middle of the fifteenth century by one of the Stinchcombe family. Some of their gravestones are yet to be seen in the floor, and the name is still common in this parish amongst the humbler inhabitants.

As will be seen from the illustrations, the church is most picturesquely situated, and is a building of great interest to the antiquary. There are, indeed, few other village churches whose known history like this dates back upwards of twelve centuries to 684, when Gloucestershire formed part of the dominions of Ethelred, the king of Mercia, and only four years after the foundation of the see of Worcester.

THE

County Record Offices.

HE Public Record Office Act of 1837 sufficiently dealt with the national records of this country which are now properly cared for in the Public Record Office in Chancery Lane by the skilled staff of officials who have charge of them, while much has been done for record students of late years in the way of printing calendars and abstracts, and facilitating search, and now any questions respecting the innumerable documents in the charge of the Master of the Rolls and the Deputy Keeper is but a matter of administrative detail. But the act of 1837 wholly ignored records in the country, and they are still

practically in the same position as they were fifty or sixty years ago. Their unsatisfactory condition, whether we look at parish registers, probate records, and many others, is a matter of notoriety. They are very inaccessible, and often exposed to grave risks of fire, etc.

What is more urgently needed is an act of parliament which shall deal exhaustively and thoroughly with the question. To remove any of our provincial records to London would be undesirable and rightly unpopular, so that practically the only course open is the foundation of local record offices throughout the country. Fortunately in the existing County Councils and Custos Rotulorum, the machinery is practically ready to hand. The powers of the custos rotulorum only require to be somewhat enlarged to allow him to take charge of other records besides those he now has care of. Admittedly it is time that steps were taken to deal adequately with the matter, and as a suggestion, a bill dealing therewith has been drafted. Its object and purport will be best gathered from a brief synopsis of its clauses.

By this draft bill the following provisions are made— Sec. 1. The Local Government Board is directed to inspect local record offices, and to report upon their condition, whether fireproof, etc.

Sec. 2. The Local Government Board, in case of doubt, to define what documents may be included in the term "records."

Sec. 4. Enables record offices to receive historical manuscripts for safe custody.

Sec. 5. Directs every County Council to provide suitable fireproof record repository, to be styled the "County Record Office."

Sec. 6, 7. Permits counties or boroughs to form joint record offices, with joint committees of management.

Sec. 8-10. Contains local provisions relating to Middlesex, Kent, Surrey, etc.

Sec. 12, 13. Defines the powers of the custos rotulorum and record committee, and provides for a deputy custos, etc.; in boroughs, the town clerk to be "keeper of the records."

Sec. 14, 15. Provisions as to reports, and preparation of calendars and indexes.

Sec. 16-25. Provides for transfer (with consent of Bishop) of parish registers, diocesan records, bishop's transcripts, etc., also of nonconformist registers, borough records (with consent of boroughs), also manor rolls, etc. Sec. 26. Local records offices under the act to be "legal" custody.

Sec. 27. Deals with borough record offices, placing them on

the same footing as county record offices.

Sec. 28. Provisions as to fees and saving of vested interests.

Sec. 29. Provisions as to current records since 1837.

Sec. 30, 31. Provision for official seal of record offices.
Sec. 33. Penalties.

Sec. 34. Interpretation clause.

This draft bill is an enabling one, allowing the county councils to take under their charge, in addition to those they now hold, all classes of records, except such as are preserved in the Public Record Office. On no county council would it be compulsory to adopt such an act, but for those which chose to do so, there would be the necessary machinery ready. And it may be noted that in the case of counties already possessing adequate fireproof accommodation, the additional outlay would be very small.

Further, due regard in this draft is had to any vested interests of present custodians.

The proposal for the Local Government Board to inspect record offices seems requisite, not only to insure their being fireproof and otherwise suitable, but also, by means of an annual report, to bring the various local offices in touch with each other.

