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:
St.Peter BMSGH microfiche [53]
MIs at Worcestershire Library and History Centre [51]
St.Peter: Worcestershire monumental inscriptions, vol. 16 (Published 1992) & vol. 13 (Published 1994) [Typescript.] - Published Birmingham : Birmingham & Midland Society for Genealogy & Heraldry - Author: Farmer, G R (trans.) Society of Genealogists [59]

Census Records:
Access to all the censuses between 1841 and 1901 is now widely available on the library edition of Ancestry.co.uk at most record offices. You are strongly advised to book time on their computers before making a visit.
The findmypast.co.uk website offers access to the 1911 census. This is a Subscription or PayAsYouGo site.
Many commercial organisations have issued CDs and DVDs covering all the censuses from 1841 to 1901.

Some repositories offer census details on microfiche as listed below:
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 5th February 2010

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