Bitton, Gloucestershire Genealogy

England   Gloucestershire

Parish History
Bitton is an Ancient Parish in the county of Gloucestershire. Oldland,_Gloucestershire is a chapelry of Bitton.

BITTON (St. Mary), a parish, in the union of Keynsham, Upper division of the hundred of Langley and Swinehead, W. division of the county of Gloucester; containing, with the chapelries of Hanham and Oldland, and the district of Kingswood, 9338 inhabitants, of whom 2413 are in the hamlet of Bitton, 6¼ miles (E. S. E.) from Bristol. This parish is bounded on the south by the river Avon, and comprises by admeasurement 7602 acres; the surface is varied. The substratum abounds with coal, which is worked to a considerable extent; large quantities of iron-ore are found, and copper is rolled at Swineford: the manufacture of hats, pins, and paper, is also carried on. A railway runs through the hamlet for the conveyance of coal to the Avon; the Via Julia also passes through it. The living is a discharged vicarage, valued in the king's books at £18. 15.; patron, the Prebendary of Bitton in the Cathedral of Salisbury. The tithes of the hamlet of Bitton have been commuted for £310 and £265, payable respectively to the impropriator and the vicar: the glebe consists of 7 acres, with a residence. The church is a large and handsome edifice, partly Norman and partly in the later English style, with a finely ornamented tower. There are separate incumbencies at Hanham and Kingswood; a chapel of ease at Oldland; and places of worship for Independents, Moravians, and Wesleyans. At Field Grove is a mineral spring.

From: 'Bishops-Wood - Blaby', A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 267-270. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=50804 Date accessed: 30 March 2011.

Civil Registration
Birth, marriages and deaths were kept by the government, from July 1837 to the present day. The civil registration article tells more about these records. There are several Internet sites with name lists or indexes. A popular site is FreeBMD.

Church records
Contributor: Include here information for parish registers, Bishop’s Transcripts, non conformists and other types of church records, such as parish chest records. Add the contact information for the office holding the original records. Add links to the Family History Library Catalog showing the film numbers in their collection

Census records
Contributor: Include an overview if there is any unique information, such as the census for X year was destroyed. Add a link to online sites for indexes and/or images. Also add a link to the Family History Library Catalog showing the film numbers in their collection.

Poor Law Unions
Keynsham Poor Law Union, Somerset

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Gloucestershire Probate Records to find the name of the court having primary jurisdiction. Scroll down in the article to the section Court Jurisdictions by Parish.

Maps and Gazetteers
Maps are a visual look at the locations in England. Gazetteers contain brief summaries about a place.
 * England Jurisdictions 1851
 * Vision of Britain

Web sites
Contributor: Add any relevant sites that aren’t mentioned above.