Batcombe, Dorset

Historical Description

Batcombe, a parish in Dorsetshire, 2 miles ESE of Evershot station on the G.W.R., and 3½ NW of Cerne-Abbas. It includes Newland tithing. Dorchester is the post town; money order and telegraph office, Evershot. Acreage, 1120; population, 123. The living is a rectory, annexed to the rectory of Frome-Vauchurch, in the diocese of Salisbury; net value, £260 with residence, in the gift of the Earl of Sandwich. The church is old and small.

Administration

The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.

Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.

Church Records

The parish register of baptisms, marriages and burials begins in 1767. 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 a small Gothic edifice of stone, restored in 1864, and consisting of chancel and nave, north porch and an embattled western tower containing 2 bells: there are 130 sittings.

Civil Registration

For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.

Batcombe 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 Batcombe from the following:

• Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Batcombe (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 Batcombe 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.