Donnington Church

The purpose of this website is to make available for public use most of the information gathered over the last few years about St. Mary's Church, Donnington, near Ledbury in Herefordshire. The impetus to create the site came from the determination of the Parochial Church Council to improve their knowledge of the location, identification and occupation of graves in the churchyard. This has led to a number of related initiatives.

Transcripts of Donnington Parish Registers

The lists of baptisms, marriages, banns and burials below have been derived from transcripts of various parish registers and other sources. It has been felt useful to record the sources and parish history to minimise confusion.

- Burials

All burial entries in the Donnington parish registers from 1765 to 2006 have been transcribed together with burial entries clearly relevant to Donnington but entered in the parish registers of Dymock and Ledbury between 1556 and 1765. Please see Donnington Burials for the transcript.

- Baptisms

All baptism entries in the Donnington parish registers from 1755 to 1986 have been transcribed and, again, relevant entries from the Dymock and Ledbury registers between 1556 and 1755 have been included. However, publication on the web has been confined to those baptisms performed before 1920. Please see Donnington Baptisms for the transcript.

- Banns

All banns in the Donnington parish registers from 1754 to 1828 have been transcribed and augmented by a few relevant banns from the Dymock and Ledbury registers (and one from Much Marcle). Please see Donnington Banns for the transcript.

- Marriages

All marriage entries in the Donnington parish registers from 1754 to 1986 have been transcribed together with relevant entries from the Dymock and Ledbury registers between 1556 and 1754. However, publication on the web has been confined to those marriages performed before 1920. Because of the different reporting standards covering the inclusion of various items of information, several pages have been published. Please see Donnington Marriages to 1812, Donnington Marriages from 1813 to 1835, and Donnington Marriages from 1836 for the transcript.

Transcript of Memorial Inscriptions

Almost all the memorial inscriptions had already been transcribed by Rosemary Lockie and the transcripts are available from: Wishful Thinking. The process of mapping the churchyard and identifying the graves has produced a few more inscriptions and the complete set is now available and cross-referenced to grave numbers, burial dates and names on this site (see "Locating a Grave" below).

Mapping the Churchyard

To aid the mapping process, the churchyard has been divided into Sections A to E as shown in the diagram opposite. [To obtain a larger and more detailed image of the section diagram just click on the diagram and use your browser to zoom in or out of the resulting image.]

Graves have been numbered fairly arbitrarily within these sections and there is no additional information imparted in the number (e. g., placement, age etc.). The combination of section and number provides a unique grave reference (e.g. the grave referenced as E01 is the first grave to be numbered in section E) and has been used to link graves with names, burial dates etc., in the grave indexes (see below).

Some numbers have been assigned to grave markers or stones which do not denote graves and these are, therefore, not associated with a name. Similarly, some areas of the churchyard clearly contain graves, although there are no visible gravestones. These graves have not yet been identified and additional numbers will be assigned as further identification takes place.

The sections have been mapped in great detail on paper but the paper maps are much too big to present on this website. Instead a single detailed churchyard map has been provided for users to download and examine at leasure and at whatever magnification is convenient (see below).

Locating a Grave

The churchyard map can be downloaded and used to locate a specific grave more accurately than just to a section of the churchyard via the section diagram (above). It is expected that users seeking a specific grave will have a name for which they are looking, or possibly a date range.

The grave references have been indexed for this purpose in surname order, date order, and grave reference order.

Users should look up a grave as follows:

1. click on one of the three indexes above,
2. scan through the index to find the entry of interest,
3. click on the grave reference which is highlighted on the index entry.

Missing or Erroneous Grave Data

The grave references and their indexes have been created from the transcribed burial registers augmented by evidence from memorial inscriptions. Where a name exists on an index but the grave reference is blank, it means that we have evidence from an entry in the burial registers that a person was buried in the churchyard, but no evidence for the location of the relevant grave. Such entries are restricted to those in the post-1754 Donnington burial registers.

If the burial date is missing it means the person has been named on a memorial inscription but there is no corresponding entry in the burial registers. This is usually because the person was buried elsewhere and not in Donnington churchyard.

However, despite attempts to ensure the data is accurate, the processes involved are prone to error and it's quite likely there are some mistakes. I would therefore be grateful if users who are aware of a mistake and know how to correct the information would contact me with their correction (see below).

Rectors of Donnington

The Parochial Church Council were also keen to identify an accurate and fairly complete list of those appointed to the Donnington Rectory. The list of Donnington Rectors has been obtained from the published Registers of the Bishops of Hereford ("Registrum Herefordensis"). Although there are gaps, these registers are available from about 1200 up to 1900 and have been used to extract the names of those presented for appointment, as well as their patrons, the previous appointee, and the reason for the vacancy (where available).

It's worth noting that many of the published Bishops' registers were translated and transcribed for printing by Canon Arthur Thomas Bannister, a noted diocesan historian who is buried in Donnington churchyard.

Seats and the Font

The earliest register (1754 - 1812) includes a separate page documenting the provision of seats or pews in 1796. It was probably written soon after the event and it provides a glimpse of parish practice and personalities. It records which seats or pews were provided, who provided or funded them and was permitted to sit in them. The list of seats and owners is provided as a transcript of the 1796 page.

Early in the tenure of Roger Bird as Rector of Donnington, his son was baptised in the church. It's clear from his notes of the baptism that he was disatisfied with the previous arrangement for baptism and brought a stone font from Rugby. He records his actions as follows: "The font on this occasion was brought from Rugby in Warwickshire having been for many years in use in that parish until its place was occupied by the more suitable one presented by Mr Bloram Esq. It is now lent to the parish of Donnington until as is to be wished they supply themselves with one corresponding with the architecture of the church - the owner thinking it unworthy to be an offering to the church but still more becoming than the blue basin hither in use.".

Lander Photographs

Eric Gethyn-Jones, Rector of Donnington, 1957-1967, deposited a number of items of historical interest to Donnington in Gloucestershire Record Office (see sources for details). Included in the Gethyn-Jones collection are a number of photographs of the rectory in the time of John Lander, Rector of Donnington, 1845-1890. Two of these have been reproduced here as: John Lander and his wife, and The Lander family.

Church History

A modern history of Donnington church was published as a printed leaflet in 1997, but in producing this website it was decided to bring the leaflet up to date and translate it to the web. The Church History is available here.

Corrections and Comments

I welcome corrections to errors in the church data and mistakes I've made in putting it together, and additional data which readers wish to contribute. To do so, please use my contact details.

Acknowledgments

I'm deeply grateful to Forest of Dean Family History for permission to include Donnington baptism, marriage and burial entries from their transcripts of the parish registers of Bromsberrow, Dymock, Preston and Kempley.

The current Donnington parish burial register, covering burials from 1990 to 2005 and held in the church, was kindly released to me for transcription by the churchwarden, David Powell, and with the permission of the rector Patricia Phillips.

It would not have been possible to produce this website without the help and support of the Parochial Church Council, particularly Jennie Davies, Fiona Dean, David Powell and Robert Daniels. But most of all, it couldn't have been done without Rosemary Lockie.