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King Charles II

Pilsdon

Jun 13th, 2011
by Dorset Ancestors.
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The parish of Pilsdon is in the west of the county, rubbing shoulders with Devon. Approached by the narrowest of country lanes its quiet and remote location means it is well of the track beaten by the general tourist but one well trodden by walkers. Those who say it is a little place of no significance would be right but we should not deny Pilsdon its brushes with history and celebrity.

Towering over 900 feet above the village is the treeless  Pilsdon Pen, with its wonderful views south to the English Channel and south east across the  Marshwood Vale. Its tiny hamlets, farms and lush pastureland giving the impression that time stands still in these parts.  At the top of the Pen is an Iron Age fort.  Excavations in the 1960’s revealed the banks cover a number of rectangular buildings which enclose and lie over a series of hut circles. There are also the remains of an earlier rampart and a medieval rabbit warren.

The village itself comprises St. Mary’s Church and a 17th century manor house, both now in the ownership of the Anglican Pilsdon Community; furthermore there are some agricultural buildings and a few cottages.

When King Charles II fled the field of battle at Worcester he came this way; elsewhere on the Dorset Ancestors website we tell the story of “When the King Came to Stay” with Colonel Wyndham, who hid the King in his home at Trent and helped him escape the Roundheads pursuing him.

Fired up with the knowledge there was a prize of £1,000 on the King’s head, the Roundheads in hot pursuit stormed into west Dorset and on towards Dorchester. This hapless bunch learnt that the King had not come this way at all but was holed up with the Wyndham family disguised as a woman. They turned around and headed back west to Pilsdon and more specifically the manor house of the Royalist High Court Judge, Sir Hugh Wyndham, uncle of Colonel Wyndham.

Believing the King to be hiding in the house they burst in on the family, ordering Sir Hugh, his Lady, his daughters and his servants into the hall, while they ransacked the house searching every room, wardrobe and cupboard, turning over every one of the ladies pretty gowns as they went in vain about their business oblivious of the fact they were in the wrong house.  By all accounts Sir Hugh was not afraid to voice in colourful language his opinion of the intruders.

One writer in the early 20th century prophetically described Pilsdon as a retreat. The Pilsdon Community set up here in 1958; it is an Anglican organisation living quietly here and providing a welcome retreat for the weary soul to rest, take stock and recharge. They own the 17th century manor house.

In 1983 St. Mary’s church was declared redundant and a year later it was purchased by The Pilsdon Community. Now independent it is no longer a parish church but it is a house of God where prayer and worship continues daily. The 13th century church dedicated to St Mary was rebuilt in 1830, restored in 1875 and more recently was restored again after fire damage, it still retains some of the features from the earlier medieval church.

The poet William Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy lived at Racedown Farm for a time. For the full story of their time in the area, read our article ‘Wordsworth at Racedown,’ which can be found in the Pilsdon category.

Godmanstone – Holy Trinity, the Parish Church

May 16th, 2010
by Dorset Ancestors.
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It is often said that the two pillars of village life are church and pub and if that were true Godmanstone is blessed with a beautiful church and a public house. It has to be said the village is more famous for its pub, The Smith’s Arms, than for its church.

The parish of Godmanstone is located four miles north of Dorchester at the foot of Cowden Hill. The Parish Church of Holy Trinity stands on the east side of the parish and has been a place of worship for at least eight centuries. The walls are of local flint and stone rubble with bands of flint and stone facing and freestone dressings; the roofs are covered with stone slates, slates and lead.

In the 15th century the nave was rebuilt and the west tower added; in the 16th century the north and south chapels and the south porch were added. The chancel-arch, originally 12th century but rebuilt in the 16th or 17th century is unusual in that it has four shafts separated by ridges, in places like spurs, with scalloped capitals and moulded bases. In the 17th century the tower was partly rebuilt, the north chapel and the chancel were rebuilt in the 19th century when the church benefited from an extensive restoration.

The chancel has a 15th century east window of five trefoiled ogee lights with tracery in a square head; in the south wall there is a similar window and a modern doorway; the north wall has a late 16th century window of two four-centred lights in a square head.

The 27-foot nave has, in the north wall, a-mid 16th century moulded arch, and there is a modern window that looks as though it replaced a doorway. In the south wall is a 16th century arcade of two bays similar to the arch in the north wall; the pier has four attached shafts. The 12th century south doorway has been rebuilt and partly renewed.

