Place:Woolaston, Gloucestershire, England

Watchers
NameWoolaston
Alt namesOdelavestonsource: Domesday Book (1985) p 115
Wollastonesource: Family History Library Catalog
Brookendsource: hamlet in parish
Clannasource: hamlet in parish
Clap-Y-Atessource: hamlet in parish
Common Woodsource: hamlet in parish
High Woolastonsource: hamlet in parish
Keynsham (near Woolaston)source: hamlet in parish
Netherendsource: hamlet in parish
Plusterwinesource: hamlet in parish
Smallbrooksource: hamlet in parish
Stroatsource: hamlet in parish
Woolaston Commonsource: hamlet in parish
Woolaston Sladesource: hamlet in parish
Woolaston Woodsidesource: hamlet in parish
TypeParish (ancient), Civil parish
Coordinates51.7°N 2.6°W
Located inGloucestershire, England
See alsoWestbury Hundred, Gloucestershire, Englandhundred in which it was located
Lydney Rural, Gloucestershire, Englandrural district in which it was located 1894-1935
Forest of Dean District, Gloucestershire, Englanddistrict municipality in which it has been situated since 1974
source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names
source: Family History Library Catalog
the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Woolaston is a village and civil parish located since 1974 in the Forest of Dean District of Gloucestershire, England in southwest England. It lies on the north side of the Severn Estuary approximately 5 miles (8 kilometres) from the Welsh border at Chepstow and is surrounded by woodland and agricultural land.

Changing patterns of employment and home occupation have changed the character of rural villages in this area. In bygone years there were several more shops, a blacksmith and more, but they are all long gone now as the character of the village changes. Today a substantial proportion of the village commute because the village is well placed to serve the housing needs of those who work in the Forest of Dean and also in Chepstow, Bristol, Newport and even as far as Cardiff and even London. The population was 1,206 according to the UK census of 2011.

At one time the parish of Woolaston stretched between the River Severn and the River Wye, but now it does not (though it is still quite large). It was reduced by the area now in the Hewelsfield and Brockweir civil parish (formerly Hewelsfield). The Woolaston parish contains many smaller hamlets including Netherend, Woolaston Common, High Woolaston, Woolaston Woodside, Woolaston Slade, Common Wood, Stroat, Keynsham, Plusterwine, Brookend, Smallbrook, Clap-Y-Ates and Clanna. The deserted chapelry and civil parish of Lancaut is treated separately.

Registration Districts

Research Tips

Online sources which may also be helpful:

Woolaston from The Victoria History of Gloucestershire chapter on Westbury Hundred, available online on 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


This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at Woolaston. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with WeRelate, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.