Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for KEMPSFORD

KEMPSFORD, a village and a parish in Cirencester district, Gloucester. The village stands on the river Thames, at the boundary with Wilts, adjacent to the Thames and Severn canal, 3 miles S of Fairford, and 10 NW of Shrivenham r. station; is supposed to have occupied the site of a Roman settlement; and has a postoffice under Swindon. The parish contains also the hamlets of Dunfield, Horcutt, and Welford. Acres, 4, 790. Real property, £6, 924. Pop., 1, 007. Houses, 222. The property is divided among a few. The manor belonged to Earl Harold; was held, at Domesday, by Ernnlf de Hesding; passed to the Chaworths, the Despencers, the Dukes of Lancaster, the Thynnes, and the Lords Coleraine; and belongs now to Sir Gilbert East, Bart. A castle was built on it by the Thynnes, but has nearly disappeared. A battle is said to have been fought here, about 800, between the Wiccii of Gloucestershire and the Walsati of Wilts. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol. Value, £700.* Patron, the Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol. The church was built in the 11th century; altered about the middle of the 14th century, by Henry Duke of Lancaster; was recently in part restored; and has a remarkably fine central tower. There are a Roman Catholic chapel and an endowed school with £10 a year.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a village and a parish"   (ADL Feature Type: "populated places")
Administrative units: Kempsford CP/AP       Cirencester RegD/PLU       Gloucestershire AncC
Place: Kempsford

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