BESFORD

Descriptive Notes:
Besford church is unique in this county for being a half-timbered or timber-framed structure.

Status:
A chapelry in Pershore St. Andrew Ancient Parish. A separate Civil Parish in 1866. Ecclesiastically severed in 1865 to help create Defford cum Besford Ecclesiastical Parish [25]

Location:
O.S. Ref: SO910447
2½ miles S.W. of Pershore

Parish Church:
St. Peter

Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction:
Archdeaconry & Diocese of Worcester [1]

Hundred:
Upper Pershore [11] [28]

Poor Law Union:
Pershore [3] [25]

Adjoining Parishes:
Pershore Holy Cross; Pershore St Andrew; Birlingham; Defford; Croome D'Abitot; Pirton [1]

Parish Registers:

		Coverage	Source
Microform at WLHC	Christenings	C1539-1965	[5]
	Marriages	M1539-1963	[5]
	Burials	B1540-1957	[5]
	Banns	1754-1816, 1824-1959	[5]
Originals at WRO	Banns	1754-1803 (spasmodic)	[12]

Bishops' Transcripts:
Begin 1611 Worcestershire Library and History Centre [22]

International Genealogical Index (IGI):
[19]

		Coverage
Parish Registers	Births / Christenings	1539-1658; 1751-1875
Bishops' Transcripts	Births / Christenings	1660-1699 (70%)

Monumental Inscriptions and Associated Documents:
At BMSGH Shop
St.Peter 

At BMSGH Reference Library [7]
St Peter

At Worcestershire Library and History Centre [51]
St Peter 

At Society of Genealogists [59]
BESFORD (St. Peter) : Monumental Inscriptions : Worcestershire monumental inscriptions, vol. 16 [Typescript.]   IN: Worcestershire monumental inscriptions, vol. 16   Published Birmingham : Birmingham & Midland Society for Genealogy & Heraldry, 1992   Author Farmer, G R (trans.) Source D: Birmingham & Midland Society for Genealogy & Heraldry. 

BESFORD (St. Peter) : Monumental Inscriptions: Worcestershire monumental inscriptions vol. 13 [Typescript.]   IN: Worcestershire monumental inscriptions vol. 13   Published Birmingham : Birmingham & Midland Society for Genealogy & Heraldry, 1994   Author Farmer, G R (trans.) Source D: Birmingham & Midland Society for Genealogy & Heraldry

Census Records:
All the censuses between 1841 and 1901 are now available on a number of fee-paying (Subscription or PayAsYouGo) sites including Ancestry.co.uk, FindMyPast.co.uk, thegenealogist.co.uk and genesreunited.co.uk. The 1911 census is available in full or in part on some of these sites. We are unable to advise on the choice of site since researchers' personal preferences will be influenced by the content and search facilities offered by each site. Some sites offer a free trial.

Access to the library edition of Ancestry.co.uk is widely available at most record offices, including Worcestershire Library and History Centre, and some libraries. You are advised to book time on their computers before making a visit. 

A free-to-view site is being developed at freecen.org.uk for the 1841, 1851, 1861, 1871 and 1891 censuses.  Coverage of Worcestershire parishes is rather sparse at this time.

Census returns can usually be viewed at Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints' Family History Centres.

Some repositories offer census details on microform, disc or printed copy. These include:
1841-71,1891-1901 at Worcestershire Library and History Centre [14]

Parish Records on microform at Worcestershire Library and History Centre [13]
Churchwardens accounts 1810-81
Churchwardens accounts 1881-1941
Vestry minutes 1837-1877
Removal order 1765
Census return 1831
Bastardy orders 1775-1810
Churchwardens accounts & settlement papers 18th Cent. Besford parish register ( Copy & name index) 1539-1658) In Defford box no.81/6

Directories:
BESFORD, a parish in the upper division of the hundred of PERSHORE, county of WORCESTER, 3 miles (W. by S.) from Pershore, containing 154 inhabitants. The living is a perpetual curacy, annexed to the vicarage of St. Andrew's, Pershore, in the archdeaconry and diocese of Worcester, rated in the king's books at £3. The church is dedicated to St. Andrew. The navigable river Avon runs along the border of the parish. [Topographical Dictionary of England 1831 by Samuel Lewis]

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© Arthur Lewis and contributors 2008
Comments, additions, corrections etc to Arthur Lewis
Last updated on 9th December 2011

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