Place:Hanham, Gloucestershire, England

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Family History Library Catalog

the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Hanham is a village and former civil parish on the eastern outskirts of Bristol, England, now located in Kingswood and situated on the A431 between Bristol, Bath and Keynsham. It was originally a chapelry in the ecclesiastical parish of Bitton.

A 19th century description

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

"HANHAM, a hamlet and a chapelry in Bitton parish, Gloucester. The hamlet lies on the river Avon, at the boundary with Somerset, 1 mile NW of Keynsham [railway] station, and 5 ESE of Bristol; and has a post office under Bristol.

"The chapelry was reconstituted, with altered limits, in 1844. Acres, within the original limits: 1,212. Real property: £3,706; of which £127 are in quarries. Population: 1,224. Houses: 255. Rated property within the new limits: £3,229. Population: 1,271. Houses: 267. The property is subdivided. The quarries are numerous; and what they furnish is paving stone for Bath and Bristol. The living is a vicarage, united with the chapelry of Christchurch, in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol. Value: £131. Patron: the Vicar of Bitton. There are two churches: Hanham-Abbotts and Christchurch-and a Wesleyan chapel."

Hanham's proximity to Bristol and the value of its stone quarries were factors in the increase of its population at the end of the 19th century. A Vision of Britain through Time traces a number of expansions of its area quickly followed by absorbtion of land by Kingswood and Bristol. In 1894 the parish of Hanham was abolished and the civil parish of Hanham Abbots, covering the more rural part of the original parish was created.

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)