East Coulston, Wiltshire
Historical Description
Coulston, East, a parish in Wilts, at the north-west verge of Salisbury Plain, 5½ miles ENE of Westbury station on the G.W.R., and about 6¼ from Melksham. Post town, Westbury; money order office, Bratton; telegraph office, Bratton. Acreage, 876; population, 103. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Salisbury; value, £202 with residence. Patron, the Lord Chancellor. The church is old, and the chancel has been restored. Mrs Delany, the niece of Lord Lansdowne, famous for cutting flowers in paper, 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 | Wiltshire | |
| Ecclesiastical parish | East Coulston St. Thomas à Becket | |
| Hundred | Whorwelsdown | |
| Poor Law union | Westbury and Whorwelsdown |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The register dates from the year 1731.
Findmypast, in association with the Wiltshire Record Office, have the following parish records online for East Coulston:
| Baptisms | Banns | Marriages | Burials |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1622-1880 | 1703-1812 | 1622-1836 | 1622-1880 |
Churches
Church of England
St. Thomas à Becket (parish church)
The church of St. Thomas à Becket is a very small building of stone, consisting of chancel, nave, side chapel and a western turret containing one bell: the chancel was rebuilt in 1860: the church, originally Norman, was restored in 1842, and thus unhappily lost every Norman feature, except a part of one doorway in the south wall: there are 125 sittings.
Civil Registration
For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for East Coulston from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Coulston, East (St. Thomas à Becket))
Newspapers and Periodicals
The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Wiltshire papers online: