The OPC is Mick Kelly
Berwick St. John Photo Gallery
Contiguous Parishes (our neighbours)
Alvediston – Ansty – Donhead St. Andrew – Donhead St. Mary – Ebbesbourne Wake – Handley (DOR) – Tollard Royal
Websites
Berwick St. John – Parish Council.
Berwick St. John – Yearly Street Fayre.
Discover Chalk Valley – Fascinating places to stay, things to do and activities to enjoy
Berwick St. John – Digital Searchable Graveyard Lookup
The Parish Church of St. John
There was a church at Berwick St. John in or before the early thirteenth century. The Earls of Pembroke held patronage soon after the Reformation, with it passing to New College, Oxford, in the mid-eighteenth century. In line with general mid-Victorian enthusiasm for church building and restoration, by 1861 the church had been enlarged and, in the process, almost completely rebuilt and refurnished. Among the most interesting artefacts in the church are the two effigies of knights in the north and south transepts.
St. John’s Gallery St. John’s Interior Gallery St. John’s Churchyard Gallery
Berwick St. John Protestation Return 1641-1642 Lynch Gate Erected 1911 Brief History Rectors List Church re-ordered 2011-2013
Monumental Inscriptions taken by Reverend Goodchild in 1920, are available as look-ups by following this link: Berwick St. John MI’s
Church Supported Charities and Funding
Parish Register Transcripts
Baptisms
Marriages
Burials
The parish records above may contain gaps in the date ranges
Parish Registers held at WSHC
Baptisms 1560-1893
Marriages 1559-2003
Burials 1560-1965
Parish History
The parish includes Rushmore Lodge
Within the Chalke Hundred of Wiltshire, about thirteen miles west of Salisbury and some six miles east of Shaftesbury, the parish of Berwick St John settles between the chalk downs at the head of the Ebble Valley. To the north White Sheet Hill marks the steep descent down from the pre-turnpike route running westwards along the downs from Salisbury, while to the south the village of Tollard Royal sits on the border with neighbouring Dorset at the northern margins of Cranborne Chase. In earlier times the shape of the parish of Berwick St John resembled an inverted ‘U’, where once a wide tongue of land – actually a detached part of Donhead St Andrew, known as Easton Bassett – reached into the very centre of the village from the south. Less than a mile immediately south east of Berwick St John is the early Iron Age hill fort of Winkelbury Hill, or Vespasian’s Camp. About a mile due west from the village is Ferne, once the seat of the Grove family. On the downs, immediately south from Ferne, there is the fantastic viewpoint of Win Green.
Books
The Biography of a Country Church, Berwick St John, by Hazel Giffard, 1999, Winkelbury Publications, Berwick St John. ISBN: 0 9535893 0 7 (this may also be available from the church)
Victoria County History of Wiltshire, Volume 13, D. A. Crowley (Ed), 1987
Civil Registration
1837 – April 1936 Tisbury Registration District
April 1936 – January 1978 Mere Registration District
January 1978 – Present Salisbury Registration District
Appointment of a New Registrar 1913
Buildings and Land
Land Surveys
Public Houses
Talbot Inn, The Cross
Unspoilt 16th century building with beams and inglenook threatened with closure in the late 1990s but saved by the local branch of CAMRA
Crime and Legal Matters
Bastardy
Bastardy Examinations 1850-1860
Crime Reports
Swing Riots
Theft
Victims of Crime
Directories
Post Office 1855 Kellys 1867 Post Office 1875 Kellys 1915
Education
Emigration and Migration
Employment and Business
Agriculture and Land
Game Licenses 1834 Game Licenses 1846
Apprentices
Apprentice records published here may not necessarily mean that the apprentice was from the parish but was apprenticed to a master within the parish.
Communications
British Postal Service Appointments 1737-1969
Community Services
Police
Miscellaneous Documents
Non Conformity and Other Places of Worship
Baptist Chapel
People and Parish Notables
Associations, Clubs, Organisations and Societies
Wiltshire Friendly Society Membership 1837-1871
Bankruptcy
Census Returns
Elections, Polls and Taxes
Poll of Freeholders 1772 Poll Book 1818 Voters List 1832 Poll Book 1865 MP Nominations 2015 MP Nominations 2017
Family Notices
General Items
The Diaries of Charlotte Grove
Those researching families in Berwick St John, the Donheads and other surrounding parishes may be interested to learn about The Diaries of Charlotte Grove. Charlotte (1783-1860), the daughter of Thomas Grove of Ferne, married the rector of Berwick St John, Richard Downes. Her surviving diaries, within the period 1811-1858, include entries mentioning a great many parishioners and other individuals from every section of society – lords and ladies, clergymen, tenant farmers, shopkeepers, tradesmen, agricultural labourers and paupers. Further details can be found here
My personal interest in Berwick St. John
Former OPC John Lane says:- My 3xG grandfather, John LANE (1769-1840), was tenant farmer of Lower Bridmore Farm. He married Mansel MOORE of Fontmell Magna in 1805. They had eight children, including Mansel Moore (1806-1861) who married James BRINE, first cousin of his more famous namesake, the Tolpuddle Martyr; John (1807-1873) who became a successful London brewer; Stafford Moore (1814-1868) who became Farm Bailiff at Spye Park; James (1826-1863), my 2xG grandfather, who married Dionisia FUTCHER of Fovant. Among other names associated with the family are: ATKINS, BARNES, CHAMEN, FOOT and MITCHELL.
Inquests
News Reports
Farewell to Lord James of Hereford 1901
Taxes
Poor Law, Charity and The Workhouse
Probate
National Probate Index 1858-1966
War, Conflict and Military Matters
War Memorial & Military Gallery
Diocese of Salisbury Memorial Book 1914-1918 WWI & WWII War Memorial Tablets Bell Ringers Memorial Book Extract held in St. Paul’s Cathedral Library, London
