Wick and Abson

"ABSON, (or Abston), a parish in the hundred of Pucklechurch, in the county of Gloucester, 5 miles S.W. of Chipping Sodbury, and 7 miles N.E. of Bristol. It is united with Wick, and contains the hamlets of Holbrook and Bridge-Yate. It is situated on a branch of the river Avon on the Cotswolds, at the foot of a rocky hill which rises to the height of 200 feet, and consists of alternate strata of limestone and petrosilex.

An ancient camp exists here which is considered to be of British origin. This parish was formerly a possession of Glastonbury Abbey. Toghill, the scene of an engagement in 1642, in which Waller suffered a defeat, and Sir B. Granville was killed, is included in it. Coal and lime are obtained here. Roman coins, urns, bricks, &c., have been found. The living is a perpetual curacy united with the vicarage of Pucklechurch, in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol. The church is dedicated to St. James."

"BRIDGE-PATE, a hamlet in the parish of Abson, and hundred of Pucklechurch, in the county of Gloucester, 8 miles to the E. of Bristol. It is on the Cotswold hills."

"HOLBROOK, a hamlet in the parish of Abson, county Gloucester, 4 miles W. of Marshfield."

"WICK AND ABSON, a parish in the hundred of Puckle-Church, county Gloucester, 7 miles N.E. of Bristol, and 4 miles N.W. of Bath. The village is situated at the foot of a rugged bill, 200 feet high, composed of alternate layers of limestone and petro-silex. It is a polling-place for the county elections, joined to Abson. There are several collieries, and lead-ore is-found. At Toghill in this parish the Parliamentarians under Sir William Waller were defeated by the Marquis of Hertford in 1642, when Sir Beville Granville was slain, to whose memory a monument has been erected on Lansdown Hill, near Bath, by his descendant the late Earl of Bath. The living is a curacy annexed, with that of Westerleigh, to the vicarage of Puckle-Church. The church is dedicated to St. James. There is an ancient camp, supposed to be British, and the neighbourhood abounds with antique remains and natural curiosities."

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