Place:Stowell, Gloucestershire, England

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Family History Library Catalog

Stowell is a small village in Gloucestershire, England, north of Cirencester.

A Vision of Britain through Time provides the following description of Stowell from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72:

"STOWELL, a parish in Northleach [registration] district, Gloucester; on the river Coln, 8 miles NE by N of Cirencester [railway] station. Post town, Northleach, under Cheltenham. Acres: 823. Real property: £1,002. Population: 41. Houses: 6. The manor gave the title of Baron to the Earl of Eldon, and belongs now to his representatives. The living is a rectory, annexed to Hampnett. The church is ancient."

Stowell was a civil parish in Northleach Rural District from 1894 until 1935 when it was abolished and absorbed into the neighbouring parish of Yanworth. Ecclesiastically, however, it remained linked to Hampnett. The area was completely transferred into the non-metropolitan Cotswold District in 1974.

Research Tips

• Gloucestershire Archives in Gloucester is where paper and microfilm copies of all records for this part of Gloucestershire are stored.

Online sources which may also be helpful:

• Stowell from A History of the County of Gloucester: Volume 9/Bradley hundred] in the Victoria County History series provided by the website British History Online
• Three maps on the A Vision of Britain through Time website illustrate the changes in political boundaries over the period 1830-1945. All have expanding scales and on the second and third this facility is sufficient that individual parishes can be inspected.

• Gloucestershire Hundreds as drawn in 1832. This map was prepared before The Great Reform Act of that year. Note the polling places and representation of the various parts of the county.
• Gloucestershire in 1900, an Ordnance Survey map showing rural districts, the boundaries of the larger towns, the smaller civil parishes of the time, and some hamlets and villages in each parish
• Gloucestershire in 1943, an Ordnance Survey map showing the rural districts after the changes to their structure in the 1930s

• A Vision of Britain through Time has a group of pages of statistical facts for almost every parish in the county
• GENUKI gives pointers to other archive sources as well as providing some details on each parish. 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. The compiler has gone to a lot of work to provide this material. Respect his copyright.
• The FamilySearch Wiki for Gloucestershire provides a similar but not identical series of webpages to that provided by GENUKI
• English Jurisdictions, a supplementary website to FamilySearch outlining local parish boundaries in the middle on the 19th century. The information provided is especially useful for establishing the relationship of the ecclesiastical parishes in large towns and cathedral cities.
• Ancestry UK has recently added Gloucestershire Burials, 1813-1988; Confirmations, 1834-1913; Baptisms, 1813-1913; Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1813; and Marriages and Banns, 1754-1938. (entry dated 1 Aug 2015)