Description
Minchinhampton, a market-town and a parish in Gloucestershire. The town stands on a gentle declivity, near the Thames and Severn Canal, 1 mile S of Brimscombe station on the G.W.R., and 4 miles SE of Stroud. It was given by William the Conqueror to the nunnery of Caen; took thence the first part of its name, by corruption of Monachyn, signifying a nun; passed to the Windsors and the Sheppards; figured long as a place of considerable importance, but has latterly declined; consists chiefly of four streets at right angles to one another, but is irregularly built; and has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Stroud, a police station, a church, a Baptist chapel, almshouses for eight aged women, and a dispensary. The church was built in the time of Henry III. by the nuns of Caen, while the beautiful and unique S transept, with stone roof and rose window, was built in 1382, was partially rebuilt in 1842, is Decorated English and cruciform, with central tower, surmounted by a truncated spire, and contains several curious brasses. Fairs for horses, cattle, and sheep are held on Trinity Monday and 27 Oct.; woollen cloth manufacture is carried on; and there are a few mailings in the neighbourhood and a brewery at Forwood. The civil parish includes the hamlets of Amberley, Box, Brimscombe, Burleigh, Hyde, Littleworth, and St ChIoe-Longfords. Acreage, 4637; population of the civil parish, 3936; of the ecclesiastical, 1866. By order of Council in 1840 Amberley and Brimscombe were separated from Minchinhampton for ecclesiastical purposes. The manor belongs to the Ricardo family. Gatcombe Park, The Lammas, Box House, and The Coigne are the chief residences. A large common on the W side of the town was given to the inhabitants in the time of Henry VIII. by Dame Alice Hampton, and comprised originally about 1000 acres, but has been diminished by successive encroachments to little more than 500 acres. A remarkable entrenchment is on the common, extends nearly 3 miles from Littleworth to a valley on the opposite side of the town, called Woeful Lane Bottom, and is conjectured to have been the scene of a great overthrow of the Danes-possibly the much-disputed site of the battle of Ethandune in 879. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol; net value, £222 with residence.
Villages, Hamlets, &c.
Amberley, a hamlet in Minchinhampton parish, and an ecclesiastical parish in Minchinhampton and Rod borough parishes, Gloucestershire. The hamlet stands near Wood-chester station on the Stonehouse and Nailsworth section of the M.R., 3 miles S of Stroud, which is the post town. The ecclesiastical parish was constituted in 1840. Population, 1494. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol; value, £330. The church was erected in 1836, and a day school for 270 scholars was built in 1887. Amberley Court, Moor Court, Highlands, and the Culver House are the chief residences. Earl Russell takes thu title of Viscount from this place. There is a Wesleyan chapel, and in the neighbouring hamlet of St Chloe an endowed school. There are remains of a large Saxon camp in the neighbourhood.
