Place:Christchurch East, Hampshire, England

Christchurch East was a civil parish created at the end of the 19th century when rural districts were set up to permit the more rural areas beyond towns to be administered separately on questions of local interest. In this case the parish of Christchurch East was formed from an area to the east of the town of Christchurch and the west of the parish of Milton in 1894 when it became a civil parish in the Christchurch Rural District. The main settlement of the parish is Burton. It also included Bransgore which was a former chapelry of Christchurch.

In 1897 the portion of Christchurch East facing The Solent was removed to create a second civil parish named Highcliff. Both these parishes are outlined on the Ordnance Survey Map of 1900, but only Christchurch East is labelled. The village named Highcliffe is visible however. Bransgore is also shown on this map to the north of Christchurch East.

In 1932 Christchurch Rural District was abolished and the responsibilities of its council were taken over by Ringwood and Fordingbridge Rural District. In 1974, as part of the nationwide reorganization of local government, most of the area covered by Christchurch East, Highcliffe, and the town of Christchurch was removed from Hampshire and transferred to the County of Dorset. Bransgore, however, was left as a civil parish in the New Forest District of Hampshire.

Burton

Older parts of the village date back to at least the early 18th century but it was greatly expanded in the 1970s and 1980s. Today there are more than 1700 dwellings and the population is around 4,000.

Bransgore

See the separate WeRelate on Bransgore.

Research Tips

• Victoria County History of Hampshire, volume 5, chapter on Christchurch may contain information on Burton and Christchurch East.
• GENUKI has a list of archive holders in Hampshire including the Hampshire Record Office, various museums in Portsmouth and Southhampton, the Isle of Wight Record Office and Archives.
• The Hampshire Online Parish Clerk project has a large collection of transcriptions from Parish Registers across Hampshire.
• A listing of all the Registration Districts in England and Wales since their introduction in 1837 together with tables listing the parishes that were part of each district and the time period covered, along with detailed notes on changes of parish name, mergers, etc. Do respect the copyright on this material.
• The three-storey City Museum in Winchester covers the Iron Age and Roman periods, the Middle Ages, and the Victorian period.
• Volumes in The Victoria County History Series are available for Hampshire through British History Online. There are three volumes and the county is covered by parishes within the old divisions of "hundreds".

A collection of maps on the A Vision of Britain through Time website illustrating the English county of Hampshire over the period 1832-1932 (the last two are expandible):

• The Hundreds of Hampshire, a map from HMSO Boundary Commissioners, dated 1832
• Hampshire showing parishes in their Rural Districts as of 1900, a map from the Ordnance Survey
• Hampshire showing parishes in their Rural Districts after the alterations of 1932, a map from the Ordnance Survey

• A group of maps of the post-1974 municipal districts or boroughs of Hampshire on Wikipedia Commons