Silton, Dorset
Historical Description
Silton, a parish, with a village, in Dorsetshire, on the river Stour, 4 miles NW of Gillingham station on the L. & S.W.R., and 5 W by N of Wincanton. Post town, Bath; money order and telegraph office, Bourton. Acreage, 1225; population of the civil parish, 212; of the ecclesiastical, 233. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Salisbury; net value, £312 with residence. 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 | Silton St. Nicholas | |
| Hundred | Redlane | |
| Poor Law union | Shaftesbury | 1894 - |
| Registration district | Shaftesbury | |
| Registration sub-district | Gillingham |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The parish register dates from the year 1653. 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 building of stone in the Perpendicular style, and consists of chancel, nave, south porch, south aisle, and an embattled western tower with pinnacles containing 4 bells: there is a fine monument to Sir Hugh Wyndham Kt. a justice of the Common Pleas in the reign of Charles II. d. 27 July, 1684, and his three wives, and eight stained windows, two of which are memorials to former rectors: in 1870 the church was thoroughly restored, principally at the expense of the Rev. W. J. E. Percy B.A. then rector, and in 1907 a sum of nearly £200 was expended on the foundations and in underpinning; on the north side of the chancel is a chantry chapel, now used as the vestry, which contains a fan traceried roof and is lighted by a four-light perpendicular stained window: there are 150 sittings.
Civil Registration
Silton was in Mere (Wiltshire) Registration District from 1837 to 1896, Shaftesbury Registration District from 1896 to 1937, and Sturminster Registration District from 1937 to 1974
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Silton from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Silton (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 Silton 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.