WILTSHIRE
Description in 1822:
"This county is situated in the province of Canterbury, in the
diocese of Salisbury, and contains 29 hundreds, one city, 15 boroughs,
and 10 other market-towns. On the north and west side of it lies
Gloucestershire; its western boundary is Somersetshire; Dorsetshire
confines its southern extremity; and Hampshire and Berkshire inclose it
on the east. Its extreme length is 54 miles, and breadth 34, and its
area measures about 878,000 acres. The air of Wiltshire like that of
other counties, is various, according to the different parts of it, but
on the whole it is agreeable and salubrious. On the downs and higher
parts, it is sharp and clear; in the vallies mild, even in winter. Over
the extensive wilds, called Salisbury plain, roam immense flocks of
sheep, who with their shepherds, are the sole tenants, if the bustard,
the wheatear, and a few other solitary birds be excepted, which avoid
the haunts of men. The summer stock of sheep on these plains and downs,
is computed to be 500,000. The rivers of this county are the Lower
Avon; the Thames or Isis; the Cole; the Kennet; the Bourne; the Upper
Avon; the Willey; and the Nadder." (From Pigot & Co's London
& Provincal New Commercial Directory, 1822-3)
INFORMATION RELATED TO ALL OF WILTSHIRE
The record office (now named Wiltshire and Swindon Archives) and Wiltshire local studies library have moved to
Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre at Chippenham, opening on 31st October 2007.
It includes Archaeology,
Conservation
and
Museum services and the
Wiltshire Buildings Record.
Some of our text may still mention the record office and library at Trowbridge; we will update these in due course.
The address is Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre, Cocklebury Road, Chippenham, Wiltshire SN15 3QN.
For map, phone, email, opening times see their
contacts page.
-
Wiltshire and Swindon Archives,
Note that the archives web site has been greatly expanded and now includes
the information from their printed leaflets which was previously
on-line within GENUKI. Research Guides include Family History, House History , a list of family
and estate archives, Diocesan Archives on clergy and buildings, also a
Newsletter.
- Access to Archives has
large parts of the WSRO catalogue on-line, as part of the theme "@ the
Heart of the Community" for West country record offices. Most parish
registers are in the on-line catalogue, in the archive category "Parish
(Church of England)", and the archive category "Local Government" also
has many entries. So far almost all the public records (e.g. courts and
hospitals), and ecclesiastical parish and school records, and all the
major lists of family, business and solicitors' archives are on the
site. WSRO intends to have all catalogues of listed archives on the
site by the summer of 2005. But note that as records are added to WSRO
catalogues, the corresponding lists on A2A get out of date; in the long
term WSRO will be updating the A2A lists.
- Wiltshire County Council
Library Service has a searchable Wiltshire
Library Catalogue .
Wiltshire Studies
has information on the local studies library in the new History Centre,
and information on other local studies material in Wiltshire
Wiltshire Libraries and Heritage also provides
Wiltshire Community History
with information on 261 communities.
Wiltshire Intelligencer was issued on Internet by the County Local
Studies Library containing news of local studies initiatives and
events in the county plus a Wiltshire List of new publications.
These include not only books and
pamphlets but also videos, CDs, cassettes, calendars, etc.
- Familia
for Wiltshire County Council is the county section of a web-based
directory of family history resources held in public libraries in the
UK and Ireland. Contents of principal public libraries are listed under
the following categories:
Research services
Registrar General's Index
Census records
Directories
Electoral registers |
Poll books
International Genealogical Index
Unpublished indexes
Parish registers
Periodicals |
Published transcripts
Other materials
Guides to collections
Record Office address
Other information |
- Familia
for Swindon Borough Council is only present as the framework of a
page at present.
-
Swindon Local Studies Library,
Swindon Central Library.
Paramount,
Princes Street,
Swindon SN1 2SD. Phone 01793 463238
also see our page for
Swindon - Local Studies Library,
- Wiltshire Heritage Library and Museum,
of the Wiltshire Archaeological & Natural History Society, at 41 Long Street,
Devizes, SN10 1NS. Telephone: (+44) 1380 727369
- Wiltshire Record Society publishes a volume each year with
the text of a set of documents, an introduction and an index. 56
Volumes have been published. It also has an annual meeting. For details
contact the Honorary Secretary, Wiltshire Record Society, c/o Wiltshire
and Swindon Record Office, Bythesea Road, Trowbridge, Wilts BA14 8JG.
