The following history was provided by David Smith to whom I am extremely grateful. For a briefer introduction to the history of the community please see Andrew Williams� piece here.

Introduction
The Manor
The Hamlets
Parish Church
The Independent Churches
The Methodists
The School
Village Hall
Railway
Prehistory
Roman history
In Maiden Newton
The Mills
Evolution of the Village
 

Foreword and Acknowledgements

When I was asked by John Wright if I could put together a brief history of Maiden Newton to go on the website, John said �three or four pages would do it�. As any reader who goes to the end will discover, it took a good deal more than three or four, 22 to be precise.

I have to gratefully acknowledge two principal sources of information for what follows, for it has been largely from these two sources that I have extracted the information.

The first is a book entitled MAIDEN NEWTON in Dorset, written by the Rev. Edwin D. Ginever, Rector of Maiden Newton from 1958 to 1965. This book was published in 1961 or thereabouts. This book is now out of print but there is currently a plan to have it republished.

The second is the book entitled From The Ash Tree, Materials for a History of Maiden Newton and Frome Vauchurch, edited by Mr. H E Wells-Furby, published in 1977 and containing material gathered by his Mother over many years of living in the village. The last remaining copies of this book are available at the Posnett�s the newsagents in Maiden Newton.

There is far more information in the two books referred to above than I have compiled here, so this might be considered the first edition.

David Smith
March 2004

 

MAIDEN NEWTON IN THE FROME VALLEY

Like most place names, the name of the village has been spelt in a variety of ways through the centuries.

In Domesday Book (1086) it is Neweton, in the Hundred Roll (1275) it is Niweton, in the Feudal Aids Records (1303) it is Mayden Nyweton and then in Calendars, Charters and Rolls of various sorts it has many different spellings: Maydene Nyweton, Maydene Neweton, Mayndenenyweton (1311 to 1346). In 1405 we get Nyton Lyles, and in 1412 Neweton Lisles. This is an instance of a family name being attached, referring to the manor or part of the manor owned by this family. Newton obviously means new town, and probably refers to the new town which came into existence south of the old town at Quarr. Someone has suggested �they maden neweton�. The old town could have been one of the hamlets in the Parish � Cruxton, Notton or Throop, but this is not likely. It is possible that the old town with its Saxon church was destroyed by the Danes but we have no historical proof of this. The Danes invaded Dorset in 1002 and the next year they pulled down the walls of Dorchester, and Cerne Abbas was destroyed. Canute first landed in England on the Dorset coast at Frome Mouth in the Port of Wareham in 1015.

The etymology of mai-dun is obscure. Dune and dun is Anglo Saxon for �hill� and tun is town. Maiden possibly means belonging to a nunnery. There is a Nunnery mead at Throop. We may compare Maiden (without a) Castle, maiden assizes (without a criminal case) maiden voyage, maiden speech. The Anglo-Saxon is �maeden�, and a may or maid means, of course, new, fresh, pure, un-used, first. So it looks as if Maiden Newton means just what it says (repeated in fact) the new town. But all this is largely guess work.

THE MANOR.

According to John Hutchins, the Dorset historian, there were anciently four manors in Maiden Newton. One was held by Waleran Venator at the time of Domesday and by his successors, followed by the St. Martin, Lovel, Popham and Rogers families. The second manor was in early times held by the Cheverels then by the St. Lo and Botreaux families, a curate of Maiden Newton in 1756 was Thomas St. Lo.

The third was held by the Lisles and the fourth by Cerne Abbey before the dissolution of the monasteries. All these manors were later consolidated into one which was held by the Warham family in the time of Elizabeth the First. Later owners were the Wyndhams who bought it in 1647, then Napiers, Sturts, Brownes and Sheridans.

It is on record that the king granted a market, a fair and a wake to the manor at various times. The consolidated manor comprised Maiden Newton, Frome Vauchurch, Cruxton, Notton, Throop and Crockway, then Wynford Eagle, Toller Fratrum and Compton Abbas West. �Hundreds� were Eggardon and Tollerford. A hundred was originally supposed to contain a hundred families or households. Hundreds were held by Henry, Duke of Lancaster, Matilda, Duchess of Bavaria, and John of Gaunt. The value and area of a manor were defined by such terms as fees, rents, ploughs (area of land which a number of ploughs could turn in a day), mills (belonging to the lord which the people must use), hides (60 to 100 acres), warrens or breeding ground for game, rabbits etc., demesnes (house and land not let), messuages (house and land for tenants), tythings (tenths) and farms.

Family names became attached to the manor or parts of it sometimes, e.g. Lisle�s Manor, Channing�s Crookston, Henning�s Crookston, Henley�s Farm.

In the County Archives there are records of over 500 sales of property within this manor, covering nearly as many years, approximately 1400 to 1800 A.D. Broadly speaking the first great division was by a line between Maiden Newton and Wynford Eagle; Bartholomew de Insula or Lisle having the former, and the Cheverels the latter. Then we find the Abbot of Cerne taking a bit of both halves, Crewkerne School becoming owners of a bit in Maiden Newton, and by the middle of the nineteenth century there are so many part owners that no part can be called the original bit. One ancient tything boundary is said to pass through the White Horse Inn near the old village cross shaft.

We first hear of a Browne (ancestral family of George Browne whose Charity is still administered by the Rector of Maiden Newton) in a Deed dated September 12th, 1499, in the fifteenth year of the reign of Henry VII, when the Lord Stourton sold to Robert Browne and Jn. Browne, his son, three tenements and two cottages in Crockway in tenure of Rob. Pegman. Other interesting transactions include: Copy of a Lease in the Court Roll of Elizabeth I., January 13, 1585, from Thomas Warham of Maiden Newton to John Mowlham senior, and John Gorees, of Cottage and lands at Maiden Newton called Cetcum and Averlande.

A charter, dated 13th November, 1546, reign of Henry VIII, in which Richard Zouche of Stavordell, Som., Esquire, son, heir apparent of John Zouche, Knight, Lord of Zouche and Saynt Marwe, transfers to John Wadham of Compton Valance, �All my land and pasture, mills, woods, fisheries, roads, rents, etc., and royalties in the Manor of Maiden Newton, Crokeway, Throwpe and Notton. �Signed by the said Rychard Zouche and witnessed by Thomas Sydham and Jeronimus Dybbyn.

A mortgage, dated December 28th, 1553, reign of Edward VI, mentions Charles, Lord Stourton, and John Warham of Compton Valance, a yeoman who received lands and tenements