St. Mary's Church
by Paul Cattermole
Chapter 6 : The Parish Archives
Tharston is lucky in retaining so many of its old records, although none of them dates from before the Reformation. The earliest registers of baptisms, marriages and burials date from 1560, and these are almost continuous through to the present day. There are interesting marginal notes, such as the record of "a memorable hard frost which continued for about 11 or 12 weeks" in 1739. The churchwardens accounts, covering secular as well as ecclesiastical expenditure, are complete from 1671, and the very full records of the Overseers of the Poor include a large number of 18th century examinations of paupers. Two maps dated 1804 (Enclosure) and 1839 (Tithe Apportionment), which give a large scale representation of the village and preserve the old names of fields, are of very great interest. The chest in which the archives are stored is probably that for which two new locks were bought in 1717.
(c) Barbara Cattermole and family, first published in 1992 by Paul Cattermole. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, without the prior consent of the author's family.