The north chapel is 16th century but has been much restored; it has windows in the east and west walls both of three four-centred lights and in the north wall is a window similar to the east window found in the chancel. All of these windows have to a greater or lesser extent been restored.

The south chapel is 16th century and has an east window of three four-centred lights in a square head. The two windows in the south wall are similar but have two lights. In the south wall is a 15th century piscina.

The 15th century west tower has been restored and the top stage rebuilt in the 17th century. It is made up of three stages with a plain parapet and pinnacles. The west window is of three cinque-foiled ogee lights in a two-centred head. The second stage has a window of one round-headed light in the west wall and the bell chamber has in each wall a 17th century window of two square-headed lights and incorporated in the north window is a beast-head corbel.

The 15th century font is an octagonal bowl with modern panels in each face and has an octagonal stem and splayed base. The four bells are all 17th century.

The parish registers that have survived can be seen at the Dorset Record Office in Dorchester and include baptisms from 1654 to 2001, Marriages 1654 to 1990, Burials 1654 to 2001 and Banns 1754 to 1811.

Standing on the banks of the river Cerne is The Smith’s Arms the village pub, which claims to be the smallest public house in the country. It was a thirsty King Charles II who stopped at the blacksmith’s forge and requested a glass of porter but was refused with the words “I cannot oblige you Sire, as I have no license.” To that the King replied “From now on you have a license to sell beer and porter.” There is a comfortable 20’ and 10’ bar in the building, which is made of mud and flint and has a thatched roof. The sign depicts the smithy at his labour. Patrons can sit on the bank watching the River Cerne meander bye while enjoying a glass or two and feeding the ducks who have made this place their home.

‘Buried in Woollen’

Feb 4th, 2010
by Dorset Ancestors.
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Introduced during the second half of the 17th century for “the encouragement of the woollen manufacturer” the ‘Act for Burying in Woollen’ was clearly designed to increase demand for home produced woollen cloth.

The 17th century was a time of crisis for the English woollen industry and particularly so in the West Country. Here many rural workers and their families supplemented their meagre income from the land by processing and weaving wool: they relied on a local market for their production, which was mainly low quality cloth produced in the home. In Dorset this cottage industry was controlled from Dorchester where many rich clothiers had their businesses: these people prospered from the woollen industry while the labouring classes supplying them scratched a living.

During the 14th and 15th and early 16th century woollen cloth produced in Dorset was exported to Northern Europe from Bridport, Wareham, and Poole. The 16th century saw a change in fashion as linen, satin, and silk became more readily available, while the demand for woollen cloth dropped away. The Dorchester merchants protected themselves by changing the way they dealt with their rural suppliers: the end result was a better finished woollen cloth but the new terms of business badly affected the producers who, in modern day parlance, became outworkers.

As a result of these changes there was distress in the hamlets and villages during the late 16th and 17th century. But this was a national problem, and measures were needed to increase demand, improve the quality of the woollen cloth and encourage the development and production of new textiles. To this latter end specialist workers were welcomed into the country for their expertise. The monarchy was restored in May 1660 and during the reign of King Charles II an Act was passed designed to increase the use of woollen cloth.

The ‘Act for Burying in Woollen’ was enacted by Parliament in 1666 for “the encouragement of the woollen manufacturer.” This Act required that no corpse “shall be buried in any shirt, shift, sheet or shroud or anything whatever made or mingled with flax, hemp, silk, hair, gold or silver or in any stuff other than what is made of sheep’s wool only.” The Act was amended in 1678 to make it easier to enforce and imposing a fine of £5 for non-compliance. It was a requirement of the Act that an affidavit be sworn before a Justice of the Peace or a priest of the church (but not the priest officiating at the burial) and delivered within 8 days to the priest who conducted the burial. The term ‘buried in woollen, affidavit brought’ is to be seen in the burial registers of the churches after 1666.

The affidavit frequently took the following form: “Mary White made oath this 15th day of January 1698 before …one of his majesties Justices of the Peace that Jane White of the parish of Morden lately deceased was buried in woollen only according to the terms of the Act of Parliament of burying the dead and not otherwise.”

Gradually the legislation came to be ignored and the Act was repealed in 1814 during the reign of King George III. The rich usually chose to pay the fine rather than be seen dead in wool.

Chilcombe

Jan 7th, 2010
by Dorset Ancestors.
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One of the most interesting aspects of Dorset is its profusion of almost redundant hamlets. A paramount example of this is Chilcombe, not least because of its extraordinary degree of concealment, almost to the point of seeming not to exist at all. And yet, paradoxically, there exists a church, which is rather more than a mere chapel, for it possesses a consecrated ground for burials.

