Tarrant Crawford, Dorset
Historical Description
Tarrant Crawford, a parish in Dorsetshire, 1½ mile ENE of Spetisbury station on the Somerset and Dorset Joint railway, and 3½ SSE of Blandford. Post town, Blandford. Acreage, 543; population, 41. A Cistercian nunnery was founded here in the time of Richard I., was the burial-place of Joan, daughter of King John, and Joan, queen of Alexander II., and was given at the dissolution to the Wyatts. The living is a donative in the diocese of Salisbury; net value, £4:0. The church is an ancient building of stone and flint in the Early English style. Bishop Poore, of the 13th century, was a native.
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 - |
| Hundred | Badbury | |
| Poor Law union | Blandford | 1835 - |
| Registration district | Blandford | |
| Registration sub-district | Blandford |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The parish register dates from the year 1597. 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. Mary (parish church)
The parish church of St. Mary is an ancient edifice of stone and flint, in the Early English style, consisting of chancel, nave, north porch and a western tower containing 3 bells, which were rehung in 1911: the chancel was restored in 1895-6, and in the course of the work an aumbry and a piscina were discovered: the nave, tower and porch were restored in 1911: there are sittings for 88 persons.
Civil Registration
For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.
Tarrant Crawford was in Blandford Registration District from 1837 to 1956 and Poole Registration District from 1956 to 1974
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Tarrant Crawford from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Crawford, Tarrant (St. Mary))
- 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 Tarrant Crawford 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.