OPC Vacancy
Contiguous Parishes (our neighbours)
Combe (HAM) – Ham – Linkholt (HAM) – Shalbourne – Tidcombe – Vernhams Dean (HAM)
Websites of Interest
The Parish Church of St. James the Great
St. James Gallery St. James Interior Gallery St. James Churchyard Gallery
Is apparently the highest and one of the most remote churches in Wiltshire, and is also one of England’s 100 smallest churches, with about only thirty parishioners. However they care about this pretty stone built church and churchyard and have completely restored the church in 1991. In springtime the churchyard is covered with patches of snowdrops giving the church a wintery appearance.
Church Building
Church Matters
Parrish Registers
Marriages
Parish Registers held at WSHC
Baptisms 1720-1952 (possible gaps)
Marriages 1720-1950
Burials 1720-1967
Parish History
Civil Registration
1837 – April 1937 Hungerford Registration District
April 1937 – Present Marlborough Registration District
Buildings and Land
Landowners
Land Surveys
Maps
Ordnance Surveyor’s Drawings 1808-1809
Property For Sale or Let
Railway
Great Western
Railway Accommodation on the Berks and Hants Line 1890
Crime and Legal Matters
Directories
Post Office 1855 Post Office 1875 Kellys 1915
Education
Emigration and Migration
Employment and Business
Apprentices
Nicholas Curle 1666 Richard Smith 1730 Thomas Wooford 1702
Miscellaneous Documents
Non Conformity and Other Places of Worship
People and Parish Notables
Coroners Bills
County coroners were introduced in England in around 1194 once established other boroughs and liberties sought the right to have their own coroner. Often in Medieval times the coroner also assumed the role of the sheriff and his duties weren’t limited to holding inquests on dead bodies although almost a full time post they were unpaid for the duties apart from those that were deemed murder of manslaughter when they would receive 13s. 4d. From the 24th June 1752 a law was passed allowing the coroner to claim £1 for every inquest they attended not held in a gaol and also to claim 9d per mile travel allowance from the place of residence. Inquests held in any gaol were performed at a rate totalling no more than £1. These costs were to be paid from the county rates. In cases of homicide the coroner also received the former fee of 13s. 4d. The coroners submitted their bills at the quarter session sittings for approval. Coroners Bills 1752-1796
Census Returns Transcripts
1841 1851 1861 1871 1881 1891 1901 1911 1921
Elections, Polls and Voters Lists
Poll of Freeholders 1772 Voters List 1832 Poll Book 1865
Local Families
Descendants of Thomas Strange c1730
Poor Law, Charity and The Workhouse
Probate
National Probate Index 1858-1966
War, Conflict and Military Matters
Tudor Period
WWI
Memorials and Books of Remembrance
Diocese of Salisbury Memorial Book 1914-1918 War Memorial Plaque 1914-1918
