Dyrham, Gloucestershire Family History Guide
Dyrham is an Ancient Parish in the county of Gloucestershire.
Alternative names: Dirham and Hinton
Parish church: St. Peter
Parish registers begin: 1568
Nonconformists include: Independent/Congregational
Table of Contents
Adjacent Parishes
- Doynton
- Wapley with Codrington
- West Littleton
- Westerleigh
- Marshfield
- Pucklechurch
- Tormarton
- Cold Ashton
Parish History
The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870
DIRHAM AND HINTON, or Dyrham, a parish in Chipping-Sodbury district, Gloucester; on an affluent of the river Avon, among the Cotswolds, contiguous to Wilts, 4½ miles S by E of Chipping-Sodbury, and 6 E of Mangotsfield r. station. It has a post office, of the name of Dyrham, under Chippenham.
Acres, 3,005. Real property, £5,462. Pop., 457. Houses, 95. The property is divided among a few. Dirham Park is the seat of G. W. Blathwayt, Esq.; and contains a fine collection of paintings. A camp on Hinton-hill is thought by some to have been a Roman outpost of Bath; by others to have been formed in connexion with a battle between the Britons and the Saxons in 599. The parish is a meet for the Beaufort hounds.
The living is a rectory in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol. Value, £501. Patron, G. W. Blathwayt, Esq. The church is early English, with a square tower; and has two brasses.
There is an endowed school.
Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].
The Parliamentary Gazetteer of England and Wales 1851
Dirham and Hinton, a parish in the hund. of Grumbald’s-ash, union of Chipping-Sodbury, county of Gloucester; 4½ miles south by east of Chipping-Sodbury, near the post-road from Bath to Farringdon. Acres 3,290. Houses 91. A. P. £4,994. Pop., in 1801, 437; in 1831, 516.
Living, a rectory, formerly in the archd. and dio. of Gloucester, now in the archd. of Bristol and dio. of Gloucester and Bristol; rated at £14 12s. 6½d.; gross income £520. Patron, in 1835, W. Blathwayte, Esq.
This parish possesses 2 Sunday and daily National, and 2 daily, schools; one is endowed with £17 12s., and another with £37, per annum. The sum of £64 is here annually divided among poor clergymen, or widows of clergymen. Poor rates, in 1837, £220.
In the vicinity are some traces of what has been supposed to have been a Saxon camp; but a writer in the 39th volume of the Monthly Magazine, struck with the resemblance of the spot to a Grecian stadium, considers it to have been a cursus annexed in Roman times to the city of Bath. It is a flat artificially levelled valley, skirted by hills, the sides of which next the valley only are cut into steps or terraces. On the tops of the hills are no earthworks or banks, so that this writer conceives fortifications to have been out of the question.
Source: The Parliamentary Gazetteer of England and Wales; A Fullarton & Co. Glasgow; 1851
Lewis Topographical Dictionary of England 1845
Dirham, or Dyrham (St. Peter), a parish, in the union of Chipping-Sodbury, Lower division of the hundred of Grumbald’s-Ash, W. division of the county of Gloucester, 4 miles (W. N. W.) from Marshfield; containing, with Hinton, 530 inhabitants.
This place is distinguished as the scene of a sanguinary conflict between Ceawlin the Saxon, and Commeail and Condidam, petty kings of the Britons, whom he slew, and took possession of their country; and there are still some remains of vast ramparts, called Barhill Camp, near which the battle occurred.
The parish comprises 2500 computed acres; the soil is partly rich loam and partly sand; the surface is diversified with hills, and the low grounds watered by the river Boyd, which has its source in several small springs that unite their streams here.
The living is a rectory, valued in the King’s books at £14. 12. 6., net income, £501; patron, W. Blathwyt, Esq. The church is a handsome building, with portions in the early and later English styles.
There are some small endowments for education.
Source: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis Fifth Edition Published London; by S. Lewis and Co., 13, Finsbury Place, South. M. DCCC. XLV.
Parish Records
FamilySearch
Administration
- County: Gloucestershire
- Civil Registration District: Chipping Sodbury
- Probate Court: Court of the Bishop of Gloucester (Episcopal Consistory)
- Diocese: Pre 1836 – Gloucester, Post 1835 – Gloucester and Bristol
- Rural Deanery: Hawkesbury
- Poor Law Union: Chipping Sodbury
- Hundred: Grumbald’s Ash
- Province: Canterbury