Newent etc. (General)

by Jefff , West London, Middlesex, Saturday, January 28, 2017, 22:44 (2856 days ago) @ jayne

Does anyone know if Newent was considered in Herefordshire? I have seen records for Wales that has Newent. This period would be early 1805 and back. Are there records on line for Herefordshire? If so where? Thank you.

Hi Jayne,
Since abt 1800 I don't think Newent was ever officially considered part of Herefordshire, despite it being very near (abt a mile) to the county border. There were cases of some small parishes/villages in Britain, including remote parts of Gloucestershire away from the main cities, which were considered "detached" exclaves of one county, while clearly being situated within the neighbouring county; usually as they had ancient ecclesiastical links to their church Bishops etc in that neighbouring county, probably dating from a time before County boundaries even existed.
see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counties_(Detached_Parts)_Act_1844

The Newent Registration District is now considered Gloucestershire, but pre 1830s the nearby villages of Aston Ingham and Redmarley were part of Herefordshire and Worcestershire respectively.
see https://www.ukbmd.org.uk/genuki/reg/districts/newent.html

Looking earlier than the c18th, Victorian Directories agree that "Newent appears to have been formerly a place of considerable importance, having been a borough town, governed by a bailiff; by Leland and others the name is said to signify New Inn, being, when the communication was first opened by this way into Wales, a single house."
eg http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/GLS/Newent/Gaz1868

Certainly it was on the old drover's route to bring cattle from Wales and Hereford to market in Gloucester, or even shipping onward by the Severn. The Directories hint that in medieval times Newent Priory, from which the Inn and town probably grew, was strongly-linked and possibly even governed from Hereford rather than Gloucester.
http://www.newent-online.co.uk/local-information/history-area/
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/glos/vol2/pp105-106

So, in short, it's entirely reasonable for someone around 1800 and earlier to believe and hence record that Newent was "in" Herefordshire, and just possibly even Wales, although it seems that officially it was always part of Gloucestershire hence England. As far as I know Herefordshire was always considered in England, despite the traditional border twixt England and Wales being the River Wye which flows thro the city of Hereford.

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Re your query for "online records for Herefordshire", I presume you mean Family History BMD records etc ?. Sadly this has often been asked on this forum, including by me, and as far as I'm aware that fine County isn't served very well in this respect, certainly not compared to Glostershire. That's why this FoD site has included PRs from Parishes just within southern Herefordshire.
There are various online websites that may help you, and Herefordshire PRs etc are certainly available to buy on cds, the prior thread below should help you. If you have any specific queries then feel-free to ask via this forum, and perhaps we can help.

Several Herefordshire links here
http://forum.forest-of-dean.net/index.php?id=47208

There are free UK sites which may help, as well as LDS aka FamilySearch, and of course the subscription sites such as Ancestry and FindMyPast.
see http://forum.forest-of-dean.net/index.php?id=35296