compared with 575 a. of arable, (fn. 715) returned 734 cattle, including 283 milk cows, 538 sheep, and 800 pigs in 1926, as well as large numbers of poultry. (fn. 716) Orcharding, which was increased at Innsworth in the mid 19th century, (fn. 717) remained an important feature and in 1896 covered at least 172 a. in the parishes of Gloucester, Longford, Tuffley, Twigworth, and Wotton St. Mary (Without). (fn. 718) The demands of Gloucester's growing population in the 19th century increased market gardening in the hamlets and by 1843 J. C. Wheeler's nurseries included a large area between Kingsholm and Wotton. (fn. 719) In 1851 market gardeners were fairly numerous in Longford and Twigworth, (fn. 720) and later there were several market gardens and nurseries at Longlevens (called Springfield) and Innsworth. (fn. 721) In 1896 at least 84 a., most of them in Longford parish, were devoted to such use. (fn. 722)

In the 19th century there were many small farms in the hamlets where few had over 150 a. (fn. 723) In 1896 a total of 112 agricultural occupiers was returned for Gloucester, Longford, Tuffley, Twigworth, and Wotton St. Mary (Without), (fn. 724) and of a total of 81, not including Tuffley, returned in 1926 67 had less than 50 a. and only 1 in Longford, 1 in Twigworth, and 3 in Wotton more than 150 a. (fn. 725) Several farms, including Manor farm at Longford with c. 200 a., supplied milk for sale in the city. (fn. 726) In the late 1930s inhabitants included a dairyman in Longford and a poultry farmer and 4 dairymen in the former Wotton St. Mary (Without). (fn. 727) There were several farms in Tuffley, of which one belonged to a Gloucester butcher. (fn. 728) In the mid 20th century the appropriation of land for housing steadily reduced the number and size of farms.

TRADES AND FISHERIES.

The few trades recorded in the hamlets before they were affected by the growth and commercial development of Gloucester from the early 19th century were those usual for small agricultural settlements. Longford had a carpenter, a smith, and a tailor in 1608 (fn. 729) and two smithies were worked there in the 1750s. (fn. 730) Twigworth had a carpenter in 1729. (fn. 731) In 1327 a wheelwright was apparently assessed for tax in Wotton, (fn. 732) which with Barnwood included several tradesmen in 1608. (fn. 733) Most of the tradesmen listed in Barton Street in 1608 presumably lived in the inner suburban part. (fn. 734) In the outer part there was at least one smith's shop in the mid 18th century (fn. 735) and a glue yard nearby in 1750. (fn. 736) A fisherman lived at Saintbridge in 1327 (fn. 737) and another at Longford in 1720. (fn. 738)

The principal source of fish was the Severn. Gloucester Abbey claimed fishing rights in stretches of the river touching its lands under a grant of William I, and in the later 13th century the lord of Kingsholm manor enjoyed the right to fish in the river with appropriate nets and two small boats, though not near the abbey's two fishing weirs above Westgate bridge. The higher weir, known as Each weir (fn. 739) and held under lease from the dean and chapter of Gloucester in the early 17th century, (fn. 740) was at or near Walham, (fn. 741) where a weir house was apparently standing in 1610. (fn. 742) Fishing rights in the stretch of the Severn below Gloucester castle belonged to the lord of Llanthony in the late 16th century. (fn. 743) They extended for 3½ miles (5.6 km.) and their ownership passed with Newark House until c. 1914. (fn. 744)

MILLS.

In 1086 King's Barton manor included three mills, of which two had been built since 1066, and Abbot's Barton manor one. (fn. 745) In the 1260s King's Barton had two mills, of which one was apparently in Upton St. Leonards, and Abbot's Barton had six. (fn. 746) In 1291 five were recorded on Abbot's Barton manor and one at Tuffley, (fn. 747) where a millward was assessed for the subsidy in 1327. (fn. 748) There was a mill in Walham in the later 13th century (fn. 749) but many of the mills mentioned were on the river Twyver above Gloucester. Five mill sites have been identified on the river between Saintbridge and Barton Street.

