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- the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia
Stoke Abbott (#23 on map) is a civil parish and a small village in Dorset, England, 2 miles (3.2 km) west of Beaminster. In 2013 the population of the parish, as estimated by the County Council, was 190.
The author Ralph Wightman, agriculturist, broadcaster, and native of Dorset, described the village as "a beautiful place of deep lanes, orchards and old houses, with a church of quiet charm", and, in a similar vein, Sir Frederick Treves in 1906 considered it "as pretty a village as any in Dorset".
On Waddon Hill to the northwest of the village are the remains of earthworks of an early settlement, consisting of a low bank wide and traces of a ditch, though historic quarrying around the hill may have destroyed more. Mid first century Roman and Romano-British military artefacts were found on the hill's southern slopes in 1876–8. In the Domesday Book of 1086 the village was recorded as "Stoche" and had 32 households.
The parish church of St. Mary the Virgin has Norman origins but has been altered and added to over the centuries. The 12th-century bapismal font is notable. The poet William Crowe was rector here between 1782 and 1786; at the end of his incumbency he published his most well known piece, Lewesdon Hill, about the hill to the west of the village.
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Governance
Stoke Abbott was originally a parish in the Beaminster Hundred, one of the hundreds or early subdivisions of the county of Dorset. From 1894 until 1974 it was part of the Beaminster Rural District.
In 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, all urban and rural districts across England were abolished and counties were reorganized into metropolitan and non-metropolitan districts. Stoke Abbott joined the non-metropolitan West Dorset District.
Under another set of local government reforms adopted on 1 April 2019, West Dorset District was abolished, and the county of Dorset (excluding Bournemouth Christchurch and Poole) became a single unitary authority. The area is now administered by Dorset Council.
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.
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).
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