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Digitised Records

To collate the history of East Boldre's former Baptist Chapel for our book and exhibition at Chapel Stores we are drawing upon a variety of sources including those held at the Hampshire Records Office in Winchester and local histories. In order to make these more accessible for our research and to local people and historians we have been transcribing the key documents into electronic forms so they are easily searchable by keywords and names. We are including them here to enable widespread use of our work so that others may benefit from the time we have invested.

One of the key challenges our painstaking transcription team of volunteers have faced is deciphering the often faded cursive handwriting of the records. Wherever possible we have crossed checked the spelling of names against other sources. In many cases we have found different spelling of the same name largely due to the limited literacy in the area at the time the records were made. We have tried to stay true to the document being transcribed where possible.

No doubt some transcription errors may remain, for those we apologise but we will not be held liable for any such errors or for any mistakes existing in the documents transcribed should you choose to make use of them.
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The documents are shared under a 'creative commons' licence. East Boldre Community Stores Limited should be credited with the transcription of the original records.

Beaulieu Rails Baptist Church Minutes 1817- 1859​

Transcribed by Rebecca Gabzdyl from and including images of the record held at the Hampshire Records Office in Winchester.

This records the baptisms, dismissions and other church business during this period.

Beaulieu Rails Baptist Church Book 1860 - 1910​

Transcribed by Rebecca Gabzdyl from and including images of the record held at the Hampshire Records Office in Winchester.

This records the baptisms, dismissions and other church business during this period.

Beaulieu Rails Baptist Burial Register 1837 - 1894​

This appears to be the only surviving burial register of East Boldre (Beaulieu Rails) Baptist Chapel. Gravestones on site indicate burials took place both before and after this period.

 

Thanks to assistance from Nick Thompson, Judith Richardson, Mike Hawker, Anna Rostand, Alison and David Moore-Gwyn, Rebecca Gabzdyl has transcribed this record, held at the Hampshire Records Office in Winchester, into Excel.

Names were cross checked with other sources where deciphering handwriting proved tricky.

This records the baptisms, dismissions and other church business during this period.

 

Undocumented Burials

Of burials before and after these dates we have little info but there is evidence that burials on the chapel site started as early as 1822 and continued until 1915.

  • The land the chapel sits on was purchased by the church in two parts from Captain Perry in 1819 and 1823. From the minutes we can see that soon after, in September 1824, a set of charges were drawn up relating to burial costs which were revised in 1828.

  • The Comyn notebooks (of 1817 and subsequently amended by the Rev Charles Shrubb in the early 1820s) mention that Michael Peckham who died in 1822, one of the chapel founders, is buried at the ‘New Chapel’

  • On several of the surviving gravestones are names of people not mentioned in the burial register - John Philips 1828; Bennett Jones 1829; Jane White 1868; Harry Wells 1874; Sarah Bound 1895; Ann Biddlecombe 1897; Patience Miller 1899; James Bound and William Dunkason both 1909; Betsy Kitcher 1915; George and Elizabeth Etheridge (1936). This latter is the last know burial onsite.

A Light in the Forest - A History of East Boldre's Baptist Church by Eric Smith

 

COMING SOON....

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