SELSLEY is an ecclesiastical district formed June 12, 1863, out of the parish of King Stanley; it has a station at Dudbridge on the Midland railway, and is about 2 miles south-west from Stroud, 11 south from Gloucester and 104 from London, in the Stroud division of the county, hundred of Whitstone, union and county court district of Stroud, petty sessional division of Whitminster, rural deanery of Stonehouse and archdeaconry and diocese of Gloucester. The church of All Saints, built in 1862 by Sir Samuel Stephens Marling bart. M.P. is an edifice of stone in the Early Decorated style, consisting of chancel, nave, north aisle, and a fine gabled tower on the north-west, containing 2 bells hung in 1887: in 1920 a tablet was erected in the church by the congregation to the memory of those who fell in the Great War, 1914-18: there are some good stained windows, and sittings for 240 persons. The register dates front the year 1863.

The living is a perpetual curacy, net yearly value £325, with residence, in the gift of Col. Sir Percival S. Marling bart. V.C., C.B., D.L., J.P. and held since 1921 by the Rev. Sidney George Bush A.K.C. of King's College, London, and of Hatfield Hall, Durham. There is a Primitive Methodist chapel, erected in 1888, A cross was erected by public subscription to the memory of those connected with the parish who fell in the Great War, 1914-18. Stanley Park, the seat of Col. Sir Percival Scrape Marling bart V.C., C.B., D.L., J.P. who is lord of the manor and principal landowner, is an Elizabethan mansion dating from 1584, and is situated in a finely timbered park of 160 acres. The area is 839 acres; the population in 1911 was 674.
[Kelly's Directory of Gloucestershire, 1923]