DIRHAM, a parish in the lower division of the
hundred of GRUMBALDS-ASH, county of GLOUCESTER,
4 miles (W. N. W.) from Marshfield, containing,
with the tything of Hinton, 526 inhabitants. The
living is a rectory, in the archdeaconry and diocese
of Gloucester, rated in the king's books at £14. 12. C.
W. Blaithwayt, Esq. was patron in 1828. The clrarch,
dedicated to St. Peter, is a handsome building, with portions
in the early and later styles of English architecture.
The Rev. W. Langton, in 1668, devised two-thirde
of the proceeds of £600, now amounting to £60. 12. a
year, for educating and apprenticing poor children of the
parish. The Rev. Peter Grand, in 1791, bequeathed a
house and an annuity of £10, producing together £42
per annum for the master; and £16 a year is paid to
a schoolmistress at Hinton, for teaching twenty children.
Several small springs rise in the parish, which
unite and form the river Boyd. There are remains of
huge ramparts, called Barhill camp, near which Ceawlin,
the Saxon, in a most sanguinary battle, slew Commeai-1,
Condidan, and Fariemeiol, petty kings of the Britons,
and took possession of their country.