Alvington_church

As most will know our Vicar is The Rev Tony Jones who lives at the Rectory in Alvington. His telephone number is 01594 529387.

The Church Warden is Clarice Partington and can be contacted on 01594 529274.

It was decided by the Parish Council that we will be continuing to engage a contract grass cutter for at least this and next years cutting. We hope that the quality of the maintenance pleases everyone.

The Annual Church fete this year will be held at Woolaston; on the field at the back of Pinedale. The event will start at 14:00 {2:00pm in old money. We will hopefully publish more information as the weeks pass.

Having carried out an extensive find my past search in collaboration with my Sister, we have uncovered that our Great, Great Grandfather was baptised in St Andrews Church Alvington. Though all subsequent descendants have been uncovered living in and around Gloucester (I moved to the Forest of Dean in 1986 and to Alvington in 2005), records show that my Great, Great Grandfather was a Bridge Keeper on the old Wye Bridge in Chepstow. I can assume until records show otherwise, that this branch of my ancestors lived in Alvington at the time i.e. 1815. Unfortunately until 1820, there was no legal requirement to register births {this cost a lot of money} so many 'working class' families did not register but nearly all baptised there children so it's to these records I must delve.

I was very pleased to find photos of St Andrew's Church and your e-mail address on the Internet.

My 5-times-great-grandfather, Amos Griffith was baptised in your church on Boxing Day, 1706 and probably married Mary Price, on June 1, 1750, at Berkeley, Gloucestershire. He later married Elizabeth Hampton on December 27, 1773 at St Chad's, Wybunbury, Cheshire. The present parish church is modern and undistinguished, but the tower of the old church still stands:

My former vicar at St Andrew, West Kirby, told me that the bells are still in the tower and are rung.

Amos' son Thomas was baptised on 30 September 30, 1753 at St Chad, Wybunbury, Cheshire. He was husbandman - farmer or farm worker - and married Anne Edwards, 13 April 1767, at St Mary, Dodleston, Cheshire. NB: compare his birth and marriage dates! I have seen a microfilmed copy of the marriage certificate in Cheshire Records Office in Chester and it was (unsurprisingly) solemnised by Bishop’s licence.

Probably of greater interest to you and your parish is that my research seems very likley to lead to a nine or ten-times grandfather Richard (Richiart) Griffith, born ca. 1455, at Walton, Pembrokeshire, Wales He married Elsbeth or Elizabeth Moore, Wales, in 1470, with whom he had a son, Gruffydd Pengruffydd, about 1519. Richiart fought in Henry VII’s victorious army at Bosworth Field, 1485, having previously fought in Richard III’s army.

It seems that his sovereign knighted him for his services on the battlefield at Bosworth, in the Order of the Bath, Henry elevated him on April 22, 1502, to become a Knight of the Most Noble Order of the Garter in St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle. Since this ceremony is normally held on St George's Day, I presume that in that year April 23 fell on a Sunday, so the service was transferred to the Saturday.