Chilcombe is a hamlet lying on the northern edge of the Bride valley and is accessed from a narrow lane, which is the continuation of the High Street of Swyre, two miles to the south. From its northern end this lane is accessed from the A35 near Bridport. Curiously, the settlement did not grow up along the lane itself, but is offset from it slightly to the east, and today lies within a thick copse of mature trees which completely conceal it from the north and south views along the lane. Quite likely this aspect was more open in mediaeval times, but the fact remains that Chilcombe apparently never the potential for evolving as a populous, economically viable community which could not be missed by the traveller passing through. Indeed, a visit to this well-sheltered and enchanted spot may well leave one with the impression that here is community fossilised in time and space.

From the south, access to the church is via an unsurfaced track leading off to the right from the lane, opposite the relatively modern house of Chilcombe Farm. The end of the track opens out into an area with a farmyard to the left and the 16th century stone-built house of the Manor Farm and its grounds to the right. Situated between these two elements is the low-walled enclosure of the church, its west end facing towards the onlooker, its north side overshadowed by a splendid mature ash tree.

If the church was ever dedicated to a saint, his or her identity has been long lost or forgotten. This unknown dedication, and the simple plan or topography of the building is typical of, or consistent with, a church built to serve a community which failed to thrive or develop the kind of economic prosperity so often the fulcrum for an increase in size and population. It is of the elementary bi-partite plan of nave and chancel, but for which there was apparently never a manorial lord with the wealth or motivation to add aisles, transepts or a tower at later times.

Even before the church is entered however, one will be struck by the smallness and quaintness of the churchyard, from which the building must be accessed through the south facing porch. The burial ground is rectangular, and entirely confined to the south side, so that only a dozen or so burials, took place within it.

Centrally placed in this churchyard is a grey stone cross marking the grave of Frederick Samways (1813-1880), a member of a local family who married into another Dorset land owning family, the Gales. Another quaint feature of this churchyard which will readily be noticed are the bantam hens and chicks given free range over the grounds. In springtime the burial ground, which also had a yew planted within it, is (or was) kept trim by allowing a ewe and her lamb to graze it. This churchyard is said to be one of the smallest in the country.

On entering the church through the south door, the visitor walks into a cool, lofty whitewashed nave with some narrow stained glass windows. Some of this glass is said to date from the 15th century, but the window nearest the chancel arch on the south side bears an inscription at the bottom which includes a late 18th century date. Standing like a large open stone chalice in the south west corner behind the door is a 12th century Norman font with cable moulding. Above the door is displayed a gilded coat of arms in raised relief. As it bears no distinctly legible inscription, it is uncertain who or what this emblem represents, though it is quite likely to be the arms of either the Strong or Bishop (Bysshop) families, who were the principal landowners associated with the Manor of Chilcombe.

The chancel retains two notable features of the church, not including the Norman arch separating the chancel from the nave. Immediately noticeable to the right is a wooden armchair in memory of Robert Bishop whose initials – RB – and the date 1642 can be seen carved into the backrest. The date is presumably the date of Robert’s death, for this chair is thought to have stood in this position for almost three-and-a-half centuries.

Another memorial in the chancel is a stone lintel from above a door in the original Tudor manor house, which was demolished in 1939. It is inscribed: John Bysshop, Eleanor Bysshop Anno Domini 1578. Another member of this family stood as MP for Bridport during the reign of Charles II. The manor later passed to the 2nd Earl Nelson, nephew of Admiral Nelson of Trafalgar, in 1832. A Bishop daughter married a Dr Sagittary, who in 1660 built a remarkable brick house in the Plocks at Blandford. In the south east corner of the chancel can be seen a niche in the wall indicating a rare example of a piscina, or alcove for holy water, dating to the 14th century.

But probably the most interesting and unusual feature is an engraved wooden panel fixed upon the north wall directly opposite the door. Approximately three feet long by twenty inches deep, the work is inlaid with scenes depicting the Crucifixion. It once served as the church’s reredos, though the story behind its origin is somewhat legendary and shrouded in a certain amount of myth. While possibly dating from Elizabethan times, the long-held view that it is a Spanish spoil of the Armada has recently been proved to be a fallacy. The wooden inlay work is English, but a consultation with the Churchwarden has revealed that it is believed to be one of a tableau of three Christian iconographic carvings, the other two possibly portraying the birth or ascension of Christ.

