Place:Shirehampton, Gloucestershire, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Shirehampton, near Avonmouth, at the north-western edge of the city of Bristol, England, is a district of Bristol which originated as a separate village. It retains something of its village feel, having a short identifiable High Street with the parish church situated among shops, and is still thought of as a village by many of its 6,867 inhabitants. (Source:1991 UK Census, last census when identified separately from Avonmouth.) The community is a convenient location from which to reach all parts of the city and its work environment.

A 19th century description

A Vision of Britain through Time provides the following description of Shirehampton from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72:

"SHIREHAMPTON, a chapelry, with a village, in Westbury-on-Trym parish, Gloucester; on the river Avon, and on the Bristol Port and Pier railway, 5 miles NW by W of Bristol. It has a [railway] station, a post-office under Bristol, two good inns, and a dispensary. Real property: £5,224. Population in 1851: 632; in 1861: 731. Houses: 145. The property is subdivided. The living is a [perpetual] curacy in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol. Value: not reported. Patron: the Incumbent of Westbury. The church is cruciform. There are a national school and several small charities."

Shirehampton was a tything and a chapelry until 1866 and a civil parish until 1904 when it was fully absorbed into Bristol. Its links to Westbury-on-Trym parish were ending as the gazetteer entry above was being written.

Registration Districts

• Clifton Registration District (1837-1877)
• Barton Regis Registration District (1877 - 1904)

Abolished 1904 to become part of the parish of Bristol.

Research Tips

• Bristol Archives is where paper and microfilm copies of all records for Bristol and its environs are stored.

Online sources which may also be helpful:

• 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 (except in the immediate Bristol area--for Bristol, see English Jurisdictions).

• Gloucestershire 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.
• Gloucestershire 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
• Gloucestershire in 1943, an Ordnance Survey map showing the rural districts after the changes to their structure in the 1930s

• 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 Gloucestershire 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 locations of ecclesiastical parishes in large towns and cathedral cities, as well as changes in their dedications (names). Very useful for Bristol.
• The Church Crawler has a website of photos and histories of English Churches with emphasis on Bristol.
• Unfortunately, the Victoria County History series provided by the website British History Online only provides information on Gloucestershire Churches in this part of the county. More general information on the Bristol and South Gloucestershire area is sadly omitted.
• Ancestry UK has recently added Gloucestershire Burials, 1813-1988; Confirmations, 1834-1913; Baptisms, 1813-1913; Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1813; and Marriages and Banns, 1754-1938. (entry dated 1 Aug 2015)
• Ancestry has also now updated Bristol, England, Select Church of England Parish Registers, 1720-1933 (entry dated 14 Mar 2016)
• England and Wales Jurisdictions 1851 provides a map illustrating the locations of the various Bristol parishes. Enter "Bristol" in the search box at the top left, then select the parish required from the list below the search box.