QUEDGELEY
THE PARISH OF QUEDGELEY lies on the left-hand bank
of the River Severn 3 miles south of the centre of
Gloucester. The proximity of the city and the
course of the main Gloucester-Bristol road through
the middle of the parish have greatly influenced its
development. The suggestion, based on the evidence
of field-names and the division of the open fields,
that Quedgeley parish was an agglomeration of
parts of other parishes (fn. 1) is supported by the fact that
part of the tithes of Quedgeley was owed to the
church of Whaddon. (fn. 2) Quedgeley church or chapel,
and by inference some form of parochial independence, had been established by 1095. (fn. 3) Until 1882
Quedgeley was an irregularly shaped parish of
c. 1,450 a., including several small detached parts.
In the south-east small pieces of the parish lying
intermingled with pieces of Whaddon, Brookthorpe,
Harescombe, and Haresfield represented holdings in
shared open fields that were inclosed in 1841 and
1866. (fn. 4) On the north Quedgeley included a peninsula
reaching into Hempsted and containing Netheridge.
The eastern boundary of the parish followed for a
mile a brook sometimes known as the Qued brook;
the western boundary was and is marked by the
Severn and by the Dimor (or Fisher's) brook. The
small irregularities in the boundary were adjusted
in 1882 and 1885; in 1885 also the peninsula of
Netheridge was transferred to Hempsted. In 1900
Lower Tuffley was added to Quedgeley, but in
1935 the 135 a. of Lower Tuffley were transferred to
Gloucester and Quedgeley gained 130 a., including
Field Court, from Hardwicke. In 1951 a further
271 a. of Quedgeley, north-east of the Qued brook,
were added to Gloucester, and in 1954 Quedgeley
gained 96 a. from Hempsted, giving it an area of
1,419 a. The account that follows, however, relates
(except where otherwise stated) to the area that the
parish comprised up to 1882. (fn. 5)
The western part of Quedgeley, known as the
hamlet of Woolstrop, was by 1252 in Dudstone and
King's Barton, not Whitstone, hundred. (fn. 6) The
northern peninsula of Netheridge was represented
on maps as also part of Dudstone and King's Barton
hundred, (fn. 7) perhaps because it was regarded as part of
Woolstrop hamlet, but from 1775 it paid land-tax as
part of Whitstone hundred with the rest of Quedgeley. (fn. 8)
The parish is flat and rises at its highest only to
the 100-ft. contour. (fn. 9) It is entirely on the Lower
Lias, (fn. 10) on which there are gravel patches, (fn. 11) and the
land, which is particularly good pasture, was for
long mainly meadow and pasture. (fn. 12) The brook known
locally as the Qued, (fn. 13) probably the same as the one
called Townsworth Brook in the Middle Ages, (fn. 14)
which marked part of the eastern boundary, crosses
the northern part of the parish, and several other
small streams intersect the parish. From 1939
onwards a large proportion of the land, amounting to
551 a. in 1967, was acquired by the Air Ministry for
an R.A.F. maintenance unit. (fn. 15)
The main road through the parish was called the
king's way in the Middle Ages, (fn. 16) and in 1599 the
parishioners of Quedgeley were said to have failed to
repair it. (fn. 17) Near the north boundary of the parish the
road crossed the Qued brook by a wooden bridge in
1675, (fn. 18) probably the one called Wain Bridge in
1538 (fn. 19) and 1683. (fn. 20) The road was a turnpike from
1726 to 1877. (fn. 21) Several lanes run east and west from
the main road. Towards the east, Tuffley Lane at
the north end of the parish for a short stretch marked
the parish boundary (fn. 22) and so may be presumed to be
ancient, but it ceased to be a through road c. 1958
when Cole Avenue, part of the Gloucester ring road,
was built, crossing Tuffley Lane to join the Bristol
road at a roundabout; Naas Lane at the south end of
the parish is likely to have been there a long time
before 1824, when it was marked on a map. (fn. 23)
Towards the west Sim's Lane is apparently the same
as the Crockens Lane named in the Middle Ages, (fn. 24)
while Elmore Lane may have been made later; the
lane to Longney, later called School Lane, went
north of the church in the early 19th century (fn. 25) but
had been moved south of it by 1841. (fn. 26)
Quedgeley is likely to have originated as a roadside settlement. The church and the site of Woolstrop manor are close together ¼ mile west of the
Bristol road, but there is no evidence of a nucleated
village there. Although a few houses that were
pulled down in School Lane near the church are
said to have been old, (fn. 27) the main settlement has been
strung out along the Bristol road, including most
of the older surviving houses, which date from the
16th century or earlier. A triangular green of 35 a.,
called Great Green, stretched north from the church
on both sides of the main road until inclosure in
1841, and a smaller green along the road in the north
of the parish was called Howbones or Holborn
Green. (fn. 28) In 1675 the settlement was described as
'Quedgeley Green, a discontinued village'. (fn. 29) Later,
a piece of former green was used for a recreation
ground and a parish pound. (fn. 30) Away from the main
road the older houses include Quedgeley Manor
Farm, ½ mile SE. of the church and former green,
and Netheridge. (fn. 31)
The older houses in Quedgeley, widely spaced in
ones and twos along the road, are timber-framed,
and some retain thatched roofs. The Little Thatch,
earlier called Queen Anne's Farm and Read's Farm, (fn. 32)
is a small timber-framed and thatched house built
on an L-shaped plan, of two stories and gabled. It
was enlarged in the 19th century, and in 1967 was
used as a restaurant. A tradition that Anne Boleyn
stayed there has not been verified. Packer's Cottage
is another timber-framed house that retains its
thatch. It is apparently of the 16th century and is a
long rectangular building, with later additions, of
one story with an attic.
