Place:Gloucester St. Nicholas, Gloucestershire, England

Gloucester St. Nicholas was an ancient parish within the City of Gloucester and also a civil parish between 1866 and 1896. The parish has been part of the Church of England since the 16th century.

The Victoria County History of Gloucestershire has an article on the history of the parish of St. Nicholas in Gloucester from which the following facts have been taken.

• The church itself was located in Lower Westgate Street and had parochial rights by the end of the 12th century.
• The benefice was united with St. Mary de Lode in 1951 and the church, which was closed in 1967, and was declared redundant in 1971 when the parish was merged with St. Mary's.
• The parish registers, which contain entries for the castle (Gloucester Castle which also served as the local prison), survive from 1558.
• Gloucester St. Nicholas Without, which is considered a separate parish in the list of parishes in registration districts, was, in fact, the prison. The third map in the chapter "Gloucester, 1835-1985: Topography" entitled "Gloucester in 1900" shows the prison to the right of the river just above the map legend. This map can be blown up for further inspection in Windows Photo Viewer or a similar program.

The parish is located immediately south of Gloucester Cathedral in the docks area of the city.

Registration Districts

• Gloucester Registration District (1837 - 1896)

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 4, the City of Gloucester 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
• England and Wales Jurisdictions 1851 provides a map illustrating the locations of the various Gloucester parishes. Enter "Gloucester" in the search box at the top left, then select the parish required from the list below the search box.