Cerne Abbas Parish Dorset

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
The Online Parish Clerk (OPC) for Cerne Abbas is Claire Smith-Burns Resources with links are available on-line, other resources have not yet been transcribed and are available by contacting Claire.
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


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