Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for BRIAVELS (St.)

BRIAVELS (St.), a village, a parish, and a hundred, in Gloucester. The village stands near Offa's Dyke and the river Wye, 4½ miles SSW of Coleford, and 5 NW of Woolaston r. station; and has a post office‡ under Coleford. It formerly was a market-town; and it long made a figure as a defence-post against the Welsh. A castle was built at it, in the time of Henry I., by Fitzwalter, Earl of Hereford; enlarged and strengthened at several periods; and governed by distinguished peers from the reign of King John till that of George III. The entrance-gateway, two demi-rounders flanking the gateway, a long pile of building behind, and some interesting features in the interior still remain. Tradition says that King-John was either a guest or a prisoner in the castle, and that he wrote on it,-

St. Briavel's water and Whyral's wheat
Are the best bread and water King John ever eat.

The parish includes also the places called the Fence, the Bearse, Mawkins-Hayells, and part of Hudnolls, sometimes deemed extra-parochial; and is in the district of Chepstow. Acres, 5,104. Real property, £6,183. Pop., 1,261. Houses, 276. The manor belongs to the Duke of Beaufort. Roman coins have been found at Clearwell. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol. Value, £180. Patrons, the Dean and Chapter of Hereford. The church was recently restored. There are an Independent chapel and a national school.-The hundred contains ten other parishes, and part of another. Acres, 46,412. Pop., 28,215. Houses, 5,768.


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

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a village, a parish, and a hundred"   (ADL Feature Type: "populated places")
Administrative units: St Briavels CP/AP/Ch       St Briavels Liberty/Hundred       Gloucestershire AncC
Place names: BRIAVELS ST     |     ST BRIAVELS
Place: St Briavels

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