Alderley, a village and a parish in Gloucestershire. The village stands on a hill of the Cotwolds, above the confluence of two rivulets, 9 miles NE of Chipping Sodbury, and 4 ESE of Charfield station on the M.R. It has a post office under Wotton-under-Edge, which is the telegraph office; money order office, Hillesley. The parish comprises 818 acres; population, 78. The hill on which the village stands has yielded many curious fossils. The parish was formerly the boundary of Kingswood Forest. The estate of Alderley was the birthplace of Sir Mathew Hale, and is still in the possession of the Hale family. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol; net value, £158. The church is a handsome building, conspicuously situated on the hill. It was rebuilt about 1802, with the exception of the western tower, which dates from 1458, and contains a clock, the gift of Sir Mathew Hale. In the churchyard is the tomb, in black and white marble, of this distinguished judge, who was buried here in 1676.
