Great Badminton

"GREAT BADMINTON, a parish in the upper division of the hundred of Grumbalds Ash, in the county of Gloucester, 4 miles to the E. of Chipping Sodbury. Chippenham is its post town. It is situated in the southern part of the county on the border of Wiltshire. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol, in the patronage of the Duke of Beaufort. The church, which was rebuilt in 1789, stands in the Park. It contains the monuments of the Beauforts, which were erected in the former edifice, some of them by Rysbrach, and is dedicated to St. Michael. There is a free school and an almshouse, founded by the Duchess of Beaufort in 1705, the endowments of which amount to £94 per annum.

Badminton Park, nearly ten miles in circuit, adorned with rich wood, is the seat of the Duke of Beaufort. The present mansion occupies the site of Badminton Castle, the seat of the Botelers for many generations, and was built by the first Duke of Beaufort in 1682. It is in the French style of architecture, and the interior is magnificently decorated. Wood carving, by Gibbons, adorns the dining-room, and the picture gallery contains an interesting series of family portraits, besides works by Raphael, Guido, Carlo Dolci, and Salvator Rosa.

The Beaufort hounds, declared, at the Dog Show held in London in 1862, to be unrivalled by any in England, meet here. The parish, with which the park is almost co-extensive, has an area of 1,735 acres."

[Description(s) from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868)
Transcribed by Colin Hinson ©2003]