In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Thornbury like this:
THORNBURY, a small town, a parish, a subdistrict, a district, and a hundred, in Gloucester. The town stands in Berkeley Vale, 5¾ miles W by N of Wickwar r. station, and 12 NNE of Bristol; has remains of a palatial castle, founded in 1511 by Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, and never completed; ranks as a borough, governed by a mayor and 12 aldermen; is a seat of petty sessions and county courts, and a polling place; and has a post-office‡ under Bristol, a banking office, a reading room, a police station, a later English cruciform church restored in 1866, three dissenting chapels, an endowed grammar-school with £57 a year, another endowed school -with £42, charities £141, a weekly market on Saturday, and three annual fairs. ...
Real property, £3,650. Pop., 1,497. Houses, 336.—The parish contains also three tythings and a chapelry; extends to the Severn; and comprises 13,222 acres of land, and 2,510 of water. Pop., 4,494. Houses, 983. T. Castle is a seat of H. Howard, Esq.; and Eastwood Park is the seat of Sir G. S. Jenkinson, Bart. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol. Value, £500.* Patron, Christchurch, Oxford. The p. curacies of Falfield, Oldbury-on-Severn, and Rangeworthy are separate benefices. --The sub-district contains 4 parishes. Acres, 21,617. Pop., 5,870. Houses, 1,281.—The district includes also Berkeley and Almondsbury sub-districts, and comprises 65,840 acres. Poor rates in 1863, £7,669. Pop. in 1851, 16,454; in 1861, 16,499. Houses, 3,459. Marriages in 1863, 84; births, 521,-of which 34 were illegitimate; deaths, 319,-of which 115 were at ages under 5 years, and 13 at ages above 85. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 844; births, 4,462; deaths, 2,756. The places of worship, in 1851, were 19 of the Church of England, with 5,567 sittings; 9 of Independents, with 1,967 s.; 3 of Baptists, with 424 s.; 1 of Quakers, with 240 s.; 15 of Wesleyans, with 2,890 s.; 3 of Wesleyan Reformers, with 235 s.; and 1 of Calvinistic Methodists, with 120 attendants. The schools were 19 public day-schools, with 1,119 scholars; 31 private day-schools, with 604 s.; 27 Sunday schools, with 1,948 s.; and 1 evening school for adults, with 12 s. The workhouse is in Kington tything.-The hundred contains 7 parishes and a part; and is cut into two divisions, lower and upper. Acres, 20,759 and 5,845. Pop. in 1851, 6,344 and 1,648; in 1861, 7,917. Houses, 1,753.
Thornbury through time
Thornbury is now part of South Gloucestershire district. Click here for graphs and data of how South Gloucestershire has changed over two centuries. For statistics about Thornbury itself, go to Units and Statistics.
GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of Thornbury in South Gloucestershire | Map and description, A Vision of Britain through Time.
URL: https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/11362
Date accessed: 06th November 2024
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