Cattistock, Dorset

Historical Description

Cattistock, a parish in Dorsetshire, on the Frome, 1½ mile from Maiden-Newton station on the G.W.R., and 5 miles WSW of Cerne-Abbas. It has a post and money order office under Dorchester; telegraph office, Maiden-Newton. Acreage, 8073; population, 520. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Salisbury; value, £879 with residence. The church is good, contains a beautiful peal of bells, and a magnificent clock with Westminster chimes. A handsome tower, 108 feet, designed by Sir Gilbert Scott, was completed in 1878. Thirty-three new bells were presented to the church in 1882, forming one of the most perfect carillons that ever passed out of the foundry of the famous Severan Van Aerschodt of Louvain. There is a Methodist chapel.

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 1558. 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 Cattistock, 1558-1812 is online.

Churches

Church of England

SS. Peter and Paul (parish church)

The parish church of SS. Peter and Paul, repaired and nearly rebuilt at the entire cost of the Rev. H. Still, a former rector, is of stone, in the Early English, Decorated and Perpendicular styles, and consists of chancel, nave, aisles, transepts, north porch and a massive embattled tower with pinnacles, erected at the cost of the family of the Rev. K.H. Barnes, a former rector, and containing a superb carillon of 35 bells, cast at Louvain by the celebrated founder Van Aerschodt, and a clock with Westminster chimes: the seven windows in the chancel, the large west window, three in the south aisle and one in the baptistery are all stained: there are 276 sittings.

SS. Peter and Paul, Cattistock	SS. Peter and Paul, Cattistock
Baptistry	Baptistry

Civil Registration

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

Cattistock was in Cerne Registration District from 1837 to 1838, Dorchester Registration District from 1838 to 1937, and Weymouth Registration District from 1949 to 1974

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Cattistock from the following:

• Kelly's Directory of Dorset, 1889
• 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 Cattistock 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.