Pimperne, Dorset
Historical Description
Pimperne, a parish in Dorsetshire. The parish lies 2½ miles NE by N of Blandford station on the Somerset and Dorsetshire Joint railway, and has a post office under Blandford 7 money order and telegraph office, Blandford. Acreage, 3058; population of the civil parish, 420; of the ecclesiastical, 391. There is a parish council consisting of seven members and a chairman. The manor belongs to Viscount Portman. The N tract is occupied by Pimperne Down. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Salisbury; gross value, £430 witli residence. Patron, Viscount Portman. The church is partly Norman and all good, and contains an old font and a brass of 1688. The building was almost entirely rebuilt in 1874. There are a Wesleyan chapel and a reading-room. Christopher Pitt, the translator of the " Æneid," was rector.
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 | Pimperne St. Peter | |
| Hundred | Pimperne | |
| Poor Law union | Blandford | 1835 - |
| Registration district | Blandford | |
| Registration sub-district | Blandford |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The parish register dates from the year 1559. 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. Peter (parish church)
The parish church of St. Peter is a handsome edifice of stone, chiefly in the Gothic style, consisting of chancel, nave of three bays, aisles, south-east porch and an embattled western tower, with pinnacles, containing 5 bells, one of which was recast and two added in 1891: the proch has a fine Norman arch: the stained east window was presented in 1868, by Alice and Elizabeth Wright, and on the south side is one to John and Emily M. Matthews, erected by their children in August, 1874: the brass lectern was given by Robert Hewett esq. of Reading, in 1893, in memory of his wife, who died 18 May, 1891: the church was rebuilt, with the exception of the tower, in 1874, at the expense of the late Viscount Portman, and affords 210 sittings.
Civil Registration
For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.
Pimperne was in Blandford Registration District from 1837 to 1956 and Poole Registration District from 1956 to 1974
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Pimperne from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Pimperne (St. Peter))
- 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 Pimperne 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.