Downton, Herefordshire Genealogy

England Herefordshire  Herefordshire Parishes

Parish History
Downton is an Ancient Parish in Herefordshire.

Downton St Giles was built in 1861-1862 by S Pountney Smith and is an Estate church to the Downton estate, Downton Castle is nearby Downton Castle Wikipedia

The church has been designated as a grade II listed building by English Heritage British Listed Building

In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Downton like this:

DOWNTON, a parish in the district of Ludlow and county of Hereford; on the river Teme, near the boundary with Salop, 5 miles SW of Bromfield r. station, and 5½ W by S of Ludlow. Post town, Leintwardine, Herefordshire. Acres, 1, 201. Real property, with Aston and Burrington, £3, 750. Pop., 184. Houses, 25. Downton Castle here is a spacious modern edifice, in mixed Grecian and Gothic styles, built by R. P. Knight, Esq., to exemplify his "Analytical Enquiry;" and stands amid romantic scenery. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Hereford. Value, £154. Patron, the Lord Chancellor. The church was built in 1862, and is in the early English style, somewhat richly decorated.

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 and other types of church records, such as parish chest records. Add the contact information for the office holding the original records.

Link to the Family History Library Catalogue showing the film numbers in their collection

Census records
See Herefordshire Census

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Herefordshire 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
 * Vision of Britain

Web sites
Contributor: add any relevant sites that aren’t mentioned above.