Blore Ray, Staffordshire Genealogy

England Staffordshire



Parish History
Blore Ray is an Ancient Parish in the county of Staffordshire. Calton, Staffordshire is a chapelry of Blore Ray. Other places in the parish include: Blore with Swinscoe and Blore with Swainscoe

BLORE, or Blore-Roy (St. Bartholomew), a parish, in the N. division of the hundred of Totmonslow and of the county of Stafford; containing 333 inhabitants, of whom 273 are in the township of Blore with Swainscoe, 4 miles (N. W. by W.) from Ashbourn. This place is chiefly remarkable as the site of the ancient baronial mansion of the illustrious family of Bassett; the building was standing in 1662, but the site is now occupied by a farmhouse. The parish comprises about 1900 acres, mostly grass land, and is bounded on the north by the rivers Manifold and Dove, and intersected by the road from Derby to Manchester: it commands, from its elevated situation, very extensive views; the Wrekin in Shropshire, and the Leicestershire hills, being distinctly visible. There is excellent limestone, which is used for building; and lead-ore, in small quantity, is sometimes found in the limestone rocks. A fair is held for cattle and sheep on the 20th of September. The living is a discharged rectory, valued in the king's books at £8. 8.; net income, £130; patron, Offley Shore, Esq.: the glebe consists of about 40 acres, with a house in the Elizabethan style, built in 1837. The church, erected in the fourteenth century, has a square tower. Through the exertions of the Rev. Hugh Wood, the rector, this edifice, which was much dilapidated, has been entirely restored and beautified, and some rich oak screen-work properly secured. At the upper end of the north aisle, within a kind of chantry chapel, is a noble altar-tomb of statuary marble, supposed to be to the memory of William, the last male heir of the Bassetts, who was living in 1588; there is also a brass, dated 1400, in the aisle. In the churchyard is an ancient yew-tree; likewise a venerable stone cross, restored by the rector. The Wesleyans have a place of worship. The children receive instruction at Ilam school, where they are also partly clothed, by Jesse Watts Russell, Esq.

From: 'Blennerhassett - Bloxwich', A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 282-286. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=50808 Date accessed: 29 March 2011.

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
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Census records
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Poor Law Unions
Ashbourne Poor Law Union, Derbyshire

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Staffordshire 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
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 * England Jurisdictions 1851
 * Vision of Britain

Web sites
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