North of Saintbridge were two corn mills, presumably among those held from Abbot's Barton in the 1260s. The higher mill, standing at the east end of the lane later called Highfield Road, (fn. 750) was possibly Budel's Mill, which the abbey granted for life in the mid 1260s to Agnes the beadle and in 1277 to Walter Sevare, its agent for buying fish, (fn. 751) and of which William Jenkins acquired a lease in reversion in 1537. (fn. 752) In 1589 the mill belonged to a small copyhold estate held from Upton St. Leonards manor by William Barnes. (fn. 753) It had been enfranchised by 1618, (fn. 754) and later may have been acquired by Henry Nourse, after whose death it was sold in 1706 to John Garnons. (fn. 755) John Fisher bought it in 1805 (fn. 756) and it remained in use in the early 20th century. (fn. 757) The buildings had been removed by the late 1970s.

The lower mill, standing south of the road later called Coney Hill Road, (fn. 758) may have been that called Savage's Mill in the early 13th century (fn. 759) and Stone Mill in the mid 14th. (fn. 760) In the early 16th century it was called White's Mill (fn. 761) and in 1589 John White held it from Upton manor. (fn. 762) In 1592 the copyhold was granted to Humphrey Haynes (fn. 763) who had sold the mill to Richard Wood by 1632. (fn. 764) In 1838 it was a farmhouse held under John Higford, (fn. 765) and in 1864 it was owned by Thomas Higford Burr. Known as Wood's Mill, (fn. 766) it was licensed in 1874 for the manufacture of guncotton, (fn. 767) but later in the century it became a private residence. (fn. 768) It was demolished apparently during the construction of a road by passing Gloucester in the 1930s.

There were three mills north of Barton Street. In descending order they were sometimes called Third, Second, and First Mill in the 18th and 19th centuries. The highest, at the east end of the lane later called India Road, (fn. 769) was held from Upton manor by John Windowe in 1540 (fn. 770) and by John Thorne in 1589. (fn. 771) In 1591 the copyhold was granted to William Frankis but in 1593 it was granted again to Thorne, (fn. 772) before whose death in 1618 the mill was enfranchised. (fn. 773) About 1741 the mill was probably rebuilt as a cloth mill by the clothier Benjamin Gegg, who had moved to Barton Street from Woodchester. (fn. 774) In the 1820s and 1830s it was used as a grinding house by the Gloucester firm of Cox & Buchanan, edgetool makers. (fn. 775) In the late 19th century, when it was a corn mill known as Brown's Mill, it incorporated a timber-framed house of the late 16th century. (fn. 776) The mill ceased operating c. 1910. (fn. 777)

Goosewhite or Whitegoose Mill, the next below, stood a little way east of Goose Lane (later Millbrook Street). (fn. 778) It was first recorded in 1219 when William of Gloucester held it for life from King's Barton manor. (fn. 779) In the 1260s the mill was said to have once belonged to a writ-carrying serjeanty of the manor. (fn. 780) In the early 1220s it was held by Alfred of the barton, who granted it to Reynold le Deveneis. Alfred's interest descended to his granddaughter Denise, a minor, and by 1239 William son of Henry, to whom Henry III had granted Denise's marriage, had ejected Reynold le Deveneis from the mill. (fn. 781) Denise married Henry of Lasborough (fn. 782) but the mill was considered as an escheat in 1251 when it was granted for life to William Daubeney. (fn. 783) Edward I granted the mill and land in dower to his queen, Margaret, who in 1313 was ordered to release them to Robert Mayel and his wife Cecily, daughter and heir of Denise. (fn. 784) By the early 16th century ownership of the mill was divided with that of the small estate of which George Twissell had a moiety, (fn. 785) and in the mid 17th the grist mill was part of the estate of Lewis Roberts, who held one moiety under Gloucester corporation. (fn. 786) It had been converted into a snuff mill by 1790 when the owner was Powell Chandler, a Gloucester tobacconist. (fn. 787) It was for sale in 1805. (fn. 788) The Gloucester pinmaking firm of Hall and Lander, founded in 1813, evidently worked it as a wire mill (fn. 789) and it continued as a wire mill in 1838 when it belonged to Maria Martin. (fn. 790) Richard Cherrington and Emanuel Wilesmith, who bought the mill in 1862, had sold the site by 1865 when the development of the area for housing had begun. (fn. 791) The mill was evidently demolished at that time. (fn. 792)

