Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for BADMINTON, or Great Badminton

BADMINTON, or Great Badminton, a village, a parish, and a ducal park in Chipping-Sodbury district, Gloucester. The village stands under the Cotswolds, on the SE verge of the county, 5 miles E by N of Chipping Sodbury, and 7 E of Yate r. station. It has a post office‡ under Chippenham, a reading room of 1862, a free school for girls, and six alms-houses.—The parish comprises 1,735 acres. Real property, £2,990. Pop., 524. Houses, 107. The property belongs all to the Duke of Beaufort; and most of it is included in his park. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol. Value, not reported. Patron, the Duke of Beaufort. The ancient church belonged to the abbey of Pershore; and the present one Was built by the late Duke of Beaufort in 1785, stands within the park, lifts a pinnacle tower into view over the mansion, is a remarkably elegant structure, and contains many monuments of the Beaufort family, and the remains of Field-Marshal Lord Raglan. A free school and an alms-house have an income of £94, left in 1705 by the then Duchess-Dowager of Beaufort. The park is about 3 miles long, nearly 2 miles wide, and up wards of 9 miles in circuit; and contains some very fine woods and beautiful drives. The mansion in it was erected in 1682, by the first Duke of Beaufort; and succeeded Raglan castle, in Monmouthshire, as the principal seat of his family. The edifice is very extensive; consists of centre and wings; is in the Palladian style, With rusticated basement and two surmounting cupolas; and contains many family portraits, downward from John of Gaunt, some rare and curious pictures by the Italian masters, and the remarkable satirical piece by Salvator Rosa, which occasioned that artist's expulsion from Rome.


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

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a village, a parish, and a ducal park"   (ADL Feature Type: "populated places")
Administrative units: Great Badminton AP/CP       Chipping Sodbury RegD/PLU       Gloucestershire AncC
Place names: BADMINTON     |     BADMINTON OR GREAT BADMINTON     |     GREAT BADMINTON
Place: Great Badminton

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