Fleet, Dorset
Historical Description
Fleet, a village and a parish in Dorsetshire. The village stands on Fleet Water, 3½ miles WNW of Weymouth town and station on the G.W.R. Post town, Weymouth. Acreage, 963; population, 138. It suffered much damage in a great storm of 1824, when the sea broke through the Chesil Bank. The manor belonged to Christchurch Priory, and passed to the Mohuns and the Goulds. Fleet Water runs up from Portland Roads inside the Chesil Bank, and is 7 miles long and a quarter of a mile broad. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Salisbury; gross value, £115.. The church was destroyed by a storm of 1824, a tidal wave sweeping away all but the chancel, which is still standing, and is used as a mortuary chapel. A new church in the Early English style, with apsidal chancel, open porch, and bell-turret, was built in 1827, and improved in 1892.
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 | Uggescombe | |
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 1663. 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 Fleet, 1664-1753 is online
Churches
Church of England
Holy Trinity (parish church)
The existing parish church of Holy Trinity, erected in 1827 at the sole expense of the Rev. George Gould, then vicar, is an edifice in the Gothic style, consisting of chancel, nave, and an embattled western tower containing one bell: the stained east window was presented by Henry Charles Goodden esq. and Sir Henry Peto bart.: in 1891 the church was greatly improved, being reseated and a new chancel arch built, by Sir Henry Peto bart. in memory of his father, Sir Samuel Morton Peto bart. M.P. d. 1889, and affords 100 sittings.
Civil Registration
For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.
Fleet was in Weymouth Registration District from 1837 to 1974
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Fleet from the following:
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Dorset is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Fleet 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.