Kington Magna, Dorset

Historical Description

Kington Magna, a village and a parish in Dorsetshire. The village stands near the river Cale and the boundary with Somerset, 3¼ miles WSW of Gillingham station on the L. & S.W.R., and 6½ W of Shaftesbury, with a post office under Gillingham; money order and telegraph office, Sandley. The parish extends across the Cale to the boundary with Somerset, and includes the tithing of Nyland. Acreage, 1986; population, 427. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Salisbury; value, £490 with residence. The church is ancient, and was restored in 1862. There is a Primitive Methodist chapel.

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 register dates from the year 1660. 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

All Saints (parish church)

The parish church of All Saints is a cruciform building of stone, in the Early English style, consisting of chancel, nave, transepts, south porch and an embattled western tower containing a clock and 5 bells; the 4 old bells were rehung in 1890 and a new one added in 1914; the tenor is of pre-Reformation date, and bears the inscription: "Sancte Georgi, ora pro nobis": the chancel arch is Norman: the stained east window was presented by the Rev. W. L. Smith, a former rector; the west window is in memory of members of the Dugdale family, and there are four others: the church was restored in 1862 by the Rev. William Dugdale, and will seat 320 people. There is a list of rectors dating from 1295.

Civil Registration

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

Kington Magna was in Wincanton Registration District from 1837 to 1895, Shaftesbury Registration District from 1895 to 1937, and Sturminster Registration District from 1937 to 1974

For births, marriages, and deaths in Kington Magna from 1837 to 1895 you should search for the Wincanton Registration District.
For births, marriages, and deaths in Kington Magna from 1895 to 1937 you should search for the Shaftesbury Registration District.
For births, marriages, and deaths in Kington Magna from 1937 to 1974 you should search for the Sturminster Registration District.

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Kington Magna from the following:

• Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Kington Magna (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 Kington Magna 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.