Place:Awre, Gloucestershire, England

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Family History Library Catalog

the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Awre is a village and civil parish in the Forest of Dean District of Gloucestershire, England. It is on a point of land on the west bank of the River Severn just before the river narrows. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 1,644. The parish includes Awre and the larger village of Blakeney, and the hamlets and villages of Etloe, Gatcombe, Two Bridges and Viney Hill.

Awre was an urban district from 1894 until 1935 when it lost that status and became a civil parish. The greater part of the civil parish was located in East Dean Rural District but a small area was transferred to West Dean.

A 19th century description

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

"AWRE, a tything and a parish in the district of Westbury-on-Severn, Gloucester. The tything lies on the river Severn, and on the South Wales railway, 2 miles SE of Newnham; and has a post office under Newnham, and a [railway] station. The parish includes also Bledisloe, Hagloe, Etloe, and Blakeney. Acres: 6,115; of which 2,035 are water. Real property: £10,888. Population: 1,526. Houses: 287. The property is much subdivided. Part of the land has been washed away by the Severn. Iron pyrites occur. The weaving of cloth is carried on. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol. Value: £530. The church is in good repair. The vicarage of Blakeney is a separate charge. Sternhold, one of the translators of the English metrical version of the Psalms, was a native."

Registration Districts

• Westbury-on-Severn Registration District (1837 - 1937)
• Forest of Dean Registration District (1937 - 2006)
• Gloucestershire Registration District (2006 - )

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:

• Awre from A History of the County of Gloucester: Volume 5/Bledisloe hundred in the Victoria County History series provided by 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