Place:Tarrant Gunville, Dorset, England

Watchers
NameTarrant Gunville
Alt namesTarrant-Gunvillesource: Family History Library Catalog
Gunvillesource: early settlement in parish
Stubhamptonsource: early settlement in parish
Tarrant Stubhamptonsource: another name for above
TypeAncient parish, Civil parish
Coordinates50.915°N 2.107°W
Located inDorset, England
See alsoCranborne Hundred, Dorset, Englandhundred in which it was located
Blandford Rural, Dorset, Englandrural district of which it was part 1894-1974
North Dorset District, Dorset, Englanddistrict municipality covering the area 1974-2019
the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

Tarrant Gunville (#20 on map) is a civil parish and a village which, from 1974 until 2019, was located in the North Dorset District of Dorset, England. It is situated at the head of the Tarrant Valley on Cranborne Chase 5 miles (8 kilometres) northeast of Blandford Forum. The parish covers 3,469 acres (1,404 hectares) at an altitude of 70 to 170 metres (230 to 560 feet). In the UK census of 2011 the parish—which includes the settlement of Stubhampton to the north—had 119 dwellings, 108 households and a population of 233.

The medieval settlements in the parish were Stubhampton and Gunville. The parish church, dedicated to St Mary, is on the edge of the village of Tarrant Gunville. It is on the site of an earlier building which probably dated from around 1100. The present building has a south porch, aisles and tower arch that are partly 14th-century, and a 15th-century west tower that was partly rebuilt in the 16th century, but the chancel and nave were rebuilt in 1843.

Eastbury House, the surviving part of a much larger house designed by John Vanbrugh and built between 1717 and 1738, stands just east of Tarrant Gunville village. The larger part of the house was demolished in 1782. The grounds still display evidence of the original gardens, designed by Charles Bridgeman. It is probable that several of the ashlar and flint houses in the village were built using material taken from the demolished house. The photographer Thomas Wedgwood moved into the surviving part of Eastbury in 1800; his brother, the potter Josiah, had bought nearby Gunville House in 1799, shortly after its construction.

There are 23 structures in the parish that English Heritage declares as listed buildings for their special historical or architectural interest. These include Eastbury House (Grade I) and the parish church (Grade II*).

Image:Blandford RD 1900 small.png

The River Tarrant

the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

The River Tarrant is a 12 km long tributary of the River Stour in Dorset. The valley lies to the east of Blandford Forum and runs through Cranborne Chase, an area of chalk downland. The eight Tarrant Valley villages and parishes all bear the name of the river. All were in the Blandford Registration District and the Blandford Rural District and from 1974 until 2019 in the North Dorset District. (Since 2019 all the area of Dorset west of Bournemouth Christchurch and Poole is one unitary authority.) Listed in order from the river's source the parishes are:

  • Tarrant Gunville (#20): the source of the river is in the grounds of Gunville House, now demolished
  • Tarrant Hinton (#21): a village at a crossroads, with a parish church
  • Tarrant Launceston (#23): a hamlet with a 3-arched 17th-century bridge.
  • Tarrant Monkton (#24): a village with a parish church
  • Tarrant Rawston (#25): a very small settlement
  • Tarrant Rushton (#26): a village with a parish church. Near here was a World War II RAF airfield.
  • Tarrant Keyneston (#22): this is the largest village of the eight; has a parish church
  • Tarrant Crawford (#19): the final settlement, lies at the confluence of the rivers Tarrant and Stour. Here there is the church of St Mary the Virgin and Tarrant Abbey farm, where once stood a nunnery. There is also a vineyard here.

The comparative sizes above refer to the villages, not to the parishes.

There were three other Tarrant communities;

  • Tarrant Stubhampton: north of Tarrant Gunville and part of that parish: This is now known as Stubhampton.
  • Tarrant Antioch: which may have been an earlier name for Tarrant Rawston, or may have been a distinct community just north of Tarrant Rawston. Tarrant Antioch was served by St Mary Tarrant Crawford, where there was a devotion to St Margaret of Antioch.
  • Tarrant Preston: This was a hamlet and still exists marked by Preston Farm in Tarrant Keyneston parish.

Churches also existed once at Tarrant Launceston (the site is on Higher Dairy Farm), and Tarrant Rawston (which still exists but in private ownership). In the Middle Ages there was a church at Tarrant Stubhampton. The church at Tarrant Crawford is looked after by the Redundant Churches Commission, and the parish is united with Tarrant Keyneston.

A Roman road followed the valley and there are many tumuli on the hills on both sides of the river, evidence of long occupation.

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).

This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at Tarrant Gunville. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with WeRelate, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at River Tarrant. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with WeRelate, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.