As already stated, Chilcombe Church does not possess a tower. There is only a small louvered capella at the west end housing a single bell, the rope for which rests against the wall inside. As in many other parishes in Dorset and elsewhere in England, Chilcombe lost its clergy during the Black Death, and there is no record on site of the succession of incumbents.

The church was built to accommodate a congregation of 40, but it is likely to have been a very long time since even half this number, were attending regular Sunday services. This does however suggest that Chilcombe’s population, whilst infinitesimally small by today’s standards was larger at an earlier time in its history. Quite possibly the manorial families and their retinue and staff would have comprised the majority of the worshippers.

The now separated (by ownership) Manor house and farm, the farm buildings, a smaller house nearby, Chilcombe Farm and two cottages down the lane are all that remains of Chilcombe today. But as a haven of peace off the beaten track it is in a class of its own.

When the King Came to Stay

Dec 22nd, 2009
by Dorset Ancestors.
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He was “a tall man, above two yards high, with dark brown hair scarcely to be distinguished from black.” That is the description of the 21-year-old King Charles II posted about the countryside by Cromwell’s men as they looked everywhere for him, encouraged in their search by the prize of £1,000 on his head.

The King realized on the 3rd of September, 1651 that the “battle was so absolutely lost as to be beyond hope of recovery.” Almost alone except for Henry Lord Wilmot the King escaped from the Worcester battlefield and headed for Wales but finding the River Severn too heavily guarded he turned south towards Bristol, where he hoped to find a ship to take him to France. No ship could be found in Bristol and it became clear he must use a south coast port to make his get-away.

Charles owed much to the loyalty and imagination of his Roman Catholic supporters in whose houses he stayed as he made his way south. He reached Abbots Leigh, the home of Sir George Norton, on the 12th of September where he was recognised by the butler, John Pope, who suggested Trent for his next refuge. It was quiet, had no particular strategic value for the Parliamentarians and it was in a straight line from Bristol to the coast and only a score and ten miles away from a safe passage to France; it was the ideal bolt hole while plans were made for his escape.

Trent is one of those border parishes that over the years has gone to bed in Dorset and awoken in Somerset and vice-versa. Since 1895 Trent, a short step north-west of the town of Sherborne, has been in Dorset but in the mid 17th century it was a part of Somerset and The Manor House was home to a family well known for their Royalist sympathies: the Wyndhams. Edmund Wyndham had married the King’s nurse, Christabel Pyne, and had served under Lord Wilmot during the early days of the Civil War.

Lord Wilmot travelled ahead to warn the Wyndhams. Travelling behind and staying overnight at the Castle Cary home of Edward Kyrton the King was accompanied by Jane Lane and Henry Lascelles. The party arrived at Trent about ten on the morning of the 17th of September. Playing the role of servant to Jane Lane the King was wearing a suit of grey cloth; the small group was quickly ushered into the house and out of sight of any busy-body neighbours. The Manor House is only 100 yards from the parish church.

Francis Wyndham was despatched to arrange a passage for the King. He called first on Sir John Strangeways at Melbury but neither he nor his sons could offer any suggestions although they contributed £100 to the royal purse. Wyndham travelled on to Lyme Regis and for a consideration of £60 secured a passage with a Stephen Limbry, who was taking a cargo from Charmouth to St. Malo on the 22nd of September. The cover story was that a merchant and his servant were escaping from their creditors.

The King, Juliana Conigsby, Wyndham, Lord Wilmot and Henry Peters, Wyndham’s servant, departed from Trent. They met Captain Ellesdon, who had made the introduction to Stephen Limbry, at a house on the hills above Charmouth where final plans were made. But not for the last time an element of farce crept into the best laid plans in the King’s bid to reach France.

Francis Wyndham and his servant waited throughout the night on the beach at Charmouth but Limbry failed to make the rendezvous. The King with Wilmot and Juliana Coningsby playing the role of eloping lovers took rooms at the Queen’s Arms. The party left Charmouth for Bridport in the morning and, it seems, not a moment too soon for the blacksmith had noticed Lord Wilmot’s horse had been shod in three counties including Worcester.

Henry Peters was sent to Lyme Regis to find out why Limbry had not appeared. It seems his wife had guessed her husband was embarked on a dangerous mission and decided to lock him in his room and threatened to report him if he attempted to escape.

