In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Boscombe like this:
BOSCOMBE, a parish in Amesbury district, Wilts; on an affluent of the river Avon, and on the Basingstoke and Salisbury railway, 1½ mile NE of Porton station, and 4 SE of Amesbury. It has a post office under Marlborough. Acres, 1,692. Real property, with Gomeldon, Idmiston, Porton, and Winterbourne-Gunner, £7,630. Pop., 143. Houses, 34. The property is divided among a few. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Salisbury. Value, £330.* Patron, the Bishop of Salisbury. The church is old but goo...
d; and there are almshouses, with endowed income of £24. Richard Hooker was rector from 1591 till 1595, and wrote here the first four books of his "Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity"
Boscombe through time
For the best overall sense of how the area containing Boscombe has changed, please see our redistricted information for the modern district of Salisbury. More detailed statistical data are available under Historical units & statistics for administrative units named after or covering Boscombe.
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