Godmanstone, Dorset
Historical Description
Godmanstone, a village and a parish in Dorsetshire. The village stands on the river Cerne, 3 miles NE of Grimstone station on the G.W.R., 2¼ S by E of Cerne Abbas, and 5 from Dorchester, and has a post office under Dorchester; money order and telegraph office, Cerne. Acreage of parish, 1172; population, 159. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Salisbury; value, £180 with residence. The church is partly Norman, chiefly Perpendicular, with a tower and four bells, and has been repaired.
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 | Godmanstone Holy Trinity | |
| Hundred | Cerne Totcombe Modbury | |
| 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 1654. 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 Godmanstone, 1654-1812 is online
Churches
Church of England
The Holy Trinity (parish church)
The parish church of the Holy Trinity is a small building of stone, in the Norman and Perpendicular styles, consisting of chancel, nave, south porch and a western tower, with pinnacles, containing 4 bells: there are four stained windows, inc1uding a memorial window to the Rev, J. Goodenough, a former rector: the church has been restored and reseated since 1861 and affords 200 sittings.
Civil Registration
For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.
Godmanston 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 Godmanstone from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Godmanstone (Holy Trinity))
- 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 Godmanstone 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.