Monument record MDO44687 - Church House, Stoke Abbott

A well called Berie Well was situated within a plot of land given by the Abbot of Sherborne in 1520. There is now a modern well on or in the vicinity of the site of the earlier well.

A building called the Church-house, inhabited by the poor of the parish, once stood close to the churchyard at Stoke Abbott. About 1520 the Abbot of Sherborne gave a piece of land that had formerly been the court-place of the manor and lay between the churchyard and the Church-house, for the erection of a new house for the benefit of the parish.

After the Dissolution, farmers of the manor tried to dispossess the parishioners of this house, but in 16 Eliz I it was declared that the parishioners should enjoy the Church house without molestation, permitting the farmers to use it as a court house however, upon reasonable warning.

The premises were later purchased by New College, Oxford, the patrons of the living, and a school-house was built upon the site in 1859. <1>

The school, which bears the date 1858, is now disused. No trace of a former building could be detected in the present structure. <3>

<1> Shipp, W, and Hodson, J W (eds), 1863, The History and Antiquities of the County of Dorset. 3rd edition. Volume 2, 149 (Monograph). SWX1269.

<2> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey 25-inch map, 1903 (Map). SDO10373.

(ST 45360061) School on Site of (NAT) Church (NR)

<3> Rigg, J, Field Investigators Comments JR, F1 JR 12-MAY-55 (Unpublished document). SWX1255.

<4> National Record of the Historic Environment, 193040 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Aug 23 2024 1:25PM