Place:Dyrham and Hinton, Gloucestershire, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

The civil parish of Dyrham and Hinton has been, since 1996, located in the unitary authority of South Gloucestershire within the ceremonial county of Gloucestershire. For a short history of the village of Dyrham, see below. Hinton is another village one mile north of Dyrham and the two form the civil parish of Dyrham and Hinton.

A Vision of Britain through Time provides the following description of Dyrham and Hinton from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72:

"DIRHAM AND HINTON, or Dyrham, a parish in Chipping-Sodbury [registration] district, Gloucester; on an affluent of the river Avon, among the Cotswolds, contiguous to Wilts, 4½ miles S by E of Chipping-Sodbury, and 6 E of Mangotsfield [railway] station. It has a post office, of the name of Dyrham, under Chippenham. Acres: 3,005. Real property: £5,462. Population: 457. Houses: 95. The property is divided among a few. Dirham Park is the seat of G. W. Blathwayt, Esq.; and contains a fine collection of paintings. A camp on Hinton-hill is thought by some to have been a Roman outpost of Bath; by others to have been formed in connexion with a battle between the Britons and the Saxons in 599. The parish is a meet for the Beaufort hounds. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol. Value: £501. Patron: G. W. Blathwayt, Esq. The church is early English, with a square tower; and has two brasses. There is an endowed school."

the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

The Domesday Book of 1086 records the tenant-in-chief of Dyrham as William FitzWido who held seven hides in Dyrham, formerly the land of Aluric. The manor passed to the Norman magnate Wynebald de Ballon, and then via the Newmarch family to the Russell family, notably being held by John Russell (died c.1224) and William Russell (1257–1311). By the 15th century the manor had passed into the Denys family, the most notable holder being William Denys (1470–1533). After the family accumulated debts in the 16th century, the manor was sold to the Wynter family and then the Blathwayte family, who built the present mansion known as Dyrham Park, which is said to incorporate some of the structure of the earlier manor house.

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)