- Victoria
County History of Wiltshire . This site includes an A-Z index of volumes which lists
all the topics covered in the general volumes of the Wiltshire V.C.H.
as well as all the parish articles published so far. Chris Phillips on
his Medieval Genealogy site provides a list of
the contents of Wiltshire volumes of the Victoria County History,
and also an index to places listed in the volumes for all counties.
Extracted from the VCH, with additional illustrations, there is a
"History of Amesbury, Bulford and Durrington" published by Wiltshire
County Council and Wiltshire Family History Society.
- Marlborough and Eastern Wiltshire, by John Chandler, 288 pages,
being published Sept 2001, is the first part (of seven) of his planned
county history, which will go under the series title: Wiltshire: a
history of its landscape and people. "It offers succinct but
informative and well-researched histories of 34 Wiltshire parishes,
from Aldbourne in the north to Tidworth in the south and Avebury in the
west, including Marlborough, Ramsbury and Ludgershall." There are
specially commissioned illustrations by Michael Charlton, as well as
facsimiles of historic maps. Published by Hobnob Press, PO Box
1838, East Knoyle, Salisbury SP3 6FA (who are publishing other local
books as well). Available by credit card from "Devizes Books", Handel
House, Sidmouth St, Devizes, Wilts, SN10 1LD; Phone 01380 725944, fax
01380 729141.
- A transcript of an interview with Alice
COLLETT who was one of a large family born to Thomas COLLETT and
Dorcas COCKHEAD in Eastrop, near Highworth.
Wiltshire - Census Records and indexes
- links and information
Mandy and Duncan Ball
have photos of churches in North
Wiltshire. Their website now has over 16,000 photographs of 150 (mainly)
Wiltshire churches.
They said "We were given permission to go inside some of the
churches and have taken photos of all the memorials; at a few
churches we also took photos of graves. There are some churches
listed which only have one or two pictures, although others have
well over a hundred. A few churches have allowed us to copy the
church history leaflet (found inside the church)."
Wishful Thinking Photographs of Wiltshire provided as Genuki pages by
Rosemary Lockie are mainly of churches, photographs by a number of donors.
Wiltshire and Swindon Record Office have the Crowe Collection as WSRO 3476. Geoffrey
and Elizabeth Crowe visited every parish of Wiltshire and photographed churches,
vicarages and parsonages, and schools. They also collected church guides and similar.
The Clergy Database
already includes details of clergy and schoolmasters in Salisbury Diocese 1660-1740,
and more is being added.
Wiltshire - Church Records and indexes
- links and information
- Brett Langston has provided details of the Registration
Districts in Wiltshire for the period 1837 to 1930.
It is now hosted by UKBMD
- Wiltshire BMD
is indexing civil registers for search on the Internet. It is a
collaboration between the Registration Service, Family History
Societies, and independent volunteers. The first records available are
marriages in the Chippenham registration district 1837-1910, the aim is
to cover all births, marriages and deaths in Wiltshire from 1837 to the
present.
- Wiltshire
and Swindon Record Office sources leaflet - section on Calendars of
Prisoners - has a useful summary, mentioning the "baddy" and "goody"
indexes in the Record Office which list criminals and victims
1728-1820.
- Wiltshire on the web
and This is Wiltshire
are websites with current information about news, travel and services. Wiltshire-web is similar
with an outline map and descriptions of places on the map.
- Wiltshire
County Council Libraries have an online community
information database. These pages contain information on 261
Wiltshire communities covering the whole of the Wiltshire County
Council administered area of the county; having been compiled by
Wiltshire Libraries & Heritage. Every community page already has
certain basic information, such as local administrative bodies,
population from 1801, newspapers for the area, lists of maps,
registration district, and links to other sites of interest. Between
2002 and 2007 they will be adding much more detailed information for
each community. This will include a map, an historical thumbnail
sketch, information on churches and schools, a booklist and the texts
of some books and articles, information about listed buildings, local
authors and literary associations and access to old photographs.