At Bridport there were Parliamentarian troops waiting to leave for the Channel Islands so the party couldn’t stay there and set off again, fortunately deciding to leave the main Bridport to Dorchester road and head for Broadwindsor just before a troop of Roundhead soldiers led by a Captain Macey began a search for them.

The landlord of the Inn at Broadwindsor knew Wyndham and gave them a room upstairs.  Farce again played a part but this time working to the King’s advantage. The constable arrived at the Inn with forty Roundhead soldiers to billet. At about midnight one of the women following the soldiers gave birth in the Inn to a particularly noisy baby. The parish officials, overseers and churchwardens, were more interested to find out who the father was and avoid a charge on the parish chest than they were to investigating rumours that the King was in the vicinity. In all the confusion the royal party made their escape and returned to Trent.

His presence was the cause of much anxiety and apprehension to the lady of the house and her mother-in-law, Lady Wyndham, as they guarded against all contingencies. It is recorded that on the King’s first arrival at The Manor House Ann Wyndham was overcome with emotion by the sight of “so glorious a prince thus eclipsed” and paid him “the homage of tears.” The consequences of capture were serious indeed for the King but all of his supporters who actively assisted him, if caught, would likely suffer a similar fate. One has to wonder if the Wyndhams were as overjoyed to have him as their guest a second time.

The local tailor warned them that local supporters of Cromwell had their suspicions about the guests and that a raid on the Manor House was planned. On another occasion Anne had seen a troop of Roundhead soldiers in Sherborne and entreated the king to go to his privy chamber, probably a priest’s hiding place. Colonel Wyndham let it be known that his guest was his relative Col. Bullen Reymes and he would show himself at church that Sunday.

Lord Wilmot had been despatched from Broadwindsor to Salisbury to rendezvous with other supporters and make plans to get the King away via the port of Shoreham. On his return to Trent Henry Wilmot was not best pleased to find that it was his turn to play a role; that of Col. Bullen Reymes, who he resembled in build and stature.

Now it was the turn of black comedy rather than farce too come to the King’s aid. The King in conversation with the diarist Samuel Pepys after the restoration recalled hearing the church bells ringing to celebrate his death. He told Pepys: “There was a rogue, a trooper come out of Cromwell’s army that was telling the people he had killed me, and that was my buff coat which he had on; upon which, most of the village being fanatics, they were ringing bells and making a bonfire of joy of it.” The King may have owed his life to that rogue trooper who having hood winked the local Protestants for his own aggrandisement had successfully diverted their attention from the guest at the Manor House.

On the 6th of October Charles was able to take his leave “of the old Lady Wyndham, the Colonel’s lady and family, not omitting the meanest of them that served him.” He set off with Juliana Coningsby riding pillion behind him, accompanied by Col. Robert Phelips of Montacute and Henry Peters. They made for Wincanton and Mere and on, without mishap, to Shoreham on the Sussex Coast where on the 15th of October he set sail on the brig ‘Surprise’ and into exile that was to last for nine years.

Some in the villagers of Trent must have guessed who was staying with the Wyndhams and for whatever reason hesitated to turn Charles in. The local Protestants and especially those of non conformist persuasion would have been livid when they realised he had been living amongst them and they had failed to capture the Papist King.

Trent – St. Andrews Church

Dec 22nd, 2009
by Dorset Ancestors.
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On an autumn afternoon the parish of Trent is a picture of tranquillity and belies the fact that it has been a refuge for a Catholic King of England and a retirement home for an Archbishop of Canterbury and judging by the bullet holes in the church weather vane it has also seen turbulent times as well.

These days the parish is on the Dorset side of the Dorset/Somerset divide being about equal distance from the Somerset town of Yeovil and Sherborne in Dorset. Trent is a quiet rural parish and besides farming and some fine houses is home to little more than a pub, the Rose and Crown, and the parish church which is dedicated to St. Andrew.

For a few days in September of 1651, unknown to most residents of the village, the Catholic King Charles II was hiding in the Manor House just one hundred yards from the church. Some of the more fanatical Protestant dissenters had their suspicions about who the mysterious guest of the Wyndham family was and were secretly planning to raid the house but then events took an ironic twist: a soldier arrived in the village claiming to have personally killed the King. The Protestants celebrated the news by ringing the church bells and making a bonfire, their plans to raid the Manor House quickly forgotten. Rather than killing the King the soldier probably saved his life!

Walking through the tidy and well kept-up churchyard you pass-by a tall memorial; the lower part has stood here since the 15th century but it was damaged during the Civil War and was only restored in the 20th century as a memorial to the dead of World War I.

Continue on past the south porch entrance to the church to the western edge of the churchyard and you will find, unusually in my experience of visiting churches, a small building housing a public lavatory and washroom kept to a high standard.

Entrance to the church is through the south porch where a notice hangs: “All Persons are requested to take off, Pattens and Cloggs before entering the Church.” Looking to the west end of the nave there is a door of 15th century origin which leads into the modern vestry. The window above the doorway is of the 15th century and of three lights as are the two windows in the north wall of the nave, though they have been much restored. The two windows in the south wall are modern. The roof of the nave is 19th century.

The pews are worth more than a passing mention. Obviously pre-Reformation and probably carved in the early 16th century, some show floral designs, others figures of people, beasts, birds and lettering. It is said these along with other images, crucifixes and candlesticks were removed and hidden from a troop of Parliamentary soldiers sent to Trent in 1643 on the orders of the Puritan Committee to demolish “all Monuments of Superstition and Idolatry.” This is when the upper part of the churchyard memorial mentioned earlier was destroyed.

Looking east towards the choir and chancel we see first the screen which is said to have come from Glastonbury Abbey. It dates from the 15th century. Behind the screen the choir and chancel and a large east window of four lights with similar windows but of only three lights in the north and south walls.

You are asked not to enter the north or Manor chapel but there are steps you can mount to see in. The chapel houses three effigies; the oldest probably being of Sir Roger Wyke who married a lady of Trent. Sir Roger died about 1380 and is represented as a knight in armour. The second is probably of John Franks. He was a sergeant-at-law and a local man who became Master of the Rolls and for a short time acted as Lord Chancellor to King Henry VI: he died about 1438. The 19th century effigy is of the Revd. William Turner, Rector of Trent from 1835 to 1875; it was his wife who founded the almshouses. Apparently the effigy was carved in 1853 and kept in the rectory coach house until his death in 1875. Mr Turner and his wife are both buried in the churchyard though a vault was prepared for them.

There is a small table surrounded by several chairs and the chapel is lit by three modern windows in the north wall and a restored early 14th century three light window in the east wall which depicts the military saints; St. George; St. Martin and St. Michael. The window remembers General Lord Rawlinson who died in 1925. As you peer into the Manor chapel you will notice the arch of 13th or early 14th century origin. The mirror writing on the arch reads: “All flesh is grass and the glory of it is as the floure of the feilde” (Isaiah Chapter 40, verse 6 and Psalm 103, verse 15.) The mirror writing was supposed to remind the ladies of the manor (this is where they sat) of their religious duties if they looked at a mirror during the service.

The south transept area is now largely a memorial to Lord Fisher of Lambeth, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1945 to 1961. His contributions to the religious and social life of the nation are many but he will be mostly remembered for the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in Westminster Abbey on the 22nd of June 1953. Earlier, in 1947, he had married the then Princess Elizabeth to Prince Phillip, Duke of Edinburgh. On his retirement he came to Trent where it is said he achieved his ambition to become the assistant parish priest. He attracted large congregations when he preached here and in the neighbouring Comptons. He died peacefully in the village on the 15th of September 1972 and his funeral was held in the church on the 20th of September. Afterwards his coffin was lowered into the vault under the 15th century churchyard memorial. The vault originally intended for the former rector William Turner.

It was the Archbishop’s suggestion that the south transept became the baptistry. The font is probably Victorian, though the elaborately carved cover is of the 15th century. On display here is one of the Archbishop’s copes.

The south transept is the ground floor of the tower and spire. St. Andrews, is one of three Dorset churches with a medieval spire – the others being Iwerne Minster and Winterbourne Steepleton. The second storey has in each of the East, South and West walls, a window of two lights.

The bell-chamber has, in each wall, a window similar to those just described but larger and houses six bells and five of them would have been rung to celebrate the supposed death of King Charles II in 1651. Nine years later Charles was restored to the throne and the Wyndham family forbade the Trent bell-ringers to ring a peal to celebrate this event; instead ringers from Compton were invited to ring the Trent bells. It has since been the tradition for the Compton bell-ringers to ring the Trent bells each year on Oak Apple Day, the 29th of May, the anniversary of the Restoration of Charles II.

St. Andrews is built from local rubble with ashlar dressings of Ham Hill stone. The roofs are covered with stone slates. The north chapel and the nave date from the 13th century, the south tower and porch were added in the 14th century and the chancel was rebuilt in the 15th century.