In 1327 12 people were recorded at Quedgeley
and 2 at Woolstrop. (fn. 33) Numbers appear to have
increased between the mid 16th century and the
mid 17th: there were 69 communicants in 1551, (fn. 34)
and 123 in 1603; (fn. 35) 28 households were recorded in
1563, (fn. 36) 44 adult men in 1608, (fn. 37) and 40 families in
1650. (fn. 38) The estimated population in the 18th
century remained constant at c. 170, (fn. 39) but by 1801
it was 203. The population increased steadily to
297 in 1831, rose again to 401 in 1851 after a slight
fall, and then again grew steadily to the end of the
century. After 1891 the available figures are for an
area other than that of the ancient parish. The first
boundary changes did not significantly affect the
population, but from 1901 to 1931 the figures
include the inhabitants of Lower Tuffley and during
that period numbers rose from 639 to 912. There
was a further rapid increase between 1951 and 1961,
when there were 1,121 inhabitants in the civil
parish. (fn. 40)
The growth of Quedgeley in terms of building is
represented by an increase from 27 houses in 1801
to 80 in 1861. (fn. 41) Most of the new houses were along
the main road, built of brick in pairs or detached,
and many of them later became roadside guesthouses. (fn. 42) In the late 19th century and early 20th
small brick houses were built along Sims Lane,
Elmore Lane, and Naas Lane. After the establishment of the R.A.F. maintenance unit in 1939 houses
were built for its staff east of the main road and
north of Naas Lane. A group of old people's bungalows was built c. 1962 near the church. An estate
mainly of pairs of houses was built off Sims Lane in
the sixties, when a large amount of land in the parish
was designated for further building. (fn. 43) In 1967 there
were two caravan sites near the Bristol road roundabout, one of which was associated with Quedgeley
Court, a large brick house built c. 1880 and converted into flats.
In the same area, along the Bristol road, much of
the land was developed in the nineteen fifties and
sixties as commercial and industrial sites. (fn. 44) The
parish is crossed by the Gloucester and Berkeley
Canal, begun in 1794 and opened to traffic in 1827. (fn. 45)
Sims Lane and Elmore Lane cross the canal by
swing bridges. The main railway line south from
Gloucester, crossing the east side of the parish, was
opened in 1844. (fn. 46) From the 1920s Quedgeley has
been served by a regular bus service between Bristol
and Gloucester. (fn. 47) Main water, electricity, and gas
were available in Quedgeley by 1935, (fn. 48) but in 1967
there was no main sewerage.
In 1884 Quedgeley had a beerhouse and an inn
called the Boat Inn, both on the Bristol road. (fn. 49) By
1889 the Boat Inn was called the 'Plough', (fn. 50) which
was the only inn in 1891 (fn. 51) and in 1967.
A village hall was opened in the 1930s on the
Bristol road near School Lane, on land given by
Miles Curtis-Hayward. It was destroyed by fire in
1959 and a new hall was opened on the same site in
1962. (fn. 52) A Red Cross centre, opened in the former
school building in 1945, (fn. 53) had closed by 1967.
In 1264 the constable of Gloucester castle, acting
as sheriff, summoned John Giffard of Brimpsfield,
whom he hoped to capture, to a meeting of the
hundred court at Quedgeley; John went there but
with armed supporters who killed some of those
present and drove away the constable. (fn. 54) In 1535
Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn passed through
Quedgeley after visiting Gloucester and were met on
Quedgeley Green by representatives of the city. (fn. 55)