South Perrott, Dorset
Historical Description
Perrott, South, a parish, with a village, in Dorsetshire, on the river Parret, near its source, and adjacent to Somerset, 1½ mile SE of Crewkerne station on the L. & S.W.R. It has a post and money order office under Crewkerne; telegraph office, Crewkerne railway station. Acreage, 1488; population of the civil parish, 250; of the ecclesiastical, 513. A Roman settlement is supposed to have been on the site of the village, and Roman coins have been found. The living is a consolidated rectory, united with the chapelry of Mosterton, in the diocese of Salisbury; net value, £320 with residence. The church is ancient.
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 | South Perrot St. Mary | |
| Hundred | Beaminster Forum and Redborne | |
| Poor Law union | Beaminster | 1836 - |
| Registration district | Beaminster | |
| Registration sub-district | Netherbury |
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).
The Phillimore transcript of Marriages at South Perrott and Mosterton, 1539-1812 is online.
Churches
Church of England
St. Mary (parish church)
The church of St. Mary is an ancient building of stone in the Perpendicular style of the 14th century, contisting of chancel, nave, transepts and a central tower, part of the Late Transitional character, and containing a clock and 3 bells: there is a memorial window to the Rev. John Wills, a former rector: in 1906 the exterior was restored and a vestry built at a cost of £600: in 1909 the church was reseated and new chancel windows of stained glass inserted: a stained glass window was also erected to the memory of the Rev. John Stroud, rector from 1873 to 1904, and Elizabeth his wife, by their children: the church was again restored in 1913 at a cost of £1,500, and affords 120 sittings.
Civil Registration
South Perrott was in Beaminster Registration District from 1837 to 1937 and Bridport Registration District from 1937 to 1974
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for South Perrott from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Perrot, South (St. Mary))
- Kelly's Directory of Dorset, 1889
- 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 South Perrott 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.