In 1831 Hampton (Minchin) was described as a parish in the hundred of Longtree, county of Gloucester, comprising the chapelry of Rodborough, part of the chapelry of Nailsworth, and the market town of Minchin-Hampton, 14 miles (S.) from Gloucester, and 100 (W.) from London, and containing, with Rodborough and Nailsworth, 7848 inhabitants. Shortly after the Conquest, the manor of Hampton was given to the nummery of Caen, in Normandy, and a church was founded here, and the grant of a market procured for the town, by the abbess of Caen, in the reign of Henry III.; hence it derived its prefix of Minchin from Monachina, a diminutive of Monacha, a nun. The town is pleasantly situated on the summit and southern declivity of an eminence bordering on the vale of the Severn to the east: it consists of a long irregular street, intersected by another, partially paved, and is abundantly supplied with water from springs. There are several streams near the town, and in other parts of the parish, on which stand clothing-mills, the principal employment of the inhabitants consisting in the manufacture of woollen cloth, which has long been extensively carried on in the vicinity.