Shillingstone, Dorset

Historical Description

Shillingstone or Shilling Okeford, a village and a parish in Dorsetshire. The village stands on an eminence adjacent to the river Stour, with a station on the Somerset and Dorset railway, 123 miles from London, and 5½ NW of Blandford. It has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Blandford. Acreage of parish, 2272; population, 546. The parish council consists of seven members. The manor belongs to Viscount Portman. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Salisbury; net value, £380 with residence. The church was restored and enlarged in 1889. There is a Wesleyan chapel. The remains of an ancient cross stand in the village.

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 dates from the year 1654. 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

The Holy Rood (parish church)

The parish church of the Holy Rood is a building of stone, consisting of chancel in the Early English style, nave of three bays, north aisle, south porch and a fine embattled western tower, containing a clock and 5 bells, one of which bears the date 1622, and the inscription "Geve thankes to God": a memorial window was erected in 1903 to the late Mr. William Entwisle, of Hanford, and in 1906 a new lectern was provided; the north aisle was entirely reseated, and in 1903 the chancel was redecorated and an oak screen added at the cost of Mrs. Chapman, of Shillingstone Grange: there are 300 sittings.

Holy Rood

Holy Rood

Civil Registration

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

Shillingstone was in Sturminster Registration District from 1837 to 1974

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Shillingstone from the following:

• 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 Shillingstone 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.