Preston is a village, former manor,

civil Civil may refer to: *Civic virtue, or civility *Civil action, or lawsuit * Civil affairs *Civil and political rights *Civil disobedience *Civil engineering *Civil (journalism), a platform for independent journalism *Civilian, someone not a membe ...

and ecclesiastical parish in the

Forest of Dean The Forest of Dean is a geographical, historical and cultural region in the western part of the county of Gloucestershire, England. It forms a roughly triangular plateau bounded by the River Wye to the west and northwest, Herefordshire to ...

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

, England. It is situated 22 km north-west of the city of

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east ...

and 4 km south-west of the Herefordshire town of Ledbury. In 1931 the parish had a population of 77. On 1 April 1935 the parish of Preston, comprising 897 acres, was added to the parish of

Dymock Dymock is a village and civil parish in the Forest of Dean district of Gloucestershire, England, about four miles south of Ledbury. In 2014 the parish had an estimated population of 1,205. Dymock is the origin of the Dymock Red, a cider appl ...

, adjacent at the south-east, the parish church of which, St Mary the Virgin, is situated 4 miles to the south-east. The parish church is dedicated to St John the Baptist. To the immediate west of the church is Preston Court, a grade II* listed timber-framed

manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals w ...

dating from about 1600, in 2020 operating as "The Country House Collection" antique shop.

History

Preston had been a possession of

Gloucester Abbey Gloucester Abbey was a Benedictine abbey in the city of Gloucester, England. Since 1541 it has been Gloucester Cathedral. History Early period A Christian place of worship had stood on the abbey site since Anglo-Saxon times. Around 681, with ...

since before the

Norman Conquest The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Norman, Breton, Flemish, and French troops, all led by the Duke of Normandy, later styled William the Con ...

of 1066. In 1541, following the Dissolution of the Monasteries, it was granted as part of the endowment of the newly established See of Gloucester, the new Bishops of Gloucester using the old Abbey Church as their Cathedral. In 1583 the bishop of Gloucester leased the manor to the Crown, and in 1585 Queen Elizabeth I granted it to

Fulke Greville, 1st Baron Brooke Fulke Greville, 1st Baron Brooke, ''de jure'' 13th Baron Latimer and 5th Baron Willoughby de Broke KB PC (; 3 October 1554 – 30 September 1628), known before 1621 as Sir Fulke Greville, was an Elizabethan poet, dramatist, and statesman w ...

whose present day relative, author Christopher Brooke Fulke Greville has included the property in his book 'Englands Great Baronial Families'. A country house, Preston Court, was built in the late 16th or early 17th century. In 1834 Preston Court passed to the 2nd Baronet's cousin Robert Smith (d.1843) of Swansea, who adopted the surname Pauncefote and was succeeded by his son Robert Pauncefote (d.1847), who was succeeded by his brother Bernard Pauncefote, of India.'Preston', in A History of the County of Gloucester: Volume 12, ed. A.R.J. Jurica (Woodbridge, 2010), pp. 301-31

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References

{{reflist

External links

British History Online: ''A History of the County of Gloucester Volume 12''. Preston - Pages 301-317
Villages in Gloucestershire Former civil parishes in Gloucestershire Dymock