We need only point out one class of records, viz., parish registers, to shew the desirability of such a bill as this passing through parliament. The condition and custody of these records is well known to be most unsatisfactory; though, owing it may be to the increasing interest taken in them, matters are perhaps not so bad as once they were. Proposals for removing them to London have often been made, and some years ago a bill with that object was introduced into the House of Commons. Such a scheme may reasonably be objected to, and county record offices appear to afford the only suitable alternative.

The bill herein sketched out may have exceptions taken to the various provisions therein contained, but it forms at least a tangible proposal for dealing with our local records, and if therefrom such an enquiry results as shall place all our provincial records throughout England on the same satisfactory basis as is the case with the national records at Rolls House, then its object will be attained.

NOTE.-Records, such as this draft bill deals with, in Scotland and Ireland are already deposited in the Record Offices at Edinburgh and Dublin. Such an arrangement may be suitable enough in those countries, but any similar centralization in London of the records of England and Wales would be wholly impracticable. Their number is too vast. But Scotch and Irish experience is useful, as indicating that no difficulty need arise in removing local records, wills, parish registers, and the like, to a suitable central repository. Such an office is evidently appreciated, for the chapter of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, some years ago sought for and obtained leave to deposit their muniments in the Dublin Record Office.

Further it must be remembered that some ten or twelve thousand more administrative bodies in the shape of parish and district councils will ere long be created, and the question of properly and systematically dealing with our provincial records daily becomes more urgent and needful. With so many places of deposit and so many custodians, it can only be said that at present our records are neither safely housed, nor accessible to those who have to consult them.

THE

185

W. P. W. PHILLIMORE.

The Divided Parishes.

HE following is taken from the Stroud Journal of 29th Dec., 1883. "In November, 1882, the Hon. Thos. Henry William Pelham, barrister-at-law, an inspector of the Local Government Board, held inquiries at Stroud and Eastington in reference to the divided parishes in that locality. The Local Government Board issued orders as the result, to take effect on the 24th of March, 1884, unless the same should in the meantime become

provisional in pursuance of section 2 of the "Divided Parishes and Poor Law Amendment Act, 1876."

We purpose to notice some of the changes proposed, and commence with the parish of Randwick—a locality which boasted of a "mayor," with privileges which we will not now proceed to particularize, simply premising that during the last generation the officer in question is reported to have been for a short time ruthlessly deprived by some of the "Stroud boys" of his cap or insignia of office. This parish was found to be very divided, having no less than 42 detached portions, extending almost to the River Severn, and to some of the distant hills. The divisions of this parish were so great that at one time it was a question whether the parish of Randwick should not be entirely eliminated. The orders in question will, however, settle one important point, namely, the boundaries between the Stroud and Wheatenhurst Unions. The detached part of Randwick described as "All that nearly detached part called Oxlinch, lying to the north-west of the centre of the road known as Moreton Lane and Castles Road, and which road leads from the Hill Farm, in a north-easterly direction, past Randwick Ash, in the direction of the late Bird-in-the-Hand public-house to the parish of Standish," is to be amalgamated with the parish of Standish in the Wheatenhurst Union. The parish of Standish is also to have the two isolated and detached parts, 3a. 2r. 15p., which are near the Castle Inn, Standish, by the side of the Gloucester and Berkeley Canal. An isolated and detached part situate at Haresfield Hill, containing za. Ir. 23p., is to go to the parish of Haresfield.

Portions of Brockthrop, Harescomb, Haresfield, Quedgley, and Whaddon, are dealt with under an order and map, and formed into two new parishes of Brookthorpe and Harescombe.

The small parish of Pitchcombe is to be enlarged by the addition of about 31 acres from the old parish of Brockthrop, and 244 acres or thereabouts from the parish of Standish.

The parishes of Moreton Valence and Standish are to be divided, and to form two new parishes of the same names, the new division being an imaginary line along the middle of the road leading from Bristol to Gloucester. The parish of Standish will have the parts of Moreton Valence which lie to the east of the said imaginary line, and also "all that isolated and detached part thereof, containing 600 acres or thereabouts, and which said part