Place:Poxwell, Dorset, England

redirected from Place:Poxwell, Dorset
Watchers
NamePoxwell
TypeAncient parish, Civil parish
Coordinates50.656°N 2.367°W
Located inDorset, England
See alsoWinfrith Hundred, Dorset, Englandhundred in which it was located
Weymouth Rural, Dorset, Englandrural district 1894-1933
Dorchester Rural, Dorset, Englandrural district 1933-1974
West Dorset District, Dorset, Englanddistrict municipality covering the area 1974-2019
the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

Poxwell (sometimes written Pokeswell) (#10 on map) is a civil parish and hamlet in the south of Dorset, England. It is located 6 miles (9.7 km) east of Weymouth. The current population of the parish is around 50.

The name originates from the ‘Pokes well’ – a well dating from the period when occupied by the Romans in the first century which is located on a hillside in the village. The hamlet is named Pocheswelle in the Domesday Book of 1086, when it was located in the hundred of Winfrith.

The oldest building in the village is the tithe barn that dates from the thirteenth century, which is a Grade I listed building. It remains in very good condition and has had various uses throughout its history including: a tithe collection point, a corn mill, a stable, a hay barn and has held many church services there; in recent times these are held during the harvest festival period.

Image:Weymouth at 1900 small.png

In the Middle Ages, Poxwell, or Pokeswell, was a possession of Cerne Abbey. Following the abbey's dissolution, it was granted by Queen Elizabeth Tudor to Thomas Howard of Lulworth and Bindon. Poxwell Manor was the seat of the Henning family. It was built in 1613 by Poole merchant John Henning, whose son John had been High Sheriff of Dorsetshire in 1609. In 1699, the Manor passed to Elizabeth Trenchard née Henning, the wife of Colonel Thomas Trenchard of Wolfeton (in the parish of Charminster near Dorchester). In 1727, the Trenchards resettled the Henning estates. It is understood that King George III visited the house on a number of occasions. Thomas Hardy used the Manor as Oxwell Hall in his novel, The Trumpet Major. The Manor remained in the Trenchard family of Lytchett Matravers and Wolfeton until the 1970s.

There was once a small church alongside the Manor, dedicated to St John the Evangelist, that dated to around the twelfth century. This was rebuilt by John Trenchard (who built the Trenchard cottages that line the road in 1843) in 1868, only to be demolished a hundred years later in 1969, as it was too costly to maintain.

Governance

Poxwell was originally a parish in the Winfrith Hundred, one of the hundreds or early subdivisions of the county of Dorset. From 1894 until 1933 it was part of the Weymouth Rural District In 1933 Weymouth Rural District was abolished and the area split between Dorchester Rural Rural District and the municipal borough of Weymouth and Melcombe Regis. Poxwell was then in the Dorchester Rural Rural District until 1974.

In 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, all urban and rural districts across England were abolished and counties were reorganized into metropolitan and non-metropolitan districts. Poxwell joined the non-metropolitan West Dorset District.

Under another set of local government reforms adopted on 1 April 2019, West Dorset District was abolished, and the County of Dorset (excluding Bournemouth Christchurch and Poole) became a single unitary authority. The area is now administered by Dorset Council.

Dorset Research Tips

One of the many maps available on the website A Vision of Britain through Time is one from the Ordnance Survey Series of 1900 illustrating the parish boundaries of Dorset at the turn of the 20th century. This map blows up to show all parishes and many of the small villages and hamlets. The internal boundaries on this map are the rural districts which are indicated in WeRelate's "See Also" box for the place concerned (unless it is an urban parish).

The following websites have pages explaining their provisions in WeRelate's Repository Section. Some provide free online databases. Some are linked to Ancestry.

  • GENUKI makes a great many suggestions as to other websites with worthwhile information about Dorset, but it has left the 19th century descriptions of each of the ecclesiastical parishes to UK Genealogy Archives which presents facts differently. Neither GENUKI or UK Genealogy Archives deal with the more modern civil parishes.
  • FamilySearch Wiki provides a similar information service to GENUKI which may be more up-to-date, but UK Genealogy Archives may prove more helpful.
  • A Vision of Britain through Time has
  1. organization charts of the hierarchies of parishes within hundreds, registration districts and rural and urban districts up to 1974
  2. excerpts from gazetteers of the late 19th century outlining individual towns and parishes
  3. reviews of population through the time period 1800-1960
  • The contents of the Victoria County History is provided by British History Online for many English counties, but not for Dorset. Instead they have provided the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments of England (RCHME Inventory Volumes) published in 1972 in five volumes covering the county in geographical areas. Thes articles describe buildings rather than towns and villages, but may be of use in researching a manor-owning family.
  • More local sources can often be found by referring to "What Links Here" in the column on the left.

Censuses

UK censuses are taken every ten years in the years ending in "1". There was no census in 1941. Details are not made available for 100 years after a census. A number of online databases (both paid and free) provide transcriptions of censuses up to 1911. Most of these provide information for an individual or a family. Many also provide images of the originals and thus allow browsing of a page or perhaps a whole enumeration district. The 1921 census was published in January 2022. It is available at FindMyPast with a charge additional to the usual subscrition to view the manuscript entries (there is no extra charge to view the index).

The Dorset Online Parish Clerks provides a good number of 19th century census transcriptions as well as lists of baptisms, marriages and burials as recorded in the parish. The formal Home Office Numbers (those starting with HO used in 1841 and 1851), the Registrar General Numbers (starting with RG in later decades, and the Enumeration District Numbers are included. There is an illustrated article to introduce each parish.

The 1841 census differed from the later ones in two different ways.

  • The question "where born" was to be answered either with the words "in county" (or "y") or "out of county" (or "n") with perhaps a more specific place in the case of those born abroad.
  • Ages for adults (usually those over 15, though some enumerators gave specific ages up to 20) were rounded down to the nearest 5 years. (i.e., for persons aged 15 years and under 20 write 15; 20 years and under 25 write 20; 25 years and under 30 write 25; and so on up to the eldest interval.

From 1851 onwards people were asked for the county and civil parish in which they were born whether in or out of the county, and ages were expressed exactly (in months for infants).