Ashmore Parish Records Dorset

Church of St Nicholas Photographs Lynda Mudle-Small © March 2003 See link below for more pictures	Ashmore is a small parish on the Wiltshire border and six miles south east of Shaftesbury, it is the highest village in Dorset. All of Ashmore parish is within the Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). To the north is the parish of Melbury Abbas on the west side lie Compton Abbas, Fontmell Magna, Sutton Waldren and Iwerne Minster with Tarrant Gunville to the south. The location of the village is an historic site which is centred around a large circular pond and has a church and several stone thatched roofed cottages and farms The parish church of St Nicholas was opened on October 2nd 1874 and was built on the site of an earlier church, the 13th century chancel arch from this earlier building has been incorporated in the new. The font is of Bere stone and the chancel flooring is of Devonian marble. The registers date from 1651. There was also a Wesleyan meeting room built onto Manor Farm.
In 1840 a National School, with residences for the mistress was built to accommodate 95 pupils. The downlands are populated with prehistoric barrows. The soil is chalk and loam and the chief crops were traditionally wheat, oats, barley and beans. At the end of the 19th century there was a large proportion of woodland which gave considerable employment in the production of faggots and hurdles. The area is 2301 acres. The population in 1891, was 228; 198 in 1931 and 170 in 2001.
The Online Parish Clerk (OPC) for Ashmore is Sally Stainer Wills Unless specified, all transcriptions and indexes used to answer queries have been made by me. The list below represents the main transcriptions I have, there may well be other smaller items not listed, so it is always worth contacting me. Please place the words 'OPC Ashmore' as your subject for e-mails. I will be building resources over the coming months so don't forget to come back regularly for the latest additions Resources available
Census	I have transcriptions of the 1841, 1861, 1881 and 1891 census available at present. 1851 Census [Jan Genge Kennedy] 1861 Census 1871 Census [Ruth Hawkins] 1881 Census
Parish Registers	Ashmore Parish Register Index (1651-1820) [E W Watson] Baptisms 1732-1839 1840-1879 [Terry Pine] Marriages 1732-1832 1833-1842 [Terry Pine] Burials 1732-1837 1838-1879 [Terry Pine]
Postal Directories	Harrod's / Kelly's Directories are available for 1875, 1880, 1895, 1931 & 1935
Other Records	Monumental Inscriptions Index [Jan Hibberd]
	A History of the Parish by E W Watson. pub. 1890 contains the following:
	1291 Inquisitio Nonarum
	Subsidy Rolls
	1552 Church Plate Returns
	1595 Customary Tenants attorned at Mrs Lambert's Court
	Witnesses to Livery of seisin: 1616, 1619, 1621, 1629,1630, 1634, 1635, 1636.
	1642 Protestation Return
	1640 Occupants of Cottages sold with eight yardlands
Photographs	Photographs of the church, monumental stones and the village
Maps
	View Larger Map

Records held at the Dorset History Centre [Ref PE-ASH]	Registers Christenings 1651-1999. Marriages 1667-1681, 1688-1742, 1754-1994. Burials 1654-1681/2, 1677/8-1997. Banns 1824-1903. Transcripts Christenings 1651-1900. Marriages 1667-1900. Burials 1654-1923.
Registration District (for the purpose of civil registration births, marriages & deaths)	1 Jul 1837-31 Mar 1937: Shaftesbury 1 Apr 1937-31 Mar 1974: Sturminster 1 Apr 1974-17 Oct 2005: North Dorset