Olveston

Olveston is a small village and larger parish in South Gloucestershire, England. The parish comprises the villages of Olveston and , and the hamlets of Old Down, Ingst and Awkley. The civil parish population at the 2011 census was 2,033.Alveston became a separate parish in 1846. The district has been inhabited since the Stone Age, and the salt marshes that made up almost half of the parish, were progressively drained in Roman and Saxon times. A sea wall was constructed at the same time to prevent flooding from the nearby estuary of the River Severn.

The civil parish forms part of 'Severn' electoral ward. The parish stretches from Olveston northwards to Hill. The total ward population again taken at the 2011 census was 3,628.

The parish church of St Mary the Virgin was built around 1170 and rebuilt in 1370. It was struck by lightning in 1605 and the bells, spire and much of the chancel were destroyed. The tower was rebuilt the following year, and the church has been restored and enlarged in later years. Parish registers survive from 1561. The church contains the funerary brass (dated to 1506), and was the burial place, of Sir Walter Denys (d.1506) and his father Maurice Denys (d.1466), esquire, both lords of the manor, seated at Olveston Court.

The remains of the mediaeval fortified manor of Olveston Court stand on the western outskirts of the village. It was for a while the seat of the Denys family of nearby Siston who had inherited Olveston manor, together with nearby Alveston, Earthcott Green, Siston and a moiety (1/2) of Aust together with the rights of the Hundred Court of Langley, in 1380 on marriage to Margaret Corbet, granddaughter of Sir Peter Corbet(d.1362) Lord of Caus, Shropshire. In addition to these Gloucestershire lands, the manors of Lawrenny in Pembrokeshire and Hope-juxta-Caus in Shropshire were also inherited. Due to the possibility for confusion between Alveston and Olveston, the Inquisition post mortem of Sir Gilbert Denys, taken at Chipping Sodbury on 25 June 1422, is given here:

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