Dorset OPC

Gillingham

inc Milton-on-Stour, Sandley & Huntingford

Dorset OPC


St Mary the Virgin, Gillingham
© Jan Genge Kennedy 2003-2023

Gillingham is a market town and large parish in the Blackmore Vale area at the northern extremity of the county.  Only the small parishes of Silton and Bourton lie to the west and Motcombe to the east. The name Gillingham was used for the town in its 10th century Saxon charter, and also in an entry for 1016 in the annals, as the location of a battle between Edmund Ironside and the Vikings. In the Domesday Book in 1086 it is recorded as Gelingeham.

Gillingham became a local farming centre, gained the first grammar school in Dorset in 1516 and a silk mill in 1769. The arrival of the railwayin the 1850s brought prosperity and new industries including brickmaking, cheese production, printing, soap manufacture and at the end of the 19th century one of the first petrol engine plants in the country. There were once three flour mills, an extensive brewery, a bacon-curing establishment, brick, tile and drain-pipe works and a large dairy. A very large market was held every other Monday.

The church of St Mary the Virgin was, with the exception of the chancel rebuilt in 1838 although within are monuments dating from 1625. The registers start in 1559. There were also chapels for Baptists, Wesleyans and Primitive Methodists. There are several cemeteries.

In the 1820s, the artist John Constable stayed at Gillingham vicarage and, being impressed by the beauty of the countryside, executed several local sketches and paintings. His painting of Gillingham Bridge hangs in the Tate Gallery.

The village of Sandley in the parish was renowned for the Compton Horse Stud. The village of Milton-on-Stour has a small church dedicated to Saints Simon and Jude, Huntingford was also a separate village. The area of the parish is 7834 acres and the population in 1891 was 3003.

Pierston (aka Poerston, Preston, Pearstone) was formerly a manor, hamlet and farm. The manor was formerly divided into several tenements, held by three lives, and a widowhood, paying a rent to the lord. The farm consisted of 200 acres of arable, 120 pasture and 130 meadow. In 1319 a chantry chapel was built in the Pierston area (then a separate hamlet) its rector being Thomas de Grindeham. That building fell out of use at the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 1530s, but is mentioned in a Parliamentary Commission of 1650 as ‘A chapel now decayed and not used.’ The actual site is not known, but it is thought to be somewhere in the region of Pierston House. Pierston is now considered part of Milton on Stour.


St Mary the Virgin, Gillingham
© Jan Genge Kennedy 2003-2023


The new Online Parish Clerk for Gillingham is Joy Waters

You can contact Joy by clicking on the link above which should generate a correctly addressed email.
Many thanks to Jan Kennedy for her assistance with Gillingham over many years.


Census 1841 Census [Joy Waters]
1851 Census [Joy Waters]
1861 Census [Joy Waters & John Ridout]
1871 Census Districts 9 & 10 [Jan Kennedy]
1881 Census
1891 Census
1901 Census
1911 Census
Parish Registers Baptisms
1719-1734
, 1735-1749, 1750-1774,
1775-1786
, 1787-1812, 1813-1837
Marriages
1727-1734
, 1735-1837
Burials
1719-1734
, 1735-1837
Marriage Banns
1754-1797
Trade & Postal Directories Robsons Directory 1835 (external site)
Pigot's 1842 Directory
Post Office 1855 Directory
Kelly's 1895 Directory
Wills Will of Robert Dogrell, 1576
Will of Thomas Doggrell, 1813
Will of John Doggrell, 1830
Other Records Gillingham Protestation Return 1642
Gillingham Militia List 1798
Milton & Pierston Militia List 1798
Gillingham Jury List 1833
Gillingham Town Criers & Bill Posters 1875-2018 [Richard Smith]
Photographs  
Monumental Inscriptions  
Newspaper Reports Bankruptcy of William Godwin, 1836
Death of Mrs Sarah Card, 1874
Inquest of Edwin George Peacock, 1880
Alleged Manslaughter of Ann Sargent, 1883
Maps  

View Larger Map
   
Records held at the Dorset History Centre
[Ref PE-GIL] Gillingham
 
[Ref PE-MIS] Milton on Stour
Registers
Christenings 1564-1980. Marriages 1559-1700, 1723-1991. Burials 1559-1992.

Marriages 1884-1992. Burials 1887-1992.
Registration District
(for the purpose of civil registration births, marriages & deaths)
1 Jul 1837-31 Mar 1937: Shaftesbury
1 Jul 1937-31 Mar 1974: Sturminster
1 Apr 1974-17 Oct 2005: North Dorset


St Mary the Virgin, Gillingham
© Jan Genge Kennedy 2003-2023


St Mary the Virgin, Gillingham
© Jan Genge Kennedy 2003-2023


Pierston House, Gillingham


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