Place:Boldre, Hampshire, England

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Family History Library Catalog

source: Family History Library Catalog

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

Boldre is a village and civil parish in the New Forest District of Hampshire. It is situated inside the New Forest National Park borders, near the Lymington River, and is about two miles (3 km) north of Lymington. According to the 2001 census the parish had a population of 1,931.

Boldre was part of Lymington Rural District from 1894 until 1932 and of New Forest Rural District from 1932 until 1974. In 1929 a large area was broken away to form the civil parish of East Boldre.

The present boundaries of the parish enclose an area of 7,718 acres (31.23 km2) and include the hamlets of Battramsley, Sandy Down, Pilley, Bull Hill, Norley Wood, Portmore, South Baddesley, and Walhampton.

Former residents include William Gilpin, who was the village parson and lived at Vicars Hill. He was famed for his wealth of knowledge about the New Forest, and its flora and fauna. William Gilpin is buried in the churchyard of St John the Baptist beside an old maple tree. He died in 1804 at the age of 80.

For more information, see the EN Wikipedia article Boldre.

Research Tips

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