Northleach, Gloucestershire

Description
Northleach, a small market-town, the head of a poor-law union, county court district, and petty sessional division, and a parish in Gloucestershire. The town stands among the Cotswolds, on the Fosse Way, 1 mile NE of the Salt Way, half a mile ESE of the Seven Springs, the source of the river Leach, 5 1/4 miles SW of Bourton-on-the Water station on the Banbury and Cheltenham branch of the G.W.R., and 10 NE of Cirenccster. It was given by King Etheldred to Gloucester Abbey, and by Henry VIII. to the Daltons; had once a corporation, but is now governed by a bailiff, elected annually at a court-leet; flourished long as a seat of cloth manufacture; went afterwards into decay; consists now chiefly of one long irregularly-built street; is a seat of petty sessions and county courts; and has a post, money order, and telegraph office (R.S.O.), a bank, a police station, a house of detention, a church, a Congregational chapel, a grammar school, two suites of almshouses for respectively six men and six women, and several other charities. The church is a large handsome Perpendicular edifice, and was restored in 1884. It consists of clerestoried nave, aisles with N and S chapels, and chancel with beautiful arched porch and lofty embattled tower, and contains an ancient font and a number of rich brasses. The grammar school was founded in 1559 by Mr H. Westwood, was reorganised under a scheme of the Endowed Schools Commissioners in 1877 into a middle-class school, and has £800 a year from endowment, and an exhibition at Pembroke College, Oxford. The institute and reading-room was built in 1886 and enlarged in 1895. There is a cemetery. A weekly market is held on Wednesday, hiring fairs are held on the Wednesday before and the Wednesday after 11 Oct., and much business is done, especially once a year, in connection with flocks of Cotswold sheep and herds of short-horned Hereford cattle, which abound in the neighbourhood and are held in high repute. Population of the town, 787. The parish contains also the tithing and hamlet of Eastington, and comprises 3997 acres; population, 1106. The workhouse of the Northleach union is at the east end of the town. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol; net value, £130 with residence. Patron, the Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol.