Bryanstone, Dorset
Historical Description
Bryanstone or Blandford-Bryan, a parish in Dorsetshire, on the river Stour, 1 mile from Blandford station on the Somerset and Dorset Joint railway. It has a post office under Blandford, which is the money order and telegraph office. Acreage, 1644; population, 242. Bryanstone House here is the seat of Viscount Portman, is a large mansion after a design by Wyatt, has an octagonal staircase 30 feet in diameter, and stands in a park upwards of a mile long. The living is a rectory, annexed to the rectory of Durweston, in the diocese of Salisbury; value, £442. Patron, Viscount Portman.
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 | Bryanston St. Martin | |
| Hundred | Pimperne | |
| Poor Law union | Blandford | 1835 - |
| Registration district | Blandford | |
| Registration sub-district | Blandford |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The parish register of baptisms, marriages and burials begins in 1598. 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. Martin (parish church)
The old church of St. Martin is a small edifice of stone, consisting of chancel, nave and western bell turret containing one bell: beneath is a vault which has been the burial-place of the Portman family since 1764.
St. Martin (parish church)
The new church of St. Martin, erected in 1895-98 to the memory of the late Viscount and Viscountess Portman, from designs by Mr E.P. Warren, architect, of Westminster, is an edifice of Portland, Chilmark and Tisbury stone, and consists of chancel, nave, aisles, and a tower containing 6 bells. The ceiling is lined with the oak floor-boards from the old mansion; the chancel ceiling is waggon-vaulted and divided by ribs. The font is of Hopton Wood stone, on a shaft of Torquay marble. There are several stained windows, two of which are memorials to the late Viscountess Portman, and one to the late James John Forrester, of Paget's Horse, killed in South Africa, March 13th 1901. There are about 230 sittings.
Civil Registration
For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.
Bryanston was in Blandford Registration District from 1837 to 1956 and Poole Registration District from 1956 to 1974
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Bryanstone from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Bryanston (St. Martin))
- 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 Bryanstone 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.