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- source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names
- source: Family History Library Catalog
- the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia
Bitton is now a village and civil parish in South Gloucestershire within the ceremonial county of Gloucestershire, England. It is within the Greater Bristol area on the River Boyd.
It is in the far south of the South Gloucestershire district, near the border with Bath and North East Somerset. The parish of Bitton has a population of 9,307, and apart from the village itself, includes Swineford, Upton Cheyney, Beach, Oldland Common, North Common and part of Willsbridge.
A 19th Century Description
A Vision of Britain through Time provides the following description of Bitton from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72:
- BITTON, a village, a parish, and a subdistrict, in the district of Keynsham, and county of Gloucester. The village stands near the confluence of the Boyd and the Avon, adjacent to the Julian way, 2 miles NE of Keynsham [railway station], and 6 SE of Bristol; and it has a post office under Bristol.
- The parish includes also Hanham chapelry and Oldland hamlet, with Kingswood village. Acres: 7,156. Real property: £28,319; of which £1,594 are in mines. Population: 9,630. Houses: 2,032. The property is much subdivided. Coal and iron ore are worked; and the workers at them, in last century, were noted for vicious character, and for reclamation by the preaching of Wesley and his associates. Traces of many Roman antiquities have been found. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol. Value: £390. Patron: the Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol. The church is partly Norman, partly perpendicular English; and has a good tower. The vicarages of Hanham, Oldland, and Kingswood are separate benefices. There are a Wesleyan chapel, national schools, and charities £26
- The [registration] subdistrict comprises three parishes. Acres: 8,267. Population: 5,071. Houses: 1,063."
Research Tips
- Bristol Archives is where paper and microfilm copies of all records for Bristol and its environs are stored.
Online sources which may also be helpful:
- Three maps on the A Vision of Britain through Time website illustrate the changes in political boundaries over the period 1830-1945. All have expanding scales and on the second and third this facility is sufficient that individual parishes can be inspected (except in the immediate Bristol area--for Bristol, see English Jurisdictions).
- Gloucestershire Hundreds as drawn in 1832. This map was prepared before The Great Reform Act of that year. Note the polling places and representation of the various parts of the county.
- Gloucestershire in 1900, an Ordnance Survey map showing rural districts, the boundaries of the larger towns, the smaller civil parishes of the time, and some hamlets and villages in each parish
- Gloucestershire in 1943, an Ordnance Survey map showing the rural districts after the changes to their structure in the 1930s
- A Vision of Britain through Time has a group of pages of statistical facts for almost every parish in the county
- GENUKI gives pointers to other archive sources as well as providing some details on each parish. The emphasis here is on ecclesiastical parishes (useful before 1837)
- A listing of all the Registration Districts in England and Wales since their introduction in 1837 and tables of the parishes that were part of each district and the time period covered with detailed notes on changes of parish name, mergers, etc. The compiler has gone to a lot of work to provide this material. Respect his copyright.
- The FamilySearch Wiki for Gloucestershire provides a similar but not identical series of webpages to that provided by GENUKI
- English Jurisdictions, a supplementary website to FamilySearch outlining local parish boundaries in the middle on the 19th century. The information provided is especially useful for establishing the locations of ecclesiastical parishes in large towns and cathedral cities, as well as changes in their dedications (names). Very useful for Bristol.
- The Church Crawler has a website of photos and histories of English Churches with emphasis on Bristol.
- Unfortunately, the Victoria County History series provided by the website British History Online only provides information on Gloucestershire Churches in this part of the county. More general information on the Bristol and South Gloucestershire area is sadly omitted.
- Ancestry UK has recently added Gloucestershire Burials, 1813-1988; Confirmations, 1834-1913; Baptisms, 1813-1913; Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1813; and Marriages and Banns, 1754-1938. (entry dated 1 Aug 2015)
- Ancestry has also now updated Bristol, England, Select Church of England Parish Registers, 1720-1933 (entry dated 14 Mar 2016)
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