Bradford Peverell, Dorset
Historical Description
Bradford-Peverell, a village and a parish in Dorsetshire. The village stands on the river Frome, under Bradford-Down, near the Roman road to Ilchester, 3 miles NW by W of Dorchester station on the L. & S.W.R. and G.W.R. It has a post office under Dorchester; money order and telegraph office, Charminster. Acreage of parish, 2254; population, 368. The parish includes also the hamlet of Muckleford. Roman antiquities have been found. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Salisbury; net value, £113 with residence. Patron, Winchester College. The church is modern. Gothic, and contains specimens of 13th century glass.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
| Ancient County | Dorsetshire | |
| Diocese | Salisbury | |
| Ecclesiastical parish | Bradford-Peverell St. Mary | |
| Hundred | George | |
| Poor Law union | Dorchester | 1836 - |
| Registration district | Dorchester | |
| Registration sub-district | Maiden Newton |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The parish register of baptisms, marriages and burials begins in 1653. 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, standing in the centre of the village, and rebuilt in 1850, in the Early English style, is an edifice of stone, consisting of chancel, nave, south porch, and an embattled western tower with spire containing 5 bells, rehung and two new bells added in 1897: one of the windows bears the arms and motto of Bishop William of Wykeham: there is also some old glass in the chancel, and the east window is mostly filled with ancient glass brought from New College, Oxford: there are two memorial windows to members of the Middleton family, one to Lieut. Edward Williams, who fell in the Soudan war, and another to Capt. FitzRoy; there are also tablets to the Rev. Middleton Onslow and the Rev. H. Blackstone Williams, former rectors, and one to members of the Onslow family: the church affords 190 sittings.
 St. Mary, Bradford Peverell |  St. Mary, Bradford Peverell |
Civil Registration
For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.
Bradford Peverell was in Dorchester Registration District from 1837 to 1949 and Weymouth Registration District from 1949 to 1974
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Bradford Peverell from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Bradford-Peverell (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 Bradford Peverell are available from a number of sites:
- Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- Google Streetview.
- National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
- 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
MucklefordVisitations Heraldic
The Visitation of Dorset, 1623 is available on the Heraldry page.