East Stour, Dorset
(East Stower)
Historical Description
Stower, East, a parish in Dorsetshire, 2½ miles SSW of Gillingham station on the L. & S.W.R. It has a post office under Gillingham; money order and telegraph office, Gillingham. Acreage, 1786; population, 444. There is a parish council consisting of five members. The living is a perpetual curacy, annexed to Gillingham. The church is good. There are Baptist and Wesleyan chapels and a temperance hall. Fielding was for some time a resident.
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 | Redlane | |
Poor Law union | Shaftesbury | 1836 - |
Registration district | Shaftesbury | 1837 - 1937 |
Registration district | Sturminster | 1937 - 1974 |
Registration sub-district | Gillingham |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The parish register of baptisms, marriages and burials begins in 1584. 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 East Stower, 1584-1812 is online
Churches
Church of England
Christ Church (parish church)
The parish church of Christ Church, rebuilt on the old site in 1841, is a cruciform edifice of stone in the Norman style, and consists of chancel, nave, transepts, north porch and an embattled central tower containing 3 bells; the east window and six smaller windows are stained: there are 300 sittings.
Civil Registration
For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.
East Stour was in Shaftesbury Registration District from 1837 to 1937 and Sturminster Registration District from 1937 to 1974
For births, marriages, and deaths in East Stour from 1837 to 1937 you should search for the Shaftesbury Registration District.
For births, marriages, and deaths in East Stour from 1937 to 1974 you should search for the Sturminster Registration District.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for East Stour from the following:
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Dorset is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of East Stour 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.