Ibberton, Dorset

Historical Description

Ibberton, a parish in Dorsetshire, on an affluent of the river Stour, 4 miles SW of Shillingstone station on the Somerset and Dorset railway, and 7 W of Blandford. It has a post office under Blandford; money order office, Okeford Fitzpaine; telegraph office, Shillingstone. Acreage, 1384; population of the civil parish, 137; of the ecclesiastical, 298. The manor belongs to the Rivers family. A range of hills runs through the parish from E to W. The curfew bell is still rung for six months of the year. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Salisbury, and is united with the rectory of Belchalwell; value, £300 with residence. The church is ancient, has a tower, and stands on the side of a hill, commanding a good view. There are Primitive Methodist and Wesleyan chapels.

Administration

The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.

Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.

Church Records

The parish register of baptisms, marriages and burials begins in 1761, the older registers having been destroyed by fire. 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).

We have transcribed the Marriages at Ibberton, St. Eustace, 1837-1921

Churches

Church of England

St. Eustace (parish church)

The parish church of St. Eustace stands on a high hill, commanding extensive views of the Blackmoor vale, and is reached from the village by a flight of 47 steps: it is a plain but ancient edifice of stone, In the Perpendicular style, consisting of chancel, nave, north aisle, south porch and an embattled western tower containing 4 bells: an old Book of Homilies, dated 1673, with chain attached, has been repaired, and is preserved in the church, which, after being for some years disused, was thoroughly restored in 1903.

St. Eustace, Ibberton

St. Eustace, Ibberton

Civil Registration

For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.

Ibberton was in Sturminster Registration District from 1837 to 1974

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Ibberton from the following:

• Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Ibberton (St. Eustache))
• 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 Ibberton 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.