- The Badger's
Heritage website features many pen and ink drawings of Wiltshire
churches, schools, pubs, hotels, bridges, locks, mills, cottages &
villages.
- All The Cotswolds includes
photographs and brief descriptions of places in North Wiltshire - for
example Malmesbury and Cricklade, extending just down to Lacock.
-
Southern Life had descriptions and histories and photos of villages and churches,
obtained from a variety of sources. At May 2006 their website is being reorganised.
- Engravings by email
from Heatons of Tisbury: this shop has many views and maps of
places in Wiltshire as images on its website; larger copies can be sent
by email, some maps and prints are for sale.
- West Country Photographs
from Mike Matthews includes Bremhill Parish Church, The Courts and
Forde Abbey, Stourhead, Malmesbury and Lacock Abbeys.
- Nadder Valley Focus from the
Nadder Valley Team Ministry has information about villages and Anglican churches in the area,
including (in groups from west to east)
Chicklade, Hindon, Fonthill Gifford, Tisbury, Ansty,
Fonthill Bishop, Chilmark, Teffont Evias, Teffont Magna, Swallowcliffe,
Dinton, Sutton Mandeville,
Baverstock, Barford St Martin, Compton Chamberlyne, Fovant
-
William Camden's Britannia of 1610 is available from
Vision of Britain.
More generally: The Vision of Britain site includes the complete texts of books describing journeys
around Britain, written between the twelfth and nineteenth centuries. Enter a place name in
Vision of Britain search. Entries
will not always be a description of a visit: travellers often mention places other than
where they are, for example as a basis for comparison.
- Pigot's
Wiltshire Directory of 1830 is made available on-line with a
surname index and search across all directories by Sue
O'Neill . These indexes are taken from the facsimile edition
produced by the Society of Genealogists in 1992 and distributed on
microfiche. As these are indexes they only include the Name, Place and
Page for reference. Further information must be obtained from the
original documents or microfiche facsimile.
- Direct
Resources have surname indexes to 19th Century trade directories
on-line; see their list of counties
and directories. Note there are text and spreadsheet formats
available. Their 1848 Post Office Directory for Wiltshire text file is
split into 1848
Directory for Bradford, Calne, Chippenham, Devizes, Malmesbury,
Marlborough, Melksham and 1848 Directory
for Salisbury, Swindon, Trowbridge, and Warminster . Note that the
list of surnames is alphabetical within each town.
- Rod Neep's Archive CD
Books - Wiltshire has published on CD: The Universal Directory of
Great Britain 1791; Pigots 1822 Wiltshire and Gloucestershire
Directory, covers main towns only (Bradford, Calne, Chippenham,
Devizes, Marlborough, Salisbury, Trowbridge, Warminster, Westbury);
1830 Pigot's Directory of Wiltshire; 1831 Pigot's Topography and
Gazetteer of England (Vol. 1) with historical and statistical
description, includes Wiltshire; 1842-4 Pigot's Directory of Wiltshire;
1865 Dorset and Wiltshire directory from Harrod and Co; 1877 Return of
Owners of Land ; 1903, 1920, 1927, 1939 and 1895 Wiltshire Kelly's
Directory; 1849 Kelly's Dorset and Wiltshire; .
- Slater's 1851 Trade Directory is available on CDROM from
Stepping Stones (now part of S & N)
- University of
Leicester Digital Library of Historical Directories - searchable by
surname online -
includes for Wiltshire:Pigot's 1844, Kelly's 1895, 1903, and others
- The Wiltshire
Emigration Database of Robin Holley (contact by email) is made up
of people and families that emigrated, transported or bounded from the
county of Wiltshire over the years. There are now 10,000 entries on the
database. The information is free to anybody who contacts him and he is
also interested in receiving any other information about persons that
emigrated from Wiltshire.
- Ship "Marion"
1851stranding in South Australia - In 1851 the ill-fated emigrant
ship "Marion" took some hundreds of Wiltshire people to South
Australia. The ship was grounded when entering local waters. Beverley
Matthews has provided a web site for the ship, the emigrants and their
descendants, with passenger list. It includes a monthly newsletter.
