Description
Thornbury, a small market-town, the head of a poor-law union and county court district, and a parish, in Gloucestershire. The town stands in Berkeley Vale, 11 miles NNE of Bristol, 115 by road and 135 by railway from London. It has a station at the terminus of a short branch of the M.R. from Yate, and a post, money order, and telegraph office (R.S.O.) It is an ancient town and was formerly a municipal borough, but the corporation was extinguished by the Municipal Corporations Act of 1883. The town consists of three streets meeting in the form of the letter Y. A castle was erected here by Edward Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, who was executed for high treason in 1521. The castle was commenced in 1511, and was left unfinished. This magnificent pile of buildings was partially restored in 1849, and is now the seat of a branch of the Howard family. The church is of Perpendicular architecture, was restored in 1848, and consists of chancel, clerestoried nave, aisles, chapels, and a fine tower, restored in 1889, with openwork battlements and pinnacles. It contains sedilia, piscinas, an ancient font, an altar tomb of 1624 to Sir John Stafford, Governor of Bristol Castle, and monuments to members of the Howard family. There are Baptist, Congregational, and Wesleyan chapels. Petty sessions and county courts are held at the court-house. Thornbury has a police station, a bank, a workhouse, and an endowed grammar school founded in 1606. Cossham Hall is used for lectures, concerts, &c. A market is held on the second Wednesday in the month, and a hiring fair on the Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday before 25 March. The parish contains also the tithings of Falfield, Morton, and Oldbury-on-Severn, and the chapelry of Rangeworthy; extends to the Severn, and comprises 11,806 acres of land and 15 of water, with 527 of tidal water and 2554 of foreshore; population of the civil parish, 4252; of the ecclesiastical, 2671. The civil parish was subdivided in 1894 into three parishes, Thornbury, Oldbury, and Falfield, the boundaries being those of the ecclesiastical parishes. Thornbury has a parish council of eleven members, Oldbury one of seven, and Falfield one of five. Falfield, Eangeworthy, and Oldbury-on-Severn are separate ecclesiastical parishes. Thornbury Castle, Thornbury Park, Eastwood Park, and Kyneton are chief residences. The living of Thornbury is a vicarage in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol; net value, £326 with residence. Patron, Christ Church, Oxford.
Thornbury or Southern Parliamentary Division, of Gloucestershire was formed under the Redistribution of Seats Act of 1885, and returns one member to the House of Commons. Population, 62,951. The division includes the following:- Thornbury-Aldmondsbury, Alveston, Aust, Elberton, Hill, Iron Acton (including Acton Ilgar), Littleton-on-Severn, Olveston-with-Tockington, Rangeworthy, Redwick and Northwick, Rockhampton, Thornbury, Tytherington; Sodbury- Acton Turville, Alderley, Ashton (Cold), Doddington, Dyrham and Hinton, Great Badminton, Hawkesbury, Horton, Marshfield, Pucklechurch, Sodbury (Chipping), Sodbury (Little), Sodbury (Old), Tormarton, Wapley and Codrington, Westerleigh, West Littleton, Wick and Abson, Wickwar, Yate; Lawford's Gate (except the part included in the extended borough of Bristol) - Bitton, Compton Greenfield, Doynton, Frampton Cotterell, Filton, Hanham, Henbury (except the tithings of Aust, and Redwick and Northwick), Mangotsfield, Oldland, Siston, Stoke Gifford, Westbury-on-Trym, Winterbourne.
