Preston is a village, former manor, civil 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 Counties of England, county of Gloucestershire, England. It forms a roughly triangle, triangular plateau bounded by the River Wye to the west and no ...

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( , ; abbreviated Glos.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire ...

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

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

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, 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 In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

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 usually held the lord's manorial courts, communal mea ...

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

History

Preston had been a possession of Gloucester Abbey 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 Normans, Norman, French people, French, Flemish people, Flemish, and Bretons, Breton troops, all led by the Du ...

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 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