Steeple, Dorset
Historical Description
Steeple, a parish, with Steeple village and West Creech hamlet, in Dorsetshire, near the coast, 3½ miles from Corfe Castle station on the L. & S.W.R. Post town and telegraph office, Creech; money order office, Wareham. Acreage, 3368; population of the civil parish, 314; of the ecclesiastical, 574. There is a parish council consisting of eight members. Creech Grange is a spacious mansion in the Early Tudor style, with chapel of ease partly built from remains of Holme Priory Church. The living is a rectory, united with Tyneham, in the diocese of Salisbury; net value, £185 with residence. The church has a Norman S door, the nave being Perpendicular.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
Ancient County | Essex | |
Ancient County | Dorsetshire | |
Diocese | Bristol | 1542 - 1836 |
Diocese | Salisbury | 1836 - |
Ecclesiastical parish | Steeple St. Michael | |
Ecclesiastical parish | Steeple St. Lawrence and All Saints | |
Hundred | Dengie | |
Hundred | Hasilor | |
Poor Law union | Maldon | |
Poor Law union | Wareham and Purbeck | 1836 - |
Registration district | Wareham | |
Registration sub-district | Wareham |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The register dates from the year 1548: the entries of the Bond family can be traced to the reign of Edward VI. 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. Michael (parish church)
The church of St. Michael, situated near the centre of the parish, is an edifice of stone, mostly in the Perpendicular style, consisting of chancel, nave, south porch, a small north nave, aisle belonging to Creech Grange, another small south chancel aisle belonging to the Blackmanstone farm, and a tower containing 3 bells: the south doorway is Norman: there is a memorial window to the Rev. Canon Nathaniel Bond (d. 1889) and his wife, and to G. H. Bond esq. formerly M.P. for East Dorset: there are 250 sittings.
Civil Registration
For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.
Steeple was in Wareham Registration District from 1837 to 1937 and Poole Registration District from 1937 to 1974
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Steeple from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Steeple (St. Lawrence and All Saints))
- 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 Steeple 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.
Villages, Hamlets, &c
West CreechVisitations Heraldic
The Visitation of Dorset, 1623 is available on the Heraldry page.