Place:Bisley Hundred, Gloucestershire, England

The Hundreds of Gloucestershire, as with hundreds in other English counties, were the original geographic divisions of the county for administrative, military and judicial purposes. Each hundred covered a number of parishes. The introduction of civil registration in 1837 was accompanied by the creation of other groups of parishes such as Sanitary Districts and Poor Law Unions.

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

"The hundred contains seven parishes. Acres: 27,003. Population: 18,483. Houses: 4,163."

A much more extensive description of the Bisley Hundred will be found in the Victoria County History of Gloucestershire found in the website British History Online.

Bisley is one of the hundreds of Gloucestershire located in the Cotswold Hills, well-known for its golden-coloured building stone.

Parishes

• Bisley
• Edgeworth
• Miserden
• Painswick
• Sapperton
• Stroud
• Winstone

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:

• A History of the County of Gloucester: Volume 11/Bisley 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