West Chickerell, Dorset
Historical Description
Chickerell, West, a parish in Dorsetshire, on the coast, at the East Fleet, 3 miles NW by W of Weymouth town and station on the G.W.R. and L. & S.W.R. It includes the tithings of East Chickerell and Putton, and has a post and money order office under Weymouth; telegraph office, Weymouth. Acreage, 1576; population, 814. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Salisbury; net value, £182. The church is very old, and contains a very perfect Norman font and a Jacobean pulpit. There are Wesleyan, Congregational, and Baptist chapels.
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 - |
Hundred | Culliford Tree | |
Poor Law union | Weymouth | 1836 - |
Registration district | Weymouth | |
Registration sub-district | Weymouth |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The parish register of baptisms, marriages and burials begins in 1699. 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 Phillimore transcript of Marriages at Chickerell, 1723-1812 is online
Churches
Church of England
St. Mary (parish church)
The parish church of St. Mary is an edifice of stone in the Perpendicular style, consisting of chancel, nave, north aisle, and south porch: 2 large bells are suspended under two stone arches at the west end: the font is Norman: the Jacobean pulpit dates from 1630: the chancel was restored in 1875 and 1896: a new organ was erected in 1902: there are 250 sittings.
Civil Registration
For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for West Chickerell from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Chickerell, West)
- 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 West Chickerell 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.
Villages, Hamlets, &c
East ChickerellVisitations Heraldic
The Visitation of Dorset, 1623 is available on the Heraldry page.