Down Ampney, Gloucestershire

Description
Ampney-Down, Down-Ampney, or Down-Amney, a parish in Gloucestershire, on Ampney brook, the Thames and Severn Canal, and Ermine Street, 2 1/4 miles NNE of Cricklade, and 6 ESE of Cirencester. It has a post office under Cricklade, which is the money order and telegraph office. Acreage, 2541; population, 304. The manor belonged at Domesday to Ralph du Todini, and passed to the Duchy of Lancaster, to the Villiers family, to Speaker Hungerford, to Secretary Craggs, and to the Eliots. A mansion built on it in the time of Henry VIII., by Sir Anthony Hungerford, still stands, but has been much altered by modern additions. The Earl of St Germans is lord of the manor and sole landowner. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol; net value, £227. Patron, Christ Church College, Oxford. The church is Early English, built about the year 1260 by the Knights Templars, and was partly rebuilt about 1845, partly repaired in 1863. It consists of chancel, clerestoried nave, aisles, south transept, south porch, and a massive embattled western tower, with pinnacles and a spire. In the south transept is a fine tomb, with effigies of Sir Nicholas de Villiers in mail and surcoat (1294) and his wife.