Hi just wondering is there an ernest smith living next door witg the powells at the laurels by chance

Gary, just had a peek at your new home online via one of the estate agents sites, looks very nice !.
Not many external photos, but am I right in thinking it looks like a typical FoD area cottage, probably solid stone (under the paint) rather than brick, so probably Victorian if not maybe earlier ?.

I see a Bank Villa is marked on this 1880 OS map, at the southwestern end of the village near Cone Brook, is that anywhere near your house ?.
https://maps.nls.uk/view/101453904

Hi Gary, thanks for that.
Again, re the murder, yes for a small village I'd have thought a murder would be well-reported in the papers including the regional dailys, still suggest you write to the Forester as a starter.

Sadly I've never visited Glos Archives in person, and prob not a good time now as they have the builders in I believe. However I do know their search engine (or engineS ?, they used to have two which I always thought very odd indeed, they gave different results) are like many and don't like too much information, perhaps you need to apply the "less is more" approach and then browse thro the results ?.
eg I just searched "Alvington Bank" and got just 3 hits, but searching "Alvington" alone gave over 600, hopefully browsing all these results will help, altho it will take a while.
https://ww3.gloucestershire.gov.uk/CalmView/Overview.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog

Maybe the reason documents aren't available online is because of the sheer numbers of them, plus all the changes they're undergoing, and a general lacl of funding which is adversely affecting many UK Archives these days. They have a copy of my grandfather's apprenticeship indenture certificate which I'd love to see, but at the last count they wanted £15 or simialr to scan and email it too me which seemed rather ridiculous, when I visit the Forest in the summer I'll visit them too and photograph it for free.

Using this weekend's free Census etc access I've just tried searching the 1880 Census just for Bank Villa, Alvington, chose 1880 as it matched the OS map. Sadly the search didnt work, I don't really know why as in the past I've successfully found pubs etc by just searching the building name without knowing the residents' names, maybe it varies with each Census ?.

However I can confirm is that in the case of the 1881 Census all of Alvington fits in "just" 18 pages, altho in this case the enumerator's notes in the first page doesn't specify exactly what route he took. However helpfully the first entry is for Cone Flour Mills, so your end of the village, and on the second page (so still near Cone Mill) we find "Bank Cottage", which I guess may possibly be your house (there's def no other similar addresses given elsewhere in the Census. That said, I cannot be sure it is the same address.

1881 Census, Alvington, Glos.
Address Given Name Surname Relationship to Head Marital Status Age Estimated Birth Year Gender Occupation Birth City Birth County Birth Country
Bank Cottage Charles Robertson Head Married 30 1851 Male Commercial Clerk Paper Trade Scotland
Bank Cottage Elizabeth Robertson Wife Married 22 1859 Female Scotland

https://www.ancestry.co.uk/interactive/7572/GLSRG11_5219_5224-0433?pid=6440314&tree...

Can see NO reference to anything like your house name in the 1891 Census.

1871 Census, Alvington, off page 14 of 18 (started at other end of the village)
Household schedule number Given Name Surname Relationship Age Estimated Birth Year Gender Birth City Birth County Birth Country
73 Bankside Mary Williams Head, widow. 69 1802 Female Portskewet Monmouthshire Wales
73 Mary Williams Daughter 28 1843 Female Aylburton Gloucestershire England
73 Hannah Evans Servant 17 1854 Female Alvington Gloucestershire England
74 Springs? House John Williams Head 52 1819 Male Woolaston Gloucestershire England
74 Mary Williams Wife 41 1830 Female Woolaston Gloucestershire England

Cannot find this family, or see any mention of "Bank" etc house name, in 1861, or 1901 Census.
Cannot find the 1911 Census at all !!??

Think this is the same address as 1871 judging by neighbour's names etc, NO "Bank" etc names in whole census;

1851 Census, Alvington, off page 15 of 20
House Number Given Name Surname Relationship Age Estimated Birth Year Gender Birth Place
51 Eliza Williams Servant 11 1840 Female Woollaston, Gloucestershire, England
52 Mary Williams Head 39 1812 Female Alvington, Gloucestershire, England
52 James Williams Son 13 1838 Male Alvington, Gloucestershire, England
52 Mary Ann Williams Daughter 10 1841 Female Alvington, Gloucestershire, England
52 Clara Williams Daughter 3 1848 Female Alvington, Gloucestershire, England

Hope this helps, Jeff.

Like everyone else I can’t find any reference to a murder at Swan Hill about 30 years ago. However, there had been one more than 150 years ago or, to be strictly accurate, it was a suspicion of murder for which an indictment never actually materialised.

It concerned a woman who gave her name as Peggy BARLEY, an Irish woman, who was travelling on foot from South Wales to Gloucester via Woolaston, Alvington and Aylburton. With her was her two-month old child. Witnesses saw her with the then distressed child just beyond Brookend and she was later seen at a lodging house in Aylburton without the child. Three labourers found the body of a child in a ditch about half a mile beyond the last sighting which places the scene close to Swan Hill. They conveyed the body to the Swan Inn at Cone, the nearest Public House, (now a tea room, I think) and were initially turned away. They turned back towards Alvington but were called back to the Inn where they left the body and proceeded to inform the authorities. Peggy BARLEY was traced to Gloucester where she was arrested on suspicion of having murdered her child.

The BNA Gloucestershire Chronicle - Saturday 07 February 1852 carried a lengthy report of the inquest.

“The jury found a verdict to the effect that the woman and child seen at Chepstow and other places on the road were the deceased, into the cause of whose death they were inquiring, and Peggy Barley ; that the child was placed in the ditch in which it was found by the said Peggy Barley ; but that there was not evidence sufficiently clear, and positive, to prove to the satisfaction of the jury whether deceased met his death wholly and solely in a natural way or whether his death arose or was accelerated by violent means. The jury further presented, that the conduct of Barley, if not actually criminal was most gross, highly culpable, and deserving of punishment, for secretly leaving, exposing, and deserting her child, in the way she did, and then going off to a distance without communicating the circumstance to any person—a fact sufficient of itself to excite against her regards foul play having been used towards her child.”

There was an enquiry concerning whether she could be prosecuted for exposing and deserting the body of her child but no action was taken for want of evidence.

The murder that happened in my house was apparently a man stabbing his wife and happened in the late 80s, it sounds like what you're referring to may have happened earlier?
A young couple now live in The Laurels having bought it in July last year, we viewed it and were told by the estate agent that the previous elderly owner had died last year but had lived there for a long time.
There is a lady called May who still lives opposite in Tudor Cottage, could she be the May that you referred to?