Place:Kings Worthy, Hampshire, England

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Family History Library Catalog

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

Kings Worthy is a village and civil parish in Hampshire, England, approximately two miles northeast of Winchester. Kings Worthy was a tything within the Hundred of Barton Stacey when the Domesday Book was written in 1086.

The population in 2001 including Abbots Worthy was approximately 4,000.

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

"KINGSWORTHY, a village and a parish in Winchester [registration] district, Hants. The village stands among finely timbered slopes, on the N bank of the Itchin, about a mile from the Southwestern railway, and 2 miles NNE of Winchester; is remarkably pretty; and has a post office under Winchester. The parish includes the tything of Abbotsworthy, and comprises 2,168 acres. Real property: £2,513. Population: 359. Houses: 69. The property is divided chiefly among three. The manor, with Worthy Park, belongs to G. A. E. Wall, Esq. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Winchester. Value: £452. Patron: Lord Northbrook. The church is early perpendicular, and was recently enlarged and beautified. The parsonage is a spacious edifice in the Tudor style; and was erected, at a cost of £10,000, by the late Sir Thomas Baring, Bart., as a residence for his son, the present Bishop of Durham. The schools were rebuilt in 1859; and they are handsome and commodious, and have a reading room and lending library attached."

Abbots Worthy

Abbots Worthy was an ancient parish until the mid 16th century when it was demoted to a tything of Kings Worthy. (Source: A Vision of Britain through Time and Wikipedia on Abbots Worthy)

Research Tips

• Victoria County History of Hampshire, volume 4, chapter on Kings Worthy.
• 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