Flaxley, Gloucestershire

Description
Flaxley, a village and a parish in Gloucestershire, near the river Severn, 3 miles N of Newnham, which is the post town. Acreage, 1066; population of the civil parish, 99; of the ecclesiastical, 114£ A Cistercian abbey was founded here in the time of Stephen by Roger Fitz-Milo, second Earl of Hereford; was endowed by Henry II. with an iron forge in Dean Forest, and with several neighbouring manors ; and was given at the Dissolution to the Kingstons, and passed to the Boevey family. Of the original buildings only the refectory and abbot's room remain with a few curiosities. Flaxley Abbey, the seat of the lord of the manor, was rebuilt in 1777, and retains some vestiges of the monastic edifice. It was the residence of Mrs Boevey, the widow to whom Addison's Sir Roger de Coverley paid court in vain. There is a monument to her in the church.- the scenery in Flaxley and its neighbourhood is picturesque. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol; net yearly value, £168 with residence. The church was erected in 1856 from designs by Sir Gilbert Scott, and has an alabaster reredos and a good stained east window.