Place:Gloucester St. Mary-de-Lode, Gloucestershire, England

Gloucester St. Mary-de-Lode was both an ancient and a civil parish. In 1885 the parish was reduced in size to enlarge the parish of Gloucester St. John the Baptist.

As will be seen from England and Wales Jurisdictions 1851, the parish was very large and and served the eastern part of the city of Gloucester. It had ecclesiastical links with the following parishes:

• Gloucester Barton St. Mary (until 1866)
• Gloucester Holy Trinity
• Longford St. Mary
• Maisemore
• Tuffley
• Twigworth
• Upton St. Leonards
• Wotton St. Mary

(Source:A Vision of Britain through Time) These parishes were not all absorbed into Gloucester with St. Mary-de-Lode.

The church, standing just to the west of Gloucester Abbey's precinct, in the later St. Mary's Square, was pre-Conquest in origin. When first recorded, in the mid 12th century, it was subject to the abbey, and it was presumably founded to serve the abbey's extensive estates in and around Gloucester. Its parish later included Tuffley, much of Barton Street and Wotton, and parts of Kingsholm, Longford, and Twigworth. The churches of Barnwood, Maisemore, and Upton St. Leonards were originally dependent on it. The present name of the church, recorded from 1523, was taken from a passage of the nearby Old Severn, a channel of the Severn; in the Middle Ages it was usually called St. Mary-before-the-abbey-gate and in the 16th century it was also known as St. Mary Broadgate. From 1778 Holy Trinity was held with St. Mary de Lode and by 1838 the benefices were considered united. In 1951 St. Nicholas was united with St. Mary. (Source:Victoria County History of Gloucestershire)

Registration Districts

• Gloucester Registration District (1837 - 1896)

Abolished 26.3.1896 to become part of the parish of Gloucester.

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.