Morin's Mill, downstream at the east end of Brook Street (later Station Road), (fn. 793) was named after the family which held it in the early 13th century. Roger Morin held it under the lordship of Hyde (fn. 794) and Geoffrey Morin from William of the park, who in 1220 granted 6s. rent from the mill to Gloucester Abbey. (fn. 795) Later John son of Roger son of Simon held it under Nicholas Morin. (fn. 796) In 1289 Thomas of Cossington and his wife Emme quitclaimed the mill to Richard Gabriel and his wife Joan. (fn. 797) Richard granted it to Robert de Honsum and he sold it in 1315 to John of Frocester and his wife Joan. They sold it in 1316 to John Tormarton, who granted it to Gloucester Abbey in 1318. (fn. 798) At the Dissolution Thomas Pincott held a lease of the mill (fn. 799) and Thomas Bell a lease in reversion. (fn. 800) In 1544 the Crown granted the mill to Richard Andrews and George Lisle, (fn. 801) but Bell owned it in 1559 and after his widow Joan's death in 1567 it passed to trustees for maintaining his St. Kyneburgh's almshouse. Gloucester corporation held the mill for that use from 1603 until 1836 when it passed to the municipal charity trustees. (fn. 802) The mill, the leasehold of which was acquired by the Tarne family before 1641, was known also as Pincott's Mill. (fn. 803) It was evidently destroyed at the beginning of the siege of 1643 (fn. 804) but had been rebuilt by 1649 when it was a grist mill. (fn. 805) William Binning and John Whitehead, Gloucester dyers who bought the leasehold in 1782, converted part of the mill as a dyeworks and in 1785 sold it to John Harvey Ollney, a Gloucester woolstapler. (fn. 806) Later the property, said to contain a grist mill and a dyehouse, changed hands several times, the Gloucester pinmakers Richard Goodwin and William Marsh acquiring the leasehold in 1811 and James Hall in 1834, (fn. 807) and by 1831 Edwin Jones worked it as a flock mill. A steam engine had been installed and part converted into three cottages by the early 1850s, when it also included a saw mill. In 1856 the charity trustees sold the mill, sometimes called the Puff Mill, to the Midland Railway. (fn. 808) In 1859 it was occupied by Benjamin Wheeler, a woolstapler, (fn. 809) but later the site was taken for railway development. (fn. 810)

The mill of Wotton, or of the ford, which Richard son of Niel granted to Gloucester Abbey in 1126, (fn. 811) was presumably on the Wotton or Horsbere brook north-east of Gloucester. Its site has not been identified.

By 1615 there was a corn mill on the Sud brook at Elming Row, west of the Bristol road. It adjoined the site of Llanthony Priory (fn. 812) and had been demolished by the mid 18th century. (fn. 813)

In 1885 Henry Smith owned and worked a corn mill, on a stream in Lower Tuffley, powered by steam and water. It was unused in 1896 (fn. 814) when the poor-law guardians adapted the mill house as a children's home during the smallpox epidemic in Gloucester. (fn. 815) The mill site has not been identified.

Several windmills were built near Gloucester. That recorded in 1310 presumably gave its name to the large open field east of the town (fn. 816) and occupied the site of the mill by the road from Wotton to Barton Street in 1686. (fn. 817) By 1750 that windmill had been replaced by another on a nearby site, (fn. 818) which may have been the large brick mill built by John Blanch and described in 1725 as new. (fn. 819) It had been removed by 1799. (fn. 820) A windmill in Pedmarsh field in 1604 (fn. 821) was presumably one of two on Barton farm in 1621. (fn. 822) In 1734 there was a windmill near the outer north gate of the city. (fn. 823) A windmill east of the Bristol road in 1624 (fn. 824) was presumably that in Tredworth belonging to the Llanthony estate in 1648. (fn. 825)

LOCAL GOVERNMENT.

