Stour Provost, Dorset

Historical Description

Stower Provost, a parish in Dorsetshire, 3½ miles SSW of Gillingham station on the L. & S.W.R. Post town, Gillingham. Acreage, 2815; population of the civil parish, 700; of the ecclesiastical, 838. There is a parish council consisting of nine members. A nunnery or cell to St Leger de Pratellis in Normandy was founded in the time of King John, and with the manor was given to King's College, Cambridge, by Henry VI. in 1444. The living is a rectory, united with Todbere, in the diocese of Salisbury; net value, £490 with residence. Patron, King's College, Cambridge. The church is good. There are Primitive Methodist and Congregational chapels.

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 1701. 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, Church Lane (parish church)

The church of St. Michael is a building of stone, in the Early English style, consisting of chancel, nave, north aisle, south porch, and an embattled western tower containing a clock and 4 bells: the stained east window was presented by the late Rev. Henry James Slingsby, formerly rector, and there are others to the Rev. Robert Abercrombie Denton and the Rev. Richard Arthur Francis Barrett, both former rectors: the church affords 300 sittings.

Civil Registration

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

Stour Provost was in Shaftesbury Registration District from 1837 to 1937 and Sturminster Registration District from 1937 to 1974

For births, marriages, and deaths in Stour Provost from 1837 to 1937 you should search for the Shaftesbury Registration District.
For births, marriages, and deaths in Stour Provost from 1937 to 1974 you should search for the Sturminster Registration District.

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Stour Provost 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 Stour Provost 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.