Place:Sudeley, Gloucestershire, England

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Family History Library Catalog

The parish of Sudeley has as its parish church the chapel of Sudeley Castle or Manor. For an up-to-date description of the castle and its history, including a short genealogy of the Parr family from the time of Henry VIII, see Wikipedia.

Sudeley Manor was the name of the parish until 1935. In that year the parish was combined with the parishes of Charlton Abbots and Sevenhampton to become Sudeley. Today the parish is part of the Tewkesbury District.

A 19th century description

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

"SUDELEY-MANOR, a parish in Winchcomb [registration] district, Gloucester; 6½ miles NE of Cheltenham [railway] station. Post town, Winchcomb, under Cheltenham. Acres: 2,622. Real property: £4,488. Population: 98. Houses: 17. [Sudeley] Castle was built, in the time of Henry VI., by Boteler Lord Sudeley; occupies the site of a previous castle, built soon after the Norman conquest; was taken from Boteler by Edward IV.; became the property of Lord Admiral Seymour, in the time of Edward VI., and the death-place of Queen Catherine Parr; went, in the time of Queen Mary, to Lord Chandos; was visited, in 1592, by Elizabeth; was garrisoned for the king, in the civil wars of Charles I.; was taken by the parliamentarians, and dismantled; belongs now to J.Dent, Esq.; is partly a renovated edifice, and partly a splendid ruin; and gives the title of Baron to the family of Tracy. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol. Value, £45. Patron, J.Dent, Esq. The church was recently restored."

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:

• 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. Do 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
• Unfortunately, A History of the County of Gloucester in the Victoria County History series provided by the website British History Online does not cover this part of the county
• Ancestry.co.uk has recently added Gloucestershire Burials, 1813-1988; Confirmations, 1834-1913; Baptisms, 1813-1913; Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1813; and Marriages and Banns, 1754-1938. (entry dated 1 Aug 2015)