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- the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia
Tarrant Monkton (#24 on map) is a civil parish and a village in Dorset, England, situated in the Tarrant Valley about four miles (six kilometres) ENE of Blandford Forum. Within the parish boundary, sited 1.5 miles over hills to the west, lies the major part of Blandford Camp British Army Base (including the Royal Signals Museum). In the UK census of 2011, the parish—including the army base—had a population of 1,986. The village is centred on the All Saints Parish Church, opposite which is the Langton Arms, a public house and restaurant.
The following description from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72 is provided by the website A Vision of Britain Through Time (University of Portsmouth Department of Geography).
- "TARRANT-MONCKTON, a parish in Blandford [registration] district, Dorset; 4 miles NE by E of Blandford [railway] station. Post town: Blandford. Real property: £1,594. Population: 243. Houses: 55. The living is a vicarage, united with [Tarrant Launceston], in the diocese of Salisbury. Value: £120. Patron: J. J. Farquharson, Esq."
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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.
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- 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
- organization charts of the hierarchies of parishes within hundreds, registration districts and rural and urban districts up to 1974
- excerpts from gazetteers of the late 19th century outlining individual towns and parishes
- 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.
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