Corscombe, Dorset
Historical Description
Corscombe, a parish in Dorsetshire, 4 miles NE of Beaminster, and 5 from Sutton Bingham station on the L. & S.W.R. It has a post and money order office under Dorchester; telegraph office, Evershot. Acreage, 5008; population of the civil parish, 623; of the ecclesiastical, 558. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Salisbury; value, £460 with residence. The church is of the time of Henry VII., and is good; it was restored and enlarged in 1876.
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 | Corscombe St. Michael | |
| Hundred | Beaminster Forum and Redborne | |
| Poor Law union | Beaminster | 1836 - |
| Registration district | Beaminster | |
| Registration sub-district | Evershot |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The parish register of baptisms, marriages and burials begins in 1595. 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 Corscombe, 1595-1837 is online
Churches
Church of England
St. Mary (parish church)
The parish church of St. Mary, rebuilt in the 15th century, and again rebuilt and refitted, with the exception of the north porch, in 1746, was restored and enlarged in 1876 mainly at the expense of George Troyte-Chafyn-Grove esq. and now consists of chancel, nave of five bays, south aisle, north porch, and an embattled western tower, with pinnacles, containing 6 bells: the carved pulpit of Caen stone and marble was given by the late George Bullock esq, in 1883, as a memorial to his wife, who died in 1866: the stained east window was placed to the memory of Edward Berkeley Troyte LL.D. and the west window is also stained: there are 226 sittings.
Civil Registration
For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.
Corscombe was in Beaminster Registration District from 1837 to 1937 and Bridport Registration District from 1937 to 1974
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Corscombe from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Corscombe (St. Michael))
- 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 Corscombe 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.