Winterborne Steepleton, Dorset
Historical Description
Winterbourne Steepleton, a parish in Dorsetshire, 4 miles W by S of Dorchester station on the G.W.R. Post town, Dorchester. Acreage, 1831; population, 140. The living is a rectory annexed to Winterbourne Abbas. The church is a narrow building of stone in the Perpendicular style.
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 | Uggescombe | |
| Poor Law union | Dorchester | 1836 - |
| Registration district | Dorchester | |
| Registration sub-district | Maiden Newton |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The parish register dates from the year 1558. 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 parish church of St. Michael is a long and narrow building of stone, in the Perpendicular style, consisting of chancel, nave, south porch, and a tower with hexagonal spire and four pinnacles and containing one bell: the north and south doorways are Norman: there are 100 sittings.
Civil Registration
For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.
Winterbourne Steepleton was in Dorchester Registration District from 1837 to 1949 and Weymouth Registration District from 1949 to 1974
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Dorset is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Winterborne Steepleton 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.