There are active and helpful mailing lists - see the GENUKI
mailing lists page - section for Wiltshire. Note that for
most lists you can view past messages as threaded archives, or
search for text within past messages. Here are the main page,
search page and threaded message page for relevant lists:
Some other genealogy facilities
- Nigel Batty-Smith provides free genealogy and heraldry
information from authentic documents including the Visitation
of Wiltshire 1623. He will be adding further details for Wiltshire.
A CD of this visitation is available from
S & N Genealogy Supplies
- Some
notes on Medieval English Genealogy includes Wiltshire material,
for example showing Manors of the
Abbey of Bec: 1246-1247, (Internet Medieval
Sourcebook, Fordham University) as including Ogbourne, the source being
English translations, from F.W. Maitland, ed., Select Pleas in
Manorial and Other Seignorial Courts: Volume 1--Reigns of Henry III and
Edward I (1889).
- Wiltshire Based
"Tree Tops" - FREE television family history advertising (operated
from Wiltshire but this service caters for anyone anywhere!)
- Researchers may be interested in the Wiltshire GenWeb pages.
- Online English Names Directory
maintained by Graham Jaunay for Genuki includes Wiltshire.
( Clive Henly maintained a surnames interests list for Wiltshire for several years,
but found he no longer had
time to maintain it, so he has removed it.)
- On his All the
Cotswolds site, Allan Taylor is developing surname lists on a
parish by parish basis in Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, Somerset,
Warwickshire, Oxfordshire and Wiltshire where he has entries for 143
parishes in the North of the county. There are currently just a few
surname links in each, but he wants to add more.
-
Surname and Local History Interests in Swindon is provided by Jim
Fisher.
-
Online parish clerks scheme for Wiltshire was relaunched in April 2008.
Some border or neighbouring parishes may be included in Dorset online parish clerks.
- Nimrod indexes have a variety of
indexes which they search on payment, and some publications
on location of places and documents.
- Pat Wilson is donating her material from
Wiltshire Index Service to the
Society of Genealogists in April 2006. It includes
census, marriage, burials and will beneficiaries. Her involvement in
Wiltshire 1851 census productions will continue into 2007.
Hundreds of Wiltshire, with an
indication of their locations, taken from a map in Lewis's
Topographical Dictionary of 1835.
Boundary changes; Tony Woodward provided this information as
an answer on a
Wiltshire mailing list:
As far as I know Wiltshire has always been roughly the size it is
now.
The first of the boundary adjustments occurred in 1844. I have an old
atlas
dated about 1840 which shows outlying bits of Wiltshire existing as
islands
in other counties. Kingsdown near Wootton-under-Edge (now in
Gloucestershire) was in Wiltshire at that time, and there were small
chunks
in Berkshire, one near Newbury and another as far away as Windsor which
is
at the far end of Berkshire! These remained with Wiltshire by accidents
of
land ownership and the most bizarre of these were cleaned up in 1844,
the
odd bits being passed to their respective counties. At the same time
Minety
(Glos.), which was entirely surrounded by Wiltshire, was given to
Wiltshire.
In the 1851 and later censuses you will sometimes see that someone was
born
in "Minety, Glos." That isn't an error as it was indeed in Glos. when
the
person was born there.
At the time of the 1891 census, the period which I know best,
various
parishes on the edge of Wiltshire were still split between two
counties.
Shalbourne (partly in Berkshire) and Stourton and Maiden Bradley
(partly in
Somerset) come to mind. These were transferred completely to Wiltshire
in
the mid-1890s. There were also parishes which were taken away from
Wiltshire at about the same time. About eight parishes at the
southeastern
edge of the county were given to Hampshire, including Bramshaw, West
Wellow
and Damerham. Damerham has actually given its name to one of the old
hundreds of Wiltshire but is itself no longer in the county. In 1896
Kemble
and Somerford Keynes in the northwest were transferred to
Gloucestershire,
so Wiltshire lost about ten parishes in the 1890s while gaining a few
bits
and pieces.
In 1931 there was another small boundary adjustment and Ashley and
Long
Newnton were also transferred to Glos.
