Marston Sicca

"MARSTON SICCA, (or Long Marston), a parish in the upper division of the hundred of Kiftsgate, county Gloucester, 6 miles N. of Chipping Campden, its post town, and 4 from the Honeybourne station on the Oxford, Worcester, and Wolverhampton railway. The village, which is small, is wholly agricultural, consisting of a long line of houses irregularly built. The parish takes the suffix to its name from the scarcity of water in the immediate neighbourhood. Charles II. is said to have disguised himself for a few days as a domestic here, after the battle of Worcester. The tithes were commuted under an Enclosure Act in 1773 for land and a money payment, which has subsequently been exchanged for a rent-charge of £420.

The living is a rectory* in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol, value £400. The church, dedicated to St. James, is a stone structure, with a tower containing two bells. The charities produce about £107 per annum, of which £101 goes to Cooper's free school. There is a National school. Fisher Tomes, Esq., is lord of the manor."

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