Leonard Stanley, Gloucestershire

Description
Leonard Stanley or Stanley St Leonards, a village and a parish in Gloucestershire. The village stands 1 mile E by S of Frocester station on the M.R., 1 1/2 S by E of Stone-house, and 3 1/4 miles SW by W of Stroud; was once a market-town; was nearly all destroyed by fire in 1686; and has a post and money order office under Stonehouse; telegraph office, King Stanley. The parish contains also the hamlet of Downton, and includes the detached tract of Lorridge. Acreage, 824; population of the civil parish, 763; of the ecclesiastical, 771. The manor belonged at Domesday to Richard de Berkeley. Leonard Stanley House and The Grange are the chief residences. The Priory, formerly the residence of the lord of the manor, is now a farmhouse. A Benedictine priory, a cell to Gloucester Abbey, was founded here in 1146 by one of the Berkeleys; was given at the dissolution to the Kingstons; and has left some fragmentary remains which form part of the buildings of the priory farm. Sandford's Knoll commands an extensive and beautiful view. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol; gross value, £300 with residence. The church is Norman and cruciform, is said to have belonged to the priory, has a low massive tower of interesting character, and contains monuments of the Sandfords and of the last prior, Croose. There is a Wesleyan chape