Place:Hasfield, Gloucestershire, England

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Family History Library Catalog

the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Hasfield is a civil parish in Gloucestershire, England and lies 6 miles southwest of the town of Tewkesbury and 7 miles north of the city of Gloucester. It is situated on the west bank of the River Severn with much of its land residing below the 50-foot contour and as such subject to regular flooding.

Hasfield parish was located in Tewkesbury Rural District from 1894 until 1935 and from 1935 until 1974 in Gloucester Rural District. Since 1974 it has been part of Tewkesbury District or Borough. Hasfield was originally a chapelry in the ecclesiastical parish of Deerhurst.

Hasfield parish is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 noting it had 59 villagers, 54 smallholders and 51 slaves, while in 2010 the Gloucestershire County council estimated there were 111 residents. The parish became the seat of the Pauncefootes of Pauncefoote Court in 1199 and remained in their hands until 1598. All that remains of the original manor house appears to be an ancient gateway with several blank escutcheons found near the parish church.

Hasfield Court is built on the same site and is in and of itself of note being listed by English Heritage as a Grade II* building. The manor house changed hands several times and once belonged (1847-63) to the architect Thomas Fulljames. The house was sold in 1863 to William Baker, a bachelor, of Fenton House, Staffs, who owned a pottery at Fenton where he built several municipal buildings and Christ Church, the parish church. His nephew, William Meath Baker, was a patron and friend of Sir Edward Elgar (1857-1934). Elgar based his Enigma Variation no.4 on him, and nos. 3 and 10 on WMB's brother-in-law and niece, respectively. Hasfield Court remains in the ownership of the Meath Baker family.

Registration Districts

• Tewkesbury Registration District (1837 - 1937)
• Gloucester Rural Registration District (1937 - 1974)
• Gloucester (post-1974) Registration District (1974 - 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:

• Hasfield from A History of the County of Gloucester: Volume 8/Westminster 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