Besford

Quick Links

• Descriptive Notes
• Status
• Location
• Parish Church
• Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction
• Hundred
• Poor Law Union
• Adjoining Parishes
• Parish Registers at Worcestershire Archives
• Bishops' Transcripts
• International Genealogical Index (IGI)
• Monumental Inscriptions and Associated Documents
• Census Records
• Parish Records on microform
• Directories

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 at Worcestershire Archives

[Contact details]

Bishops' Transcripts

Begin 1611 Worcestershire Archives [22]

International Genealogical Index (IGI)

[19]

Monumental Inscriptions and Associated Documents

At BMSGH Shop
St.Peter

At BMSGH Reference Library [7]
St Peter

At Worcestershire Archives [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 Archives, 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 Archives [14]

Parish Records on microform

At Worcestershire Archives [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

An extract from the Topographical Dictionary of England 1831 by Samuel Lewis:

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.