HEMPSTEAD, a parish in the middle division of the hundred of DUDSTONE-AND-KINGS-BARTON, county of GLOUCESTER, 1 mile (S.W. by W.) from Gloucester, containing, with South Hamlet, 548 inhabitants. The living is a rectory, in the archdeaconry and diocese of Gloucester, rated in the king's books at £8. Mr. Alderman Jones was patron in 1826. The church is dedicated to St. Swithin. In a field here are vestiges of some earthworks thrown up by the royalists during the civil war. The Gloucester and Berkeley canal passes through this parish, and the navigable river Severn runs along its western boundary.

SOUTH-HAMLET, a hamlet in the parish of HEMPSTEAD, middle division of the hundred of DUDSTONE-and-KING'S-BARTON, county of GLOUCESTER, containing 391 inhabitants.