Okeford Fitzpaine, Dorset

Historical Description

Okeford Fitzpaine, a village and a parish in Dorsetshire. The village stands 1½ mile WSW of the river Stour and of Shillingstone station on the Somerset and Dorset Joint railway, and 6 miles NW of Blandford Forum. It has a post and money order office under Blandford; telegraph office, Shillingstone. Acreage of the civil parish, 3742; population, 687; of the ecclesiastical, 557. The manor belonged formerly to the Nicholes and the Fitz-Paynes, and belongs now to the Pitt-Rivers family. A circular single-trenched camp is on Bunbury Hill, 1½ mile NW of the village, and several British coins were found there in 1753. Bricks are made. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Salisbury; net value, £370 with residence. The church is Decorated English, was partly restored, partly rebuilt in 1866, and comprises nave, aisles, and chancel, with N porch and W tower. There are Wesleyan and Primitive Methodist 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 register of baptisms dates from the year 1592: burials, 1593, and marriages, 1594. 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. Andrew (parish church)

The parish church of St. Andrew is a building of stone in the Decorated and Perpendicular styles, consisting of chancel, nave of four bays, aisles, north porch and an embattled western tower, with pinnacles, containing 6 bells: the ancient stone pulpit, used as a font in the 18th century by the Rev. D. Butler, a former rector, has since been restored to its original purpose: there is a memorial window to the Rev. G. Rivers Hunter, 52 years rector here, and the west window was erected in 1914 in memory of the Rev. Robert Cholmeley Price, a former curate in charge, and of Florence his wife: the church was thoroughly restored in 1866 at a cost of over £2,000, and has 344 sittings.

St. Andrew, Okeford Fitzpaine

St. Andrew, Okeford Fitzpaine

Civil Registration

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

Okeford Fitzpaine was in Sturminster Registration District from 1837 to 1974

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Okeford Fitzpaine from the following:

• Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Okeford-Fitzpaine (St. Andrew))
• 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 Okeford Fitzpaine 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.