PAUNTLEY is a picturesquely beautiful parish, consisting entirely of scattered dwellings, 111 miles by road from London, 10 from Gloucester railway station, and 2 north-east from Newent, in the Western division of the county, Botloe hundred, Newent union and county court district, Forest rural deanery, Gloucester archdeaconry, and Gloucester and Bristol diocese, situated on the Leadon. The church of St. John the Baptist is a small but fine old building, in the Norman style, having a very perfect Norman chancel arch: it has a nave, chancel, tower with 3 bells, and porch: the chancel window is of stained glass. The register dates from the year 1538. The living is a vicarage, yearly value £80, in the gift of the bishop of the diocese, and held by the Rev. Thomas Palling Little, M. A., of Trinity College, Oxford. There is a school for boys at Payford, supported by Osman Ricardo, esq,: and there is a Sunday school held in connection with the Church. There are springs of water of a saline character on the banks of the Leadon, which flows here with a serpentine course, and passes through the northern boundary of the county under precipitous banks. The manorial rights are attached to the Crown. Osman Ricardo, esq., is chief landowner. The soil is in general a sandy loam, but in some parts clay; subsoil, rock. The surface is beautifully diversified and undulating. The crops are wheat, turnips, and orchard produce. The area is 1,900 acres, and the population in 1861 was 233; gross estimated rental, £2,994; rateable value, £2,687.

POOL HILL is a hamlet, about one-and-a-half miles west of the church, and about the centre of the parish: here is a National school, completed in 1870, which is intended to be used as a chapel of ease to the parish church: and here is also a Wesleyan chapel.

Parish Clerk, Henry Davies.

Letters through Gloucester. Newent is the nearest money order office.

Mr. Ricardo's School, Edward Cerris, master.

 

BUTLER John, farmer, Pauntley court

CHEW Thomas Ridler, farmer, The Panthouse

FOWLER William, farmer, Ryle house

PRICE Charles, farmer, Hayes

SANDFORD George, farmer, Ketford bridge

SMITH George, shopkeeper

SMITH Henry, farmer, Aylesmore

SMITH Sidney, miller, Payford mill

STEPHENS Elizabeth (Mrs.), shopkeeper

TOWNSEND Matthew, blacksmith

WIGLEY William, farmer, White house

 

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