Cheselborne, Dorset
Historical Description
Cheselborne or Chesilborne, a parish in Dorsetshire, on an affluent of the river Piddle, 6¼ miles E by S of Cerne Abbas, and 8 from Dorchester station on the G.W.R. and L. & S.W.R. There is a post and money order office under Dorchester; telegraph office, Dorchester. Acreage, 3031; population of the civil parish, 256; of the ecclesiastical, 243. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Salisbury; net value, £220 with residence. The church is good, and has an embattled tower. 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.
| Ancient County | Dorsetshire | |
| Diocese | Bristol | 1542 - 1836 |
| Diocese | Salisbury | 1836 - |
| Hundred | Whiteway | |
| Poor Law union | Cerne | 1835 - |
| Registration district | Dorchester | |
| Registration sub-district | Cerne |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The parish register of baptisms, marriages and burials begins in 1644. 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 parish church of St. Martin is an ancient edifice of flint and stone in the Gothic style, consisting of chancel, nave, aisles, north and south porches and an embattled western tower, with pinnacles, containing 5 bells: it was restored in 1875, and has 200 sittings. The church plate consists of an Elizabethan cup with cover, dated 1574, and two patens, the larger of 18th century date, and the smaller the gift in 1910 of the Rev. T.O. Marshall B.A. of Teddington, Middlesex.
Civil Registration
For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.
Cheselbourne was in Cerne Registration District from 1837 to 1838, Dorchester Registration District from 1838 to 1949, and Weymouth Registration District from 1949 to 1974
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Cheselborne from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Cheselborne)
- 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 Cheselborne 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.