Wellesbourne, Warwickshire Genealogy

Parish History
WELLESBOURN-HASTINGS (St. Peter), a parish, in the union of Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwick division of the hundred of Kington, S. division of the county of Warwick, 5 miles E from Stratford.

The name was first recorded in 862 as Wallesburam. It was later referred to as Walesborne in the Domesday Book.

In May 1140 Wellesbourne was hit by a tornado - one of the earliest recorded in the British Isles. It damaged several buildings and killed a woman.

Wellesbourne was once two villages – Wellesbourne Mountford and Wellesbourne Hastings, the two villages being divided by the River Dene. In 1947 the two parishes were merged, and are now considered to be a single village. For these historical reasons Wellesbourne has two village centres, Chestnut Square and the Precinct respectively.

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
Wellesbourne parish registers of christenings, marriages and burials are available online for the following years:

To find the names of the neighboring parishes, use England Jurisdictions 1851 Map. In this site, search for the name of the parish, click on the location "pin", click Options and click List contiguous parishes.

Information about the parish may be found on Warwickshire Online Parish Clerks. Records are also available at the Warwickshire County Record Office.

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