Place:Highclere, Hampshire, England

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Family History Library Catalog

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

Highclere is a village and civil parish situated in the North Wessex Downs in the Basingstoke and Deane District of Hampshire. It lies in the northern part of the county, near the Berkshire border. It is most famous for being the location of Highclere Castle, a noted Victorian house of the Earl of Carnarvon. It is the setting for numerous films and TV series, including Downton Abbey.

The parish church of St Michael and All Angels sits between Highclere Castle and the main part of the village. This 'new' church (1870s) replaced a much older church sited adjacent to Highclere Castle, and parish records go back to pre-Norman times.

Research Tips

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