Monument record MDO1648 - Woolcombe Maltravers, Melbury Bubb

Wolcomb-Matravers, a manor and hamlet 1 mile north (actually 1 mile south) of Melbury Bubb. There was a chapel of ease, now demolished, to Melbury Bubb here, and the Return of the Commissioners in 1650 noted that although only the church at Melbury was served, three quarters of the congregation lived at Wolcomb. <1>

An earthen dam bank at ST 603056 across a tributary of the Wriggle River. It is 300 ft long and 40 ft across at its base. A rectangular pond, 450 ft by 28 ft suggests a fish-pond. <2>

Woolcomb Maltravers listed as a deserted Medieval village. <3>

The site of the chapel could not be ascertained. There are no traces of desertion visible within the fields around Woolcombe, which are all under pasture. At ST 60240561 is a pasture-covered earthen pondbay of probable Medieval date. It is 66.0m long 10.0m wide at its lowest point and has a maximum height of 1.1m. Midway it is breached by a tributary of the Wriggle stream. Surveyed at 1:2500. <4>

<1> Shipp, W, and Hodson, J W (eds), 1870, The History and Antiquities of the County of Dorset. 3rd edition. Volume 4 (Monograph). SDO17392.

<2> Beresford, M, and Hurst, J G, 1971, Deserted Medieval Villages, 186 (Monograph). SWX1568.

<3> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, RCHM Ms File (unpublished revision of Dorset 1), 22-9.76 (Unpublished document). SDO17382.

<3.1> Royal Air Force, 22-JAN-1948, RAF/CPE/UK/2431 4367-8 (Aerial Photograph). SDO17393.

<4> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1994, Medieval Village Research Group Index, PRN 475 (Index). SDO16386.

<4> Phillips, A S, Various, Field Investigators Comments ASP, F1 ASP 27-OCT-77 (Unpublished document). SWX3817.

<5> National Record of the Historic Environment, 198824 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Nov 25 2021 2:28PM