Worth Matravers                

Worth Matravers is a small village 3½ miles S.S.E. from Corfe Castle bounded by the English Channel on the south and the nearby seaside Swanage 4 miles east. The parish in 1898 comprised of an area of 2,645 acres and the soil being stiff clay with overlying limestone.

The church, St Nicholas of Myra, stands close to the centre of the stone-built village and is one of the oldest in Dorset. With a Saxon door blocked up in the 12th century the church is memorable for its Norman nave, tower and windows and Early English chancel. It was extensively restored in 1869 after it had become so dilapidated that services had to be held in the village school.

In the churchyard is the grave of Benjamin Jesty, a Dorset yeoman reputed to be the first person to inoculate anyone with cowpox to ward off smallpox. View some photos of the church while listening to the bells of St Nicholas and also an interior 360^o panorama of St Nicholas.

St Nicholas of Myra Church

The 12th Century chapel of St Aldhelm which stands on St Aldhelm's Head overlooking the English Channel is thought to have once been a chantry where a priest would celebrate mass for the safety of sailors. It is also now believed that the chapel may have been built on an earlier timber structure that was the centre of a pre-Conquest Christian enclosure.

For centuries Worth Matravers was one of the main centres for the quarrying of Purbeck marble, and surface workings of the old quarries can be seen in the hills around the village. The dark grey marble supports the tower and spire of Salisbury Cathedral.

 The population of Worth Matravers in 1891 was 229.  In 1991 it was 603.

     17th Century Records :

• Protestation Returns

• Hearth Tax

     Parish Registers :

• Baptisms - 1584 - 1878
  
  1584 - 1759,   1760 - 1841 , 1842 - 1880
  Transcription by Michael Norman and Sue Mills

• Marriages - 1585- 1841
  Transcription by Michael Norman

                                1585 - 1841

 

• Burials -
  Transcription by Michael Norman

  1584 - 1759,   1760 - 1841,   1842 - 1880
  
  
  Discrepancies

   

• List of Vicars - 1297 - 2010

     Militia List :

• Some Purbeck Militia Lists

     Census Returns :

• Full transcription of 1803 list of names of inhabitants in preparation for a French Invasion -

Page 1

• Full transcription of 1841 census -

                       Page 1 - Page 2

• Full transcription of 1851 census -

Page 1 - Page 2

• Full transcription of 1861 census -

Page 1 - Page 2

• Full transcription of 1871 census - Page 1
   

• 1881 census. - Free transcription or pay per image http://www.ancestry.co.uk/
   

• Full transcription of 1891 census - Page 1
   

• 1901 census. - Free transcription or pay per image http://www.ancestry.co.uk/

     Wills :

• Index of PCC Wills from the period 1576-1808 on DocumentsOnline

• Abstracts of PCC Wills - Page 1

• Calendar of Wills and Administrations
  - Archdeaconry and Consistory Court - 1664 - 1852

• Abstracts of Archdeaconry Court of Dorset Wills
  -  Page 1

     Directories :

• Hunts - 1851

• Post Office Directory - 1867

• Kelly's Directory - 1895

• Kelly's Directory - 1915 

     Maps :

• Saxon Estates in Purbeck

• Domesday Map

• Tresswell's Map C 1586

• Braye's Map - 1890

• Worth Matravers Village Auction - 1919

• Modern Map

• List of those researching in Purbeck
  To be added to the list contact