Ashmore, Dorset
Historical Description
Ashmore, a parish in Dorset, contiguous to Wilts, 5 miles SE of Shaftesbury, and 9 from Semley station on the L. & S.W.R. It has a post office under Salisbury; money order office, Fontmell Magna; telegraph office, Donhead St Andrew. Acreage, 2376; population, 228. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Salisbury; net value, £180. There is a Wesleyan chapel. The Church of St Nicholas is in the Early English style, and was built on the site of the old one in 1874, and contains some fine 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 | Ashmore St. Nicholas | |
| Hundred | Cranborne | |
| Poor Law union | Shaftesbury | 1836 - |
| Registration district | Shaftesbury | |
| Registration sub-district | Fontmell |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Census Records
We have transcribed the complete 1901 census return for Ashmore . Other years will be coming soon.
Church Records
The parish register of baptisms, marriages and burials begins in 1654. 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. Nicholas (parish church)
The parish church of St Nicholas, erected and opened in 1874, is of stone, in the Early English style, and consists of chancel, nave, north aisle, vestry and south porch: there are five stained windows, and a brass to the Rev. Thomas Davison, 17 years rector of this parish: the bowl of the old font, placed on a modern stem, is now used as a piscina: the church will seat 160 persons.
Civil Registration
For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.
Ashmore was in Shaftesbury Registration District from 1837 to 1937 and Sturminster Registration District from 1937 to 1974
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Ashmore from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Ashmore (St. Nicholas))
- 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 Ashmore 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.