WINCHCOMB, (Gloucestershire) 6 m. N. E. from Cheltenham, 72 cm. 87 mm. from. London, is a p. 12 m. in com. watered with a
brook that runs into the Avon. It was anciently a Co. or sheriffdom by itself, till the Gr. of it, in the R. of K.
Ethelred, laid it to Glocester, and was a Bor. in the R. of Edward the Confessor. It had an abbey, to which the manor bel.
till the Diss. when it was given first to Sir Tho. Seymour, and then to Will. Parr Marquis of Northampton; but reverting
to the crown by their treason, it continued in its possession till 1608, when it was alienated, though to whom is not
clear; but the late Dr. Lloyd, chancellor of Worcester, was Ld. of the manor. Its abbot was mitred, and sat in Pt. The
site of the abbey was granted by Q. Mary I. to John Ld. Chandos, to whose posterity it descended. Sir John Atwood had
possession of the Mt. and Fairs in the R. of Rich. II. The Mt. is on S. the Fairs April 25, and July 17. The lady Dorothy,
wife of Edw. Ld. Chandos, founded an almsh. here for 12 poor women, but did not endow it. There are scarce any ruins
visible, either of the abbey, or of that which was called Ivy-Castle, or of St. Nicholas Ch. that stood in the E. part of
the T. The inh. planted tobacco here to very good account, till they were restrained in the 12th of Charles II. after
which the T. by little and little decayed, and is now generally poor.