Catherston Lewston, Dorset
Historical Description
Catherston-Lewston, a parish in Dorsetshire, on the river Char, 3 miles NE of Lyme-Regis, and 6½ WNW of Bridport railway station. It has a post office under Charmouth, which is the money order and telegraph office. Acreage, 245; population, 21. Catherston was the seat of Judge Jeffreys. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Salisbury; value, £61. The church was rebuilt in 1858, and contains some beautiful stained glass windows.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
Ancient County | Dorsetshire | |
Diocese | Bristol | 1542 - 1836 |
Diocese | Salisbury | 1836 - |
Ecclesiastical parish | Catherston-Lewston St. Mary | |
Hundred | Whitchurch Canonicorum | |
Poor Law union | Bridport | 1836 - |
Registration district | Bridport | |
Registration sub-district | Whitchurch Canonicorum |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The parish register of baptisms, marriages and burials begins in 1837. The original register books are now deposited with the Dorset Archives Service, but have been digitised by Ancestry.co.uk and made available on their site (subscription required).
The register appears to have been kept with that of Wootton Fitzpaine until December, 1837, but some portions have been lost.
Churches
Church of England
St. Mary (parish church)
The parish church of St. Mary, erected in 1858 at the sole expense of the late Robert Charles Hildyard esq. on the ancient site, is a building of stone in the Early Decorated style, consists of chancel and nave, and a western turret containing one bell, brought from Sebastopol: the whole of the windows are stained; there are 50 sittings.
Civil Registration
For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.
Catherston Leweston was in Bridport Registration District from 1837 to 1974
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Catherston Lewston from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Catherston-Lewston (St. Mary))
- Hunt & Co.'s Directory of Dorsetshire, Hampshire, & Wiltshire 1851
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Dorset is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Catherston Lewston are available from a number of sites:
- Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- Google Streetview.
- National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
- OpenStreetMap.
- old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
- Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)
Newspapers and Periodicals
The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the Dorset County Chronicle and the Sherborne Mercury online.
Visitations Heraldic
The Visitation of Dorset, 1623 is available on the Heraldry page.