Place:Berwick St. John, Wiltshire, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

Berwick St. John is a village and civil parish in southwest Wiltshire, England, about 5 miles (8 km) east of Shaftesbury in Dorset.

The parish is at the head of the Ebble valley, in the Cranborne Chase area.

Winklebury Hill overlooks the village. In the extreme west of the parish, Win Green hill, at 277 metres (909 ft), is the highest point of Cranborne Chase. The southern part of the parish is forested. Alvediston is the neighbouring parish to the east. Together they had a population of 438 in the UK census of 2011.

Part of Wilton Abbey's Chalke estate from the 10th century, the parish was established by the 13th century. Manors of the parish included Berwick St John, Rushmore, Bridmore, Upton Lucy and Ashcombe.

In the 19th century Augustus Pitt Rivers inherited the Rushmore estate and excavated many nearby archaeological sites.

The Church of England parish church of St. John the Baptist was built in the 14th century but heavily restored in 1861 under the direction of the Gothic revival architect Henry Woodyer. The building is Grade II listed.

Ebenezer Baptist Chapel was built in 1828 and closed in 1984. A Wesleyan Methodist chapel was built in 1875 and closed sometime before 1964.

Research Tips

• Victoria County History - Wiltshire - Vol 13, pp16-27 - Parish: Berwick St. John. British History Online. University of London.
• From this Ancestry page you can browse the Wiltshire parishes which have parish register transcripts online, quite often from very early dates. However, reading the early ones requires skill and patience. Transcriptions should also be in FamilySearch.
• A further collection of online source references will be found on the county page for Wiltshire.