Places in England and Wales affected by the Counties (Detached Parts) Acts 1844
is a page provided by the Association of British Counties. Places moving are:
- Berkshire from Wiltshire, Broad Hinton (Hurst), Didnam (part of Shinfield), another
part of Shinfield, part of Swallowfield, part of Wokingham
- Gloucestershire from Wiltshire, Poulton
- Wiltshire from Berkshire, part of Inglesham, Oxenwood in Shalbourn
- Wiltshire from Gloucestershire from Wiltshire, Minty
Old Maps provides free
access to first edition historical maps of Great Britain dated
between 1846 and 1899. This site allows you to view historical
maps simply by entering a place name, an address (which can be just a
post code)
or a grid reference. There is sometimes heavy demand on this web-site;
try
again later if you don't get a map.
Ordnance Survey Get a Map shows grid references as you move a
pointer over the map.
Genmaps have put online a variety
of
Wiltshire maps from 1610 to 1911.
Wiltshire 1888 from Encyclopedia Britannica is provided by Malcolm
Farmer
Clear, Large Type and Braille Maps
David Hawgood has produced maps of Wiltshire with
large print labels or Braille labels
to help people with visual disabilities. There are similar
maps of all English counties
- The
Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment (Salisbury)
Museum is in a historic house called The Wardrobe, in the
Cathedral Close at Salisbury. The website has on-line transcriptions of
regimental World War 1 war diaries. Twelve of the 15 battalions that
were in the Royal Berkshire Regiment and Wiltshire Regiment are now
available for searching, by date or free text. Over 12,000 records have
been input by volunteers. The other 3, and the first of the WW2 diaries
should be included by May 2002. In addition it offers over 2000
catalogued images of items in the museum's collection, including 1200
photographs. These relate to both regiments.
- Salisbury Plain was the main area for the training of
soldiers in the 1914-18 war. Some training had started in 1871, and a
major area was purchased by the government for training in 1897. During
the Great War soldiers made up a third of the population of Wiltshire.
A recent book with accounts, plentiful illustrations and a bibliography
is "Wiltshire and the Great War - Training the Empire's Soldiers" by T
S Crawford, ISBN 0 9535100, published in 1999 by DPF Publishing of 1
Mapledurham View, Reading RG31 6LF (but now out of print). It refers in
particular to two books by N D G James, "Plain Soldiering" (Hobnob,
1987) and "Gunners at Larkhill" (Gresham 1983).
- Royal
Wiltshire Yeomanry in the South African War 1899-1902 is an account
provided by the South African Military History Society.
-
North Wilts Muster 1539 - Name Index is a list of 2800 names
provided by Richard Heaton.
- (Website temporarily unavailable - and has been for several months at May 2008)
The website http://regiments.org/ - Land Forces of
Britain, the Empire and Commonwealth described all regiments, and
their amalgamations and name changes, with bibliographies. It includes
The Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry (Prince of Wales's Own), The Wiltshire
Regiment (Duke of Edinburgh's), The Wiltshire Regiment, The Royal
Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment, 62nd (Wiltshire)
Regiment of Foot, The Duke of Edinburgh's Royal Regiment (Berkshire and
Wiltshire)
- The RossBret Homepage
has extensive information, now with links to separate sites for
workhouses, asylums, almshouses, orphanages, dispensaries and
hospitals. Use "counties" link then choose "Wiltshire" for all institutions in the county.
- Peter Higginbotham's site The
Workhouse has details of Wiltshire & other poor law unions and
workhouses
For details and links for current schools see Schoolnet.
Gazetteer of Markets and Fairs to 1516 was compiled by Dr Samantha
Letters at the Centre for Metropolitan History, and is organised by
county. It includes a brief summary of the early history of many large
and small places, with details of markets and fairs and the people
granted the right to hold them.
- Kingsbridge Hundred - Ship Money Tax List
1635. Covers the following parishes: Badbury, Bincknoll,
Broadtowne, Chisledon, Clacke, Cleeve Peper, Elcombe, Hilmarton Parish,
Liddington, Lyddyard Tregoze and Midghall, Lyneham Parishe, Midghall,
Overtowne, Salthrop, Swindon, Thornhill, Tockenham, Tockenham Weeke,
Ufcott, Wanborough, Westlecot, Woodlockshaye, and Wootton Bassett.
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Last updated by David Hawgood on 21 May 2008
