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Stock Gaylard

For two centuries the estate, the major feature at Stock Gaylard, has been used for country pursuits and sports; the hedgerows and woodlands have been retained for these activities and areas within the estate have been designated as Sites of Special Scientific Interest by English Nature. The estate overall amounts to some 1,700 acres of which 300 acres are woodland with another 80 acres of common land and an enclosed deer park of similar size. The estate is also involved with commercial dairy farming. Five miles to the west of Sturminster Newton the parish is, for administrative purposes, now a part of Lydlinch.
 
Stock Gaylard House appears to date from the early 18th century and is believed to have been built in 1714 when the estate was owned by the Lewys family. It has two storeys with cellars and attics. There was an earlier house but it is not clear where on the estate it stood. Around 1790 when the owner was John Berkley Burland MP, the house was enlarged and improved. During the 19th century further improvements were made by the Yeatman family.

A short distance from the house is the 18th century Twofords Bridge, which carries the main Sherborne to Blandford road over the River Lydden.

The church, which is dedicated to St. Barnabas, stands in the park area of the estate and close to Stock Gaylard House in the north-west corner of the parish. It was rebuilt on the site of an earlier church in 1884, by the Yeatman family in memory of Harry Farr and Emma Yeatman, his wife.

The walls of the church are built of squared rubble with ashlar dressings and the roofs are stone-slated. In the Gothic style it has a chancel, nave, south porch and a bell-cote at the west end of the building. Signs of the earlier church are to be found in the chancel, where there is a restored medieval doorway. In the nave, on the north and south walls, are 16th century windows; the south doorway is medieval and at the centre of the gabled west wall is a restored window thought to date to the 15th century, as does the font. The two bells in the bell-cote over the west gable are from the 13th and 15th century; the earlier bell has a narrow pear shaped form.

Inside the church there are memorials to members of the Lewys and Yeatman families as well as several others dating to the 18th century. Of particular interest is an effigy in Ham stone of the late 13th century, beneath a recessed Gothic arch on the south side of the nave. The recumbent knight (thought to be Sir Ingelramus de Walys) is in mail armour; a plain shield hangs from the left shoulder, the legs are crossed and the right hand rests on the pommel of a sword with spurred feet on couched lion.

There is a memorial to a more recent warrior, Captain Farr Yeatman. He died in 1917 near Jerusalem, where he lies in the military cemetery.  The bronze relief is by Henry Pegram and shows the Captain lying in uniform with his sword. The inscription tells us he gave his life to save another.

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