Hillfield, Dorset
Historical Description
Hilfield or Hillfield, a parochial chapelry in Dorsetshire, 3 miles ENE of Evershot station on the G.W.R., and 3½ Nw by N of Cerne Abbas. Post town, Dorchester; money order and telegraph office, Evershot. Acreage, 1599; population, 133. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Salisbury; value, £75. Patron, the Vicar of Sydling. The parish church is good.
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 | 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 1849. 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. Nicholas (parish church)
The parish church of St. Nicholas is a very small and plain edifice of stone in the Perpendicular style, consisting of chancel, nave, and a central turret containing one bell: the church has been restored, and affords 100 sittings.
St. Nicholas, Hillfield
Civil Registration
Hillfield was in Cerne Registration District from 1837 to 1838, Dorchester Registration District from 1838 to 1937, and Sturminster Registration District from 1937 to 1974
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Hillfield from the following:
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Dorset is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Hillfield 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.