Burton Bradstock, Dorset
Historical Description
Burton-Bradstock, a parish in Dorsetshire, lying on the river Bredy and on the coast, 3 miles SSE of Bridport railway station, and including the tithing of Sturthill. It has a post office under Bridport, which is the money order office; telegraph office, West Bay. Acreage, 2746; population of the civil parish, 889; of the ecclesiastical, with Shipton George, 1207. Cliffs on the coast consist of fuller's earth. The vale of the Bredy here is beautiful. There are flax-mills and a twine-factory, also a coastguard station. The living is a rectory, united with the chapelry of Shipton George, in the diocese of Salisbury; net value, £261 with residence. There is also a Wesleyan chapel.
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 | Burton-Bradstock St. Mary | |
| Liberty | Frampton | |
| Poor Law union | Bridport | 1836 - |
| Registration district | Bridport | |
| Registration sub-district | Burton Bradstock |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The parish register of baptisms, marriages and burials begins in 1614. 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).
The Phillimore transcript of Marriages at Burton Bradstock with Shipton Gorge, 1614-1812 is online
Churches
Church of England
St. Mary (parish church)
The parish church of St. Mary is an ancient building of stone in the Perpendicular style, consisting of chancel, nave, south aisle, north porch, and an embattled central tower, containing a clock and 5 bells: the church was thoroughly restored and reseated and the south aisle entirely rebuilt in 1897, at a cost of £1,750, under the superintendence of Mr E.S. Prior, architect. The clock, formerly belonging to Christ's Hospital, Newgate street, London, was placed as a memorial to the late Queen Victoria in 1902.
Civil Registration
Burton Bradstock was in Bridport Registration District from 1837 to 1974
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Burton Bradstock from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Burton-Bradstock (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 Burton Bradstock 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
SturthillVisitations Heraldic
The Visitation of Dorset, 1623 is available on the Heraldry page.