The Parish of Maiden Newton

Photograph © courtesy of Jim Fisher at this web site	Maiden Newton is a parish and market town situated on the River Frome 8 miles north-west from Dorchester. The church of St Mary situated at the end of the parish, is an ancient stone structure mainly in the Perpendicular style. It has a square central embattled Norman tower with pinnacles and 6 bells one having an inscription of the 17th century. There is also a Norman door. The church registers date from 1555. The living includes 122 acres of glebe land and residence. There were also Wesleyan and Congregational chapels in the parish.
At the end of the nineteenth century there was an iron foundry and three branch banks, a cattle market on occasional Mondays and a fair on 9th March and 8th May. The soil is gravel and the main crops during the 19th century were wheat, barley, oats and pasture. The area is 2854 acres. In 1841 a National School was built and in 1865 and 1870 this was enlarged to take 200 children. There was a police station and a railway station. The population in 1851 was 345; in 1861, 844; 1871, 856; 1891, 694; 557 in 1931 and 940 in 2001	Bull Lane c.1910. Photograph courtesy of Paul Tompkins © and available from his web site, see below for link to more photos.
The new Online Parish Clerk (OPC) for Maiden Newton is John Hardy On-line data
Census	Census for 1841, 1851, 1861, 1871, 1881, 1891 & 1901 will be transcribed. Census for neighbouring parishes are on the Miscellaneous page.
Parish Registers	The parish registers date from 1555, the following transcriptions are available:- Baptisms Marriages 1556-1812 Burials
Postal Directories	Extracts from Directories for 1848, 1855, 1867, 1875, 1880 & 1898
Photographs	Some modern and historic photographs of Maiden Newton
Maps	The 1891 ordinance survey maps of the parish can be seen at the old-maps site, just enter 'Maiden Newton' under place search.
	For modern location maps visit:- www.multimap.com