Nether Compton, Dorset
Historical Description
Compton, Nether, a parish in Dorsetshire, on the boundary of Somerset, 3 miles from Sherborne station on the L. & S.W.R. It has a post, money order, and telegraph office, of the name of Compton, under Sherborne. Acreage, 918; population, 323. The living is a rectory, united with the rectory of Over Compton, in the diocese of Salisbury; joint net value, £308. The 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 - |
| Ecclesiastical parish | Nether Compton St. Nicholas | |
| Hundred | Sherborne | |
| Poor Law union | Sherborne | 1835 - |
| Registration district | Sherborne | |
| Registration sub-district | Sherborne |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The parish register dates from the year 1538. 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 small building in the Perpendicular style, consisting of chancel, nave, north transept, south porch and an embattled western tower, with pinnacles, containing a clock and 5 bells : the chancel, which is of an earlier date, in the Decorated style, is separated from the body of the church by a small but elegant stone screen of 15th century work: there are several stained windows in the chancel: there are 235 sittings.
Civil Registration
For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.
Nether Compton was in Sherborne Registration District from 1837 to 1937 and Sturminster Registration District from 1937 to 1974
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Nether Compton from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Compton, Nether (St. Nicholas))
- 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 Nether Compton 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.