Place:St. Cuthbert Out, Somerset, England

the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia. St. Cuthbert Out (#12 on map), sometimes Wells St. Cuthbert Out is a civil parish in the Mendip District of Somerset, England. It entirely surrounds (but does not include) the city and parish of Wells. According to the 2011 census it had a population of 3,749. The parish is named for the Church of St. Cuthbert in Wells. It was created in 1866 when the parish of Wells St. Cuthbert was split into two, with the Parish of St. Cuthbert in Wells separated its vast rural holdings from the area surrounding the church itself. This occurred because the regulations dealing with rural parishes differed from those dealing with urban parishes. St. Cuthbert's Church is not the cathedral; the cathedral is in the Liberty of St. Andrew which covers a much smaller area of Wells to the east of Wells St. Cuthbert. At 1900 this large parish covered an area of 14,890 acres (6,026 hectares, 23.27 sq mi) and included the villages and hamlets of East Horrington, West Horrington and South Horrington, Burcott, Coxley, Dulcote, Easton, Launcherley, Lower Milton, Polsham, Southway, Upper Milton and Worminster. In 1933 the boundaries between St. Cuthbert Out and the parish of Wookey (#15) to the west were changed so the the village of Wookey Hole became part of St. Cuthbert Out. It would appear that the parish of Dinder (#4) was absorbed into St. Cuthbert Out after 1974 when the Mendip District came into existence. Wikipedia states that Dinder is now a village in St. Cuthbert Out but does not supply a date for this change. No other sources mention it. For more information, see the EN Wikipedia article St. Cuthbert Out.

Research Tips

• The Wells St Cuthbert GENUKI page
• An article on Wells Cathedral and the city of Wells from the Victoria History of the Counties of England – History of the County of Somerset, produced by The Institute of Historical Research.
• The Somerset Heritage Centre (incorporating what was formerly the Somerset Record Office and the Somerset Local Studies Library) can be found at its new location at Langford Mead in Taunton. It has an online search facility leading to pages of interest, including maps from the First and Second Ordnance Survey (select "Maps and Postcards" from the list at the left, then enter the parish in the search box).
  The Heritage Centre has an email address: archives@somerset.gov.uk.
• Three maps on the A Vision of Britain through Time website illustrate the changes in political boundaries over the period 1830-1945. All have expanding scales and on the second and third this facility is sufficient that individual parishes can be inspected.

• Somerset Hundreds as drawn in 1832. This map was prepared before The Great Reform Act of that year. Note the polling places and representation of the various parts of the county.
• Somerset in 1900, an Ordnance Survey map showing rural districts, the boundaries of the larger towns, the smaller civil parishes of the time, and some hamlets and villages in each parish
• Somerset in 1943, an Ordnance Survey map showing the rural districts after the changes to their structure in the 1930s

• Maps provided by the National Library of Scotland are also very useful. This map is currently set to an area now in the Sedgmoor District as it existed in the late 19th century, but can be moved to anywhere in the county using a variety of background maps. There is a very good search facility.
• A Vision of Britain through Time has a group of pages of statistical facts for almost every parish in the county
• GENUKI gives pointers to other archive sources as well as providing some details on each parish. The emphasis here is on ecclesiastical parishes (useful before 1837)
• A listing of all the Registration Districts in England and Wales since their introduction in 1837 and tables of the parishes that were part of each district and the time period covered with detailed notes on changes of parish name, mergers, etc. The compiler has gone to a lot of work to provide this material. Respect his copyright.
• The FamilySearch Wiki for Somerset provides a similar but not identical series of webpages to that provided by GENUKI
• English Jurisdictions, a supplementary website to FamilySearch outlining local parish boundaries in the middle on the 19th century. The information provided is especially useful for establishing the relationship of the ecclesiastical parishes in large towns and cathedral cities.
• The Victoria History of the Counties of England – History of the County of Somerset, produced by The Institute of Historical Research at the University of London is a scholarly website with articles tracing the history of individual parishes which are sorted into their hundreds, the early subdivisions of the county. It traces the ownership of estates and manors, describes the local church in detail, and usually provides a map of each parish. The volumes for Somerset are much more recent than those for other counties. It appears to be a work in progress, only covering about half the county so far. A map of the places covered in the series is given in Volume 6, but 3 more volumes have been published since then. If a parish is included there will be a note in its Research Tips.
• The Somerset and Dorset Family History Society
• The Weston super Mare Family History Society
• The Bristol and Avon Family History Society
• A list of all Somerset parishes with online transcripts of parish registers The size of Somerset makes this a huge project. If it does not yield what you are looking for, try getting in touch with the organizer with patience and politeness.
• Somerset Online Parish Clerk project home page
• A collection of West Somerset Parish Register Transcriptions are online courtesy of Martin Southwood