Place:Avening, Gloucestershire, England

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Family History Library Catalog

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Avening is a village and civil parish in the Cotswold district of Gloucestershire, England, about north of Tetbury. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 1,094, decreasing to 1,031 at the 2011 census. Nearby is Gatcombe Park, the home of the Princess Royal.

A 19th century description

A Vision of Britain through Time provides the following description of Horsley from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72:

"AVENING, a parish in Stroud district, Gloucester; 3½ miles S of Brimscombe [railway] station, and 6 SSE of Stroud. It lies within the parliamentary borough of Stroud; has a post office under that town; and includes the hamlets of Aston, Forest-Green, Freeholds, West-End, Bell-Street, and Windsors-Edge, and part of the chapelry of Nailsworth. Acres: 4,428. Real property: £5,448. Population: 2,070. Houses: 479. The manor belonged anciently to the nunnery of Caen in Normandy; and passed to the Shepheards. A large tumulus, known as the Longstone, and supposed to be the sepulchre of a Danish chief occurs in a field near Gatcombe Park; and there are several barrows in which human skeletons have been found. A small manufacture of woollen cloth is carried on. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol. Value: £769. Patron: the Hon. L. H. Harman. The church is thought to have been erected by an abbess of Caen. The [perpetual] curacies of Nailsworth and Inchbrook are separate charges. There are three dissenting chapels, a school with £22 a year from endowment, and other charities £9."

The hamlets listed in Wilson's Gazetteer have all been re-directed here.

Registration Districts

Stroud (1837 - 1893)
Tetbury (1893-1937)
Cirencester (1937 - 2006)
Gloucestershire (2006 - )
In 1935 the area of the parish was reduced by 1157 acres to enlarge the area of Cherington civil parish.

Research Tips

• Gloucestershire Archives in Gloucester is where paper and microfilm copies of all records for this part of Gloucestershire are stored.

Online sources which may also be helpful:

• The Victoria History of Gloucestershire chapter on Avening, available online on the website British History Online.
• GENUKI gives pointers to other archive sources as well as providing some details on each parish in the county. The emphasis here is on ecclesiastical parishes (useful before 1837)
• A listing of all the Registration Districts in England and Wales since their introduction in 1837 and tables of the parishes that were part of each district and the time period covered with detailed notes on changes of parish name, mergers, etc. Respect the copyright on this material.
• The FamilySearch Wiki for Gloucestershire provides a similar but not identical series of webpages to that provided by GENUKI
• A Vision of Britain through Time has a group of pages of statistical facts for almost every parish in the county