Mappowder, Dorset
Historical Description
Mappowder, a parish in Dorsetshire, 6 miles NE by E of Cerne Abbas, and 6 SW of Sturminster Newton station on the Somerset and Dorset Joint railway. It has a post office under Blandford; money order and telegraph office, Haselbury Bryan. Acreage, 1901; population, 195. Stone is quarried. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Salisbury; value, £280 with residence. The church is a fine edifice with a tower, has been restored, and contains a Norman font, an effigies of a crusader, and monuments of the Cokers. John Coker, author of the " Survey of Dorset," was a native.
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 | Mappowder St. Peter and St. Paul | |
| Hundred | Buckland Newton | |
| Poor Law union | Cerne | 1835 - |
| Registration district | Dorchester | |
| Registration sub-district | Cerne |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The register dates from the year 1653. 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).
Churches
Church of England
St. Peter and St. Paul (parish church)
The parish church of SS. Peter and Paul is a small edifice of stone, in the Perpendicular style, consisting of chancel, nave of three bays, south aisle, south porch, and a western tower, with pinnacles, containing 5 bells : there is a memorial to a boy Crusader: the church was restored in 1865, and has sittings for 120 persons.
Civil Registration
For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.
Mappowder was in Cerne Registration District from 1837 to 1838, Dorchester Registration District from 1838 to 1937, and Sturminster Registration District from 1937 to 1974
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Mappowder from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Mappowder (St. Peter and St. Paul))
- 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 Mappowder 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.