King's Barton manor or liberty, which was part of Dudstone hundred in the 13th century, (fn. 826) had frankpledge jurisdiction over the estates held from it. (fn. 827) The liberty, which was regarded as a separate hundred in 1316 (fn. 828) but was held with Dudstone hundred from 1345, (fn. 829) included, in the hamlets, Barton Street, Kingsholm, Twigworth, and parts of Longford and Wotton. (fn. 830) Kingsholm and Twigworth formed a single tithing in the early 17th century. (fn. 831) Court books survive for King's Barton court leet for the period 1769–1841 and for 1851. It was held in October (fn. 832) with the manor court at inns in Barton Street, except in the mid 1770s when it met at the Red Lion in Kingsholm. (fn. 833) It had jurisdiction over Barton St. Michael, Kingsholm, Southgate and Woolstrop, and Twigworth, while the Dudstone court had jurisdiction over Barton St. Mary, Longford, Tuffley, Wotton, Littleworth, North Hamlet, South Hamlet, and the vill of Wotton. Each hamlet was policed by a constable and most had a tithingman and a hayward; Walham was looked after by its own or the Kingsholm hayward, and Wotton sometimes shared a hayward with Barnwood. (fn. 834) Surviving court books of King's Barton court baron cover the period 1769–1946 during which it dealt mainly with copyhold matters in Upton St. Leonards. (fn. 835)

The lord of Kingsholm manor exercised frankpledge jurisdiction by the later 18th century; a court book for the period 1783–1835 records the maintenance of paths, bridges, watercourses, and drains and the regulation of common rights in Walham. The court appointed the constable, tithingman, and hayward for Kingsholm hamlet, the hayward for Walham, and sometimes haywards for open fields and other common meadows. (fn. 836) In 1607 Sir William Cooke's bailiff had looked after Walham. (fn. 837) Presentments to a session of Brasenose College's court for Kingsholm in 1789 survive. (fn. 838)

For Abbot's Barton manor court rolls, dealing with estate matters, survive for 1291–2 and for 1351 when presentments for Longford and Wotton were recorded separately. (fn. 839) The court, which was held in a barn at the manor site, was attended by the tenants of the abbey's Longford and Wotton manors in the early 16th century. After the Dissolution the fragmentation of Abbot's Barton manor caused the demise of its court; Longford manor had its own court and the Wotton tenants attended the Barnwood court. (fn. 840) Sessions of the Longford court are recorded in court books of the bishop's Maisemore manor for the period 1753–1867. (fn. 841) For Tuffley manor court, held by the farmer of the manor in 1552 and until 1792, there are court rolls for 1558–68 when it usually met once a year to deal with estate matters, including the collection of pannage. There are also court books for 1647–1860 when its business was mostly tenurial. (fn. 842) Court rolls for Plock Court manor survive for 1588–92, 1595, and 1598. (fn. 843)

The hamlets, which were in the county of the city from 1483 until 1662, (fn. 844) were units for poorlaw and other civil purposes. (fn. 845) For poor relief Kingsholm, rated with the inhamlets, or city parts, of St. Catherine and St. Mary de Lode by the late 17th century, was treated as part of Gloucester. (fn. 846) The other hamlets, which evidently each had an overseer of the poor and levied their own rates, resisted attempts to make them support the city poor, but in 1705, when a poor rate was made for the whole of St. Catherine's parish, the overseers of Longford and Twigworth were ordered to make payments to the inhamlet's overseers. (fn. 848) In Barton Street, where in 1676 the poor were too numerous for the inhabitants to maintain, (fn. 849) Barton St. Michael had its own overseer by the 1680s. It also had a wayman or surveyor of the highways, who by 1690 received a rent charge of £1 left by George Coulstance for repairing the main road. (fn. 850)

