Almer, Dorset
Historical Description
Almer, a parish in Dorsetshire, on an affluent of the Stour, 3 miles S by W of Spettisbury station on the Somerset and Dorset railway, and 7 W by S of Wimborne-Minster. It contains the hamlet of Mapperton. It has a post office under Blandford; money order and telegraph office, Spettisbury. Acreage, 1170; population, 133. The living is a rectory; net value, £240. The church is an ancient building of stone.
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 | Almer St. Mary | |
Hundred | Loosebarrow | |
Poor Law union | Blandford | 1835 - 1894 |
Poor Law union | Wimborne and Cranborne | 1894 - |
Registration district | Wimborne | |
Registration sub-district | Wimborne |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Census Records
We have transcribed the complete 1901 census for Almer.
Church Records
The parish register of baptisms, marriages and burials begins in 1538. 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. Mary (parish church)
The parish church of St Mary is an ancient building of stone, consisting of chancel, nave, south porch and a lofty embattled western tower with pinnacles and containing 4 bells: on the north side of the nave is a small arcade of Norman arches: the church was restored in 1907 at a cost of £1,100, when the chancel was new roofed in oak: there are memorial windows to the Revs. V.R. Carter and C. Torkington, formerly rectors: there are 100 sittings.
Civil Registration
For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.
Almer was in Blandford Registration District from 1837 to 1895 and Wimborne Registration District from 1895 to 1933
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Almer from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Almer (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 Almer 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
Mapperton (Almer)Visitations Heraldic
The Visitation of Dorset, 1623 is available on the Heraldry page.