Melcombe Horsey (St. Andrew)

St. Andrew's Church, Melcombe Horsey, April 2014.

The church of St. Andrew, Melcombe Horsey can be found next to Bingham's Melcombe house. It is mostly fourteenth century and is built of stone and flint. The remains of a deserted medieval village lie to the south.

Sources:

• Hutchins, J. The history and antiquities of the County of Dorset, 3rd ed., edited by W. Shipp and J.W. Hodson, Westminster: J.B. Nichols, 1861-1873.
• Mee, A., ed., Dorset: Thomas Hardy's country. The King's England. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1939, pp. 153-155.
• Newman, J. and Pevsner, N., The buildings of England: Dorset. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1972, p. 278.
• Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), An inventory of historical monuments in the County of Dorset, Vol. 3, Central Dorset. London: HMSO, 1970, pt. 2, pp. 161-163. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=127862

Bells:

The church has two bells. They get a mention in the second stanza of John Betjeman's poem "Dorset":

Lord's Day bells from Bingham's Melcombe, Iwerne Minster, Shroton, Plush
Down the grass between the beeches, mellow in the evening hush.

John Betjeman's Collected poems, 8th ed. London: John Murray, 1980, pp. 40-41.

St. Andrew's Church, Melcombe Horsey, April 2014.

To Dorset Churches Index Page

Maintained by Michael Day, Last updated: 22 April 2014.