From 1727 the hamlets sent their poor to the Gloucester workhouse (fn. 851) and collected rates for the city poor-relief corporation. Parochial divisions were used for rating purposes, Wotton St. Catherine being assessed with Longford St. Catherine and Twigworth St. Mary with Longford St. Mary. (fn. 852) The hamlets, except for Kingsholm, maintained their poor from the closure of the workhouse in 1757 and were excluded from the scheme which revived the workhouse in 1764. (fn. 853) Barton St. Michael, which had resumed responsibility for maintaining its poor by 1755, employed a salaried assistant overseer by 1818 and retained the services of a doctor from 1827. (fn. 854) Barton St. Mary had opened a workhouse in Barton Street by 1786. (fn. 855) In Tuffley in the period 1789–1835 relief took the usual forms and the number of people of weekly pay rose from 2 in 1798 to 7 in 1816. The hamlet had a poorhouse in the early 1830s. (fn. 856) Wotton St. Mary, Longford St. Catherine, and Longford St. Mary were separate poor-law units in the later 18th century. (fn. 857) Kingsholm continued to be treated as part of the city for poor relief and with North Hamlet (fn. 858) presumably comprised that part of the county which an Act of 1781 brought under the jurisdiction of the city magistrates and guardians for poor-law purposes. (fn. 859)

In the extraparochial places provisions for poor relief varied. North Hamlet was evidently rated with the inhamlet of St. Catherine by the early 18th century. (fn. 860) Littleworth was unable to support its poor in the later 1670s when the hundred of Dudstone and King's Barton was charged with part of the cost. (fn. 861) From 1727 Littleworth sent its poor to the Gloucester workhouse but the city's poor-relief corporation returned them several times because of the non-payment of Littleworth's rates. (fn. 862) From 1757 Littleworth maintained its poor. (fn. 863) In the period 1793–1834 relief took the usual forms and in the mid 1790s, when 2 or 3 families received regular help, the annual cost rose from under £10 to over £20. (fn. 864) In South Hamlet, where only one person received permanent help in 1803, the principal landholder, presumably the owner of the Llanthony estate, supported the poor before 1813, when five people were on permanent and nine on occasional relief. (fn. 865) In 1773 Giles Greenaway, tenant of the estate, had paid for road repairs at Llanthony. (fn. 866) The vill of Wotton, which in 1777 was said to repair parts of the turnpike roads leading from Wotton Pitch towards Cirencester and Cheltenham, maintained its poor; (fn. 867) only one person was given regular and one occasional assistance in 1803 and no help was provided in the years 1813–15. (fn. 868)

The cost of poor relief in the hamlets and extraparochial places rose in the later 18th and early 19th century and, excluding Kingsholm and North Hamlet, was £699 in 1803. There were few poor save in the Barton hamlets which accounted for 31 of the 68 paupers on regular aid in 1803. Apart from Littleworth and Longford the numbers on both permanent and occasional relief had risen by 1813. (fn. 869) Annual expediture on relief in the area in the later 1820s averaged £1,039, nearly half of which was incurred by the Barton hamlets. In the early 1830s it averaged £1,209 with the greatest increases sustained by Littleworth and South Hamlet, (fn. 870) both areas affected by the development of Gloucester's docks. (fn. 871) From 1835 the hamlets and extraparochial places were in the Gloucester poor-law union. (fn. 872)

In the 19th century the need for public services in the area of the hamlets was usually met by bodies acting for the city and its suburbs. (fn. 873) Local boards of health were established for the county parts of Barton St. Mary and Barton St. Michael in 1863 and for Kingsholm St. Catherine in 1865. Mainly because of boundary complexities they were ineffective, even though the Barton boards acted together. (fn. 874) Powers under an Act of 1871 to replace the Kingsholm St. Catherine board by one for a district north-east of the city were not used. (fn. 875) The three boards were dissolved when the Gloucester city boundary was extended in 1874 and those parts of their districts not in the enlarged city were transferred to the rural sanitary authority. (fn. 876) Also dissolved in 1874 was a sanitary committee for South Hamlet formed in 1873 to deal principally with the polluted Still ditch. (fn. 877) After 1885 there were several reorganizations of the civil parishes covering the area of the former hamlets and extraparochial places. Those remaining outside the city were included in Gloucester rural district until 1974 (fn. 878) when Innsworth, Longford, and Twigworth parishes became part of Tewkesbury district.