BRIAVELL'S (ST.), a parish in the hundred of St-BRIAVELLS,
county of GLOUCESTER, 8 miles (W.by S.)
from Blakeney, containing 1112 inhabitants. The living
is a perpetual curacy, annexed to the vicarage of Lidney,
in the archdeaconry of Hereford, and diocese of Gloucester.
The church is a small cruciform edifice, principally
in the Norman and early English styles of architecture.
This is a place of considerable antiquity,
having given name to the hundred. Milo, Earl of Here*
ford, built a castle here in the reign of Henry I., as a
frontier fortress against the Welch: the north-western
front, including two circular towers, now used as a prison
for the hundred, is all that remains. It is nominally
under the superintendence of a governor, whose oftce
is a sinecure . the site of the original edifice is surrounded
by a moat. Edward II. granted the inhar
bitants a charter for a. weekly market, which has Jong
been disused, and exempted them from the payment of
toll throughout the kingdom: they still enjoy the right
of cutting wood in the forest of Dean, which they form
into hoops and other articles, and send to Bristol.
There are several coal-works in the vicinity; and a court
is held for regulating matters in dispute among the
miners.