Alvington
One of a series of small hamlets that grew up along
the Roman military coast road that led from Newnham
to Chepstow, Alvington was a manor by late Saxon times
and in the Domesday Book survey of 1086 it had in Lordship
(i.e. under control of the Lord of the Manor) 2 ploughs;
12 villagers with 9 ploughs; they pay 20 looms of iron
and 8 sesters of honey'. As with some other places in
the Forest, Alvington was originally part of Herefordshire
and it only became part of Gloucestershire in the 13th
century when it was absorbed into the Bledisloe Hundred
and made a separate parish. At this time, the manor
and much of the parish was owned by Llanthony Priory
in Gloucester and Alvington Court, a 16th century Elizabethan
house that lies east of the village along Court Lane
was probably built on the site of an early grange of
the Priory. The oldest building in the village is the
Church of St Andrew, built by Llanthony Priory around
1140 at which time it was dedicated to St Mary. Its
dedication was changed in 1523 and in 1858; the church
was radically restored, losing much of its original
stonework apart from one small Norman window in the
chancel.
Alvington is located on the lower slopes of the Severn
escarpment, about 5 kilometres south-west of Lydney.
It is bisected by the A48 trunk route. The village originally
developed in a linear form along the main road. This
part of the village is still characterised by older
terraced properties along the A48. To the north of the
A48, more recent development has taken place off Clanna
Lane including an estate of over sixty houses. To the
south-east of the main road, development occurred initially
in the form of small cottages in large plots. Subsequently,
a variety of bungalows and houses have been constructed
in this area, although it still retains an open spacious
character. The minor roads in this part of the village
are generally unsuitable for additional traffic, and
their junctions with the A48 are unsatisfactory. The
majority of the village lies within a Conservation Area.
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