Stourpaine Dorset Family History Guide

Stourpaine is an Ancient Parish in the county of Dorset.

Other places in the parish include: Ashe and Lazerton.

Alternative names:

Parish church: Holy Trinity

Parish registers begin:

Parish registers: 1631
Bishop’s Transcripts: 1620

Nonconformists include: Protestant Dissenters and Wesleyan Methodist.

Table of Contents

Adjacent Parishes

Parish History

The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870

STOURPAINE, a parish, with a village, and with Ashe tything, in Blandford district, Dorset; on the river Stour and on the Dorset and Somerset railway, 3 miles NNW of Blandford. It has a post-office under Blandford. Acres, 2,305. Real property, 1,913. Pop., 658. Houses, 139. The property is divided among a few. A Roman camp is on Hod Hill. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Salisbury. Value, £130. Patrons, the Dean and Chapter of S. The church is good.

Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].

A Topographical Dictionary of England 1848

STOURPAIN (Holy Trinity), a parish, in the union of Blandford, hundred of Pimperne, Blandford division of Dorset, 3 miles (N. W. by N.) from Blandford; containing, with the tything of Ashe, 637 inhabitants. This parish comprises 2365a. 1r. 9p., of which 549 acres are common or waste land. It derives its name from its situation near the river Stour, which runs on the west and south, and from one of its earliest proprietors, named Paine.

Lacerton, a tything in the northern part of the parish, united to Stourpain in 1431, was formerly distinct; and in a field called Chapel Close, adjoining a farmhouse, the foundations of its ancient parochial church, which was dedicated to St. Andrew in 1331, may still be traced. The living of Stourpain is a discharged vicarage, in the patronage of the Dean and Chapter of Salisbury (the appropriators), valued in the king’s books at £7. 18. 6½.: the great tithes have been commuted for £277, and the vicarial for £144.12.; the glebes contain respectively 45 and 9 acres. The church is in the decorated style. Here is a place of worship for Wesleyans.

On an eminence called Hod Hill are the remains of a Danish camp, in the form of the letter D, defended by a double rampart and fosse, which, on the north and south sides, are almost inaccessible. There are five entrances, and within the area, which comprises several acres, are many circular trenches four and five yards in diameter; also some round pits, contiguous to each other, supposed to have been so deep and numerous, at one period, as to be capable of concealing a large army.

British and Roman antiquities have within the last few years been discovered, consisting of British pottery, a Roman amphora, brass rings ornamented with stained glass, fibulæ or cloakclasps, brooches of iron washed with silver, spear-heads, and other articles.

Source: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis 1848