Church Catchment Areas (General)

by BSEDDON , Wednesday, February 29, 2012, 10:32 (4654 days ago)

Hi,

Gadually, through experience of using this site, I've grown to understand that All Saints at Newland was the earliest church in the FOD. In the early days, couples from all over the district would travel to All Saints to get married and hold Baptisms.

By and large, their "residence" would be described by the generic term of "Newland". The actual town/hamlet that they occuped (so useful in building up family relationships) was not recorded.

Over time, more churches were opened, at Bream and Parkend for example, which helps give more precise residencies.

I've recently come across a few marriages at St Briavels in the 1820/30's. The location is always "Hundred of St Briavels". I haven't yet been able to work out whether this is another generic term for some large area or relates to the town of St Briavels itself. If anyone could provide any guidance on this then I would be very grateful.

If it is a generic term, then I would also be interested if anyone with local knowledge could
- define the Hundreds of St Briavels from the church's perspective
- provide any insight into why the people from Bream, for example, might choose St Briavels over Newland

thanks Brian