Place:Newington Bagpath, Gloucestershire, England

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Family History Library Catalog

the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Newington Bagpath is a former parish in Gloucestershire, England, in the Ozleworth valley. It was absorbed into the neighbouring parish of Kingscote in 1935. The parish consisted of two separate settlements of Bagpath and Newington Bagpath, although residents of both frequently refer to both as Bagpath. Kingscote parish falls under the authority of Cotswold District Council.

Newington Bagpath is sparsely populated with a population of about 100 people, with a small number of farms. The vast majority of the area is pasture or woodland. Although the population is now only about 100, census records from the 1900s show it was once about 1,000.

The parish once had its own church and school, but the former school house is now a private home and, although in private ownership, the church is now abandoned. The parish of St. Bartholomew was united with the neighbouring parish of Owlpen from medieval times to the late 19th century. The west tower is Norman work and the nave is medieval, with a chancel added by Samuel Sanders Teulon in 1858. The church in Newington Bagpath was declared redundant in about 1973.

The Rev. Alan Gardner Cornwall of Ashcroft was rector of Bagpath in the early nineteenth century and published a standard account of life in this rural area at that time. His sons emigrated to British Columbia, Canada while it was still a British colony during the gold rush. There they founded the small town of Ashcroft (see Ashcroft, British Columbia), built for travellers in search of gold, giving them a place to stay and saddle their horses. Links to Bagpath have travelled this far and photographs and maps of Bagpath and the surrounding area are held in the town's museum.

Research Tips

• The website British History Online provides eight chapters out of at least eleven of the Victoria County History Series on Gloucestershire. Some of these are outlines of topics concerning the whole county, others contain descriptions of cities, towns and villages of varying sizes throughout the area.
• Brett Langston's Registration Districts in Gloucestershire follows the history of registration district provision in Gloucestershire from its inception in 1837 through to the present day.
• GENUKI has a brief overall guide to various sources of information for the county.
• The FamilySearch Wiki on Gloucestershire provides information similar to that in GENUKI.
• Gloucestershire Archives for older sources such as pre-1837 parish registers and other contemporary documents. Address: Clarence Row, Alvin Street, Gloucester, England GL1 3DW