Cerne Abbas |
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A view of Cerne Abbas circa 1910 More photographs at the bottom of the page |
Cerne Abbas is a parish and small town situated on the River Cerne about 8 miles north of Dorchester. The parish church is dedicated to St Mary, this comprises nave, aisles, south porch and embattled western tower with pinnacles. It has 500 sittings, the registers date from 1653. The burial ground was enlarged in 1881 and now consists of two acres under the control of a burial board of 9 members. Here are Congregational, Wesleyan and Methodist chapels. Cerne is chiefly entitled to notice for its giant, a figure cut in outline, 180 feet long, on the side of a hill to the north east of the town. |
This little town has the remains of an abbey
said to have been founded by St Augustine, the gateway of this once
extensive monastery still remains in a tolerable state of preservation.
The soil is light gravel with the subsoil chalk and the chief crops
are barley and roots. The area is 3068 acres. The population in 1891
was 834 including 33 officers and inmates of the workhouse. Above details extracted from Kelly's Directory for 1895 |
A quiet street scene in Cerne Abbas Photographs © C Smith-Burns |
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Census | 1841, 1851, 1871, 1881, 1891, 1901 available for look-up |
Parish Registers |
Baptisms
1653-1699,
1700-1749, 1750-1762, 1763-1772, 1773-1792, 1793-1812, 1813-1822, 1823-1832 , 1833-1842, 1843-1852,
1853-1862 Marriages 1654-1752, 1753-1762, 1763-1772, 1773-1792, 1793-1812, 1813-1822, 1823-1832, 1833-1842, 1843-1852 Burials 1653-1699, 1700-1762, 1763-1772, 1773-1792, 1793-1812, 1813-1822, 1823-1832, 1833-1842 , 1843-1852,1853-1862 |
Surveys | 1617
Survey for Cerne Abbas 1780 Dorset Land Tax Assessment with Index of Names 1782 Dorset Land Tax Assessment with Index of Names 1798 Cerne Abbas Admeasurement Map 1798 Great Britain Land Tax Assessment with Index of Names |
Protestation Returns | Protestation Returns of 1641/42 also includes Nether Cerne |
Wills | List of Wills, Administrations and Inventories for Cerne Abbas People (on-going project, now linked to extracts if available) |
Strays | Database of Cerne Abbas Strays: Marriages of Cerne Abbas People outside of Cerne Abbas |
Surnames | Database of Cerne Abbas Surname occurrences compiled from records from 1525 up to the mid-1800s |
Genealogical Database for COOMBS, NUTT, WHITE and related families of Cerne Abbas | |
Churchwarden's Accounts | Cerne Abbas Churchwarden's
Accounts 1628-1820; transcribed and name indexed from 1628-1645 Rates 1654 |
Directories | Universal British Directory of Trade 1793-1798
1842 Pigot's directory of Dorset [Kevin Smith - External] |
Overseer's Accounts | Cerne Abbas Overseer's Accounts 1632-1718 |
Militia Returns | Militia Returns for Cerne Abbas: 1796, 1798, 1799 |
Monumental Inscriptions |
Photographs and Transcribed Inscriptions of Memorials inside St Marys
Church Monumental Inscriptions of Cerne Abbas are available online courtesy of the Cerne Abbas Historical Society (note this file opens in a new window and is 5.46Mb) |
Photographs | See below Selection of Photographs of Cerne Abbas courtesy Sally Beadle |
Other |
Rentals of the Estates of George Pitt, 1772 Case of assault, Cerne Abbas Workhouse 1846 [Michael Russell] Hearth Tax 1662-1664 Fire & Hurricane at Cerne 1828 John Brodby, 1805 |
Web Sites | List of web-sites with Cerne Abbas information available or visit the Cerne Abbas Village web site |
Maps |
The 1891 Ordnance Survey maps of the parish can be seen at the old-maps site, just enter 'Cerne Abbas' under place search.For modern location maps visit:- www.multimap.com |
Books | See below |
The following books may be of use to the researcher. I have most of these and can advise on their relevance to your research. Dorset Books Meekings, C.A.F., ed. Dorset Hearth Tax assessments, 1662-1664 Sloate, T.L., ed. Dorset Tudor Subsidies, 1523-1593 (Bristol: T.L. Sloate, 1982) (photocopies of Cerne Abbas pages) Bettey, J.H. Man & the Land: Farming in Dorset, 1846-1996 (Dorchester: The Dorset Natural History & Archaeological Society, 1996) Crisp, Roger. Wessex: A journey through two thousand years (Salisbury: Wessex Books, The Wessex Series, 1999) Cullingford, Cecil N. A History of Dorset (Chichester: Phillimore & Co., Ltd., 1980) Draper, Jo. Discover Dorset: The Georgians (Wimborne: The Dovecote Press, 1998) Hutchings, Monica. Inside Dorset (Sherborne: The Abbey Press, 1965) Knott, Olive. Down Dorset Way (Dorchester: Longmans Ltd. at the Friary Press, 1954) Knott, Olive. More About Dorset (Dorchester: Longmans Ltd. at the Friary Press, 1954) Knott, Olive. Old Dorset (Poole: J. Looker Ltd., 1958) Mee, Arthur. The King's England: Dorset, Thomas Hardy's Country (London: Hodder and Stroughton, 1939) Penn, K.J. Historic Towns in Dorset (Dorchester: Dorset Natural History & Archaeological Society, Monograph Series No. 1, 1980) Pennell, Joseph. Highways & Byways in Dorset with Illustrations (London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., 1914) Cerne Abbas Books Coffin, Leslie W. Cerne Abbas & Villages: Places & People, Past & Present (Sherborne: Miss S.E.M. Coffin, 1987) Gibbons, A.O. Cerne Abbas: Notes and speculations on a Dorset village (Dorchester: Longmans Ltd. at the Friary Press, 1962) Jones, Mary D. Cerne Abbas: The Story of a Dorset Village (London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1952) Vale, Vivian & Patricia.The Parish Book of Cerne Abbas, Abbey & After [plus index] (Tiverton: Halsgrove, 2000) |
Abbey Street with Abbey Manor at the end. Circa 1900 | A modern day street scene |
The famous Cerne Abbas giant | The village stocks |
Cerne Abbas Workhouse. At the time this postcard was produced it was being used as Cerne Abbas Youth Hostel |
Cerne Abbey Gates |
All photographs above © Claire Smith-Burns 2011-2017
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