Stinsford

	The parish of Stinsford is made up of a number of hamlets and settlements at Higher and Lower Bockhampton, Stinsford, Bhompston, Higher Kingston, Kingston Maurward, Coker’s Frome, Frome Whitfield and Waterston Ridge. Perhaps because of the proximity of Dorchester, two miles away, there is now no shop, school or village hall and no pub. The beer-shop at LowerBockhampton closed in the 1860s, the school in 1961 and the Post Office in 1970.
The parish is no longer dominated by the two great estates of Stinsford and Kingston Maurward. Much of the land is now occupied by Kingston Maurward College, a further education college. Thomas Hardy, poet and novelist, was born at Higher Bockhampton in 1840 and his birthplace is visited by many thousands of people from this country and abroad. The parish has five large country houses, Birkin House, Frome House, Kingston Maurward House, the Elizabethan Old Manor House and Stinsford House. In the past almost everyone who lived in the parish would have been employed on the land or as servants at these houses.	Thomas Hardy's Heart Grave Courtesy of Graham Naylor
The OPC for Stinsford is Kay Kearsey who has various transcriptions available (see below) For further information contact Kay putting Stinsford OPC in the subject line.

Census	1841, 1851, 1861, 1871, 1891, 1901 - Stinsford 1901 - Frome Whitfield & Cokers Frome
Parish Registers	Baptisms 1871-1901 Marriages 1800-1837, 1838-1900
Examples of material available	Stinsford and Bockhampton School: Transcriptions of approximately 75% of log books and Manager’s Minute Books to 1862 - 1938Admissions1886-1885, 1919-1921 List of Headteachers, School group photos from 1920s and 1930s. Stinsford and Bockhampton School 1847-1961. Bockhampton Manor Court Book 1750 to 1848 transcription includes names of tenants. Overseers of the Poor accounts 1772-1803 - includes names of those receiving payments from the Overseers. The ‘big’ houses in the parish - Kingston Maurward, Stinsford House, Birkin House and The Old Manor House. The hamlets of Lower Bockhampton, including house histories, and Higher Bockhampton. The parish during World War Two including reminiscences of evacuees from Southampton and London. As part of my research I have a good collection of family trees for families from the parish using parish registers, census and school records.
Postcards	Old postcards of Stinsford & Bockhampton
Links	Photographs of Stinsford Stinsford Parish Council
Records held at the Dorset History Centre PE/STF	Registers Christenings 1632-1638, 1644, 1656-1863. Marriages 1579-1641, 1662-2001. Burials 1577-1638, 1658-1696, 1713-1936. Banns 1824-1902. Transcripts Christenings 1631/2-1812, 1863-1995. Marriages 1579-1840. Burials 1577-1812. Indexes Christenings and burials 1813-1837.

OPC Home Page