Shillingstone

The Parish Church at Shillingstone is north of the village, where it stands on a hill overlooking the Stour valley. It is thought a wooden church stood on this site during the reign of Edward the Confessor, when the manor here was held by Harold Earl Godwin who became King Harold II, the last Saxon king of England. The manor was granted to the Norman Schelin family by William the Conqueror;  they were recorded as the Lords of the Manor in the Domesday Book and it was during the family’s tenure of the manor that a stone church was built.

The Church of The Holy Rood reveals its Norman ancestry in parts of the walls and some of the windows that have survived since the 12th century. The building then consisted of a small rectangular nave and a narrower chancel.

The walls of the building are of flint rubble, banded flint and rubble and ashlar; the roof tiles are modern. Its nave is in the Perpendicular style but the original Norman building had narrow rounded windows and some of these were brought to light during restoration works in 1858 and 1888. During these works the two galleries (one above the other), the founder’s tomb, an ambry and an ancient priest’s door were cleared away and the north aisle and north chapel were added.

The chancel arch is of the 14th century and the embattled west tower was built late in the 15th century and houses five bells – one dated 1622 and another of that date recast in 1892 as well as one of 1634 and two of 1734. The south porch was added during the 16th century. Further works in 1902/3 included the rebuilding of parts of the chancel and that included a new roof with a blue ground inset with stars, new choir stalls and an oak screen surmounted by a large wooden cross.  The 17th century pulpit was a gift to the church from a London merchant in recognition and thanks for the shelter from the Plague provided to him by the village.

In the churchyard is the base of an old cross, probably a preaching cross from the early 15th century. Another is on a small green in the village and has an ancient base but the slender weathered pillar is deceptive; that was added in 1903. There is a third cross in the village: a War Memorial.

In the valley separating Hambledon Hill from the eastern escarpment of the Dorset Central Downs is the village of Shillingstone, situated on the Sturminster to Blandford road. Domesday Book records it in the Hundred of Hunesburg, later it transferred to the Hundred of Cranborne.
 
At the end of the Saxon period the Manor belonged to Harold as Count of Dorset.  Fighting as King Harold II in 1066 he died in battle at Senlac, defeated by William the Bastard of Normandy who is remembered today as William the Conqueror. William granted the manor to one of his supporters, a man named Schelin or Eschellings in whose family it remained for several generations before passing through marriage to the Turbervilles.

In 1303 Sir Brian Turberville granted to Walter de Dyngel, for life, a large acreage of land with some buildings. The arrangement was subject to his celebrating Mass before the altar of the Blessed Mary in Ocford Parish Church, or, if prevented from doing so by infirmity, paying to the poor of the parish ten shillings at the Feast of St. Michael and five shillings at the Annunciation. The Mass was to be said for “the health of his soul, and of Isabel, his wife, Joan formerly his wife, Robert Turberville his father, Sibila his mother, and Viviana and others of his ancestors.” In 1405 Richard Turberville confirmed to John Corston, rector a moiety of the church, the land, woods and meadows, pastures etc, formerly held by William Fithing as rector.

The manor passed from the Turbevilles to the Haseldenes, an Essex family and in 1565 Francis Haseldene sold the manor to Thomas Brooksby. Forty years later in 1603 Bartholomew Brooksby was involved in a conspiracy to overthrow James I and put Arbella Stuart on the Throne. The plot failed and Brooksby saw his lands confiscated; he was then outlawed. For a while before 1592 Arbella Stuart had been considered a candidate to succeed  Queen Elizabeth I but the influential Cecil family and others decided James would be a better choice.

Sir Edward Coke, a lawyer, purchased the manor in 1604 and his descendants owned it until 1759, when it was acquired by Julines Beckford of Steepleton Iwerne, who had interests in Jamaica. It descended to Lord Rivers and was later acquired by Viscount Portman.

During the reign of Edward I (1272-1307) a Fair at Shillingstone was granted to Sir Brian de Turbeville “on the Vigil, the Feast and the morrow of St. Barnabas” that is the 10th, 11th and 12th of June. The festivities traditionally started on the 9th of June when sprigs of oak leaves covered with gold tinsel and garlands of flowers were distributed and a band went round the village, playing at various points along the way.

In later times the remains of the old village cross became the focal point and here a may-pole was set up; there would be fair-booths with toys and sweets for the children, shooting galleries and coconut shies for the younger men and their young lady friends.  A cacophony of noise would hang over the place; the tooting of tin trumpets, the shrill of penny whistles, the sound of guns and the shouting of peddlers touting their cheap and usually inferior goods.

In the afternoon the villagers, their number swelled by visitors from neighbouring Child Okeford and Okeford Fitzpaine and even some Blandford residents too would dance on the rectory lawn. From the rectory the rector would lead a procession to the may-pole. On the way garlands were distributed, banners raised and drums banged. At the may-pole the villagers joined hands and formed a circle and cheered and danced around the may-pole. Some villagers would repair to the Rectory Barn where there was music – fiddle and flute – to dance to, others would go to the Ox Inn for further revelry until daybreak.
 
Christmas was another time for festivities. The mummers toured the village acting their plays, clothed in close-fitting red and white with a high mitre-like head-dress. Standing stiffly in a row they ‘slew’ each other with white wands and there was also some play with a ‘bull,’ which was a bull’s head that turned right and left with projecting horns and glass eyes. The identity and body of the manipulator who was supposed to be blind was hidden beneath a long skirt. The Bull was led from house to house and room to room leaving a trail of frightened maidens.