Holdenhurst, Hampshire Genealogy

England Hampshire

Holdenhurst is a small village and ancient parish of Saxon origin, famed as the mother parish of Bournemouth, whose north-eastern suburbs it now adjoins.

Holdenhurst is recorded in the Domesday Book as Holeest suggesting an etymology of Old English holegn meaning "holly "and hyrst meaning "grove, wood", giving a meaning of "wood where holly grows. In succeeding centuries it was spelt Holeherst (12th century), Holhurst (13th century), Hollehurst (14th century), Holnehurst (15th century), Holnest (16th century) and Holnirst (17th century).

Parish History
Originally the parish included the hamlets of Iver (Iford), Muccleshell, Muscliff, Strouden, Throop and Townsend. The four last-mentioned communities are still part of the parish today. Holdenhurst lost over half its 7,390 acres in 1894 to create the parishes of Bournemouth and Winton. In subsequent years Bournemouth took further chunks out of Holdenhurst. Then in 1931 the reverse takeover was complete when Holdenhurst was incorporated into the Borough of Bournemouth. As a result of the 1972 Local Government Act, Holdenhurst, as part of Bournemouth, was transferred from Hampshire to Dorset.

Holdenhurst was a chapelry of Christchurch until 1808, and even afterwards it continued to be a perpetual curacy annexed to Christchurch vicarage until 1875, when it was finally constituted a vicarage in its own right in the gift of the Bishop of Winchester. Built in 1834, the medieval-style church of St. John the Evangelist with it’s distinctive bell-cote replaced a much-lamented chapel of Saxon origin, which had fallen into a dilapidated state and could only seat 200 of the 620 parishioners. Attempts were made to site a new church in the centre of the parish, but when no land could be acquired, the Tapps family, who had benefited enormously from the 1802 enclosure of commons, donated a piece of land near the original chapel. Unfortunately for contemporary historians, the cheapest option was to build a new church from scratch and demolish the old one. Even so, the Saxon font was to be retained. Somehow, in transporting it the few metres from the old chapel, it got lost and was only recovered years later in a garden some miles distant. It now has pride of place in the church.

Civil Registration
Birth, marriages and deaths were kept by the government, from July 1837 to the present day. The civil registration article tells more about these records. There are several Internet sites with name lists or indexes. A popular site is FreeBMD.

Church records
Contributor: Include here information for parish registers, Bishop’s Transcripts, non conformist and other types of church records, such as parish chest records. Add the contact information for the office holding the original records. Add links to the Family History Library Catalog showing the film numbers in their collection

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Hampshire Probate Records to find the name of the court having primary jurisdiction. Scroll down in the article to the section Court Jurisdictions by Parish.

Maps and Gazetteers
Maps are a visual look at the locations in England. Gazetteers contain brief summaries about a place.


 * England Jurisdictions 1851
 * Holdenhurst, Hampshire - Vision of Britain

Web sites

 * Holdenhurst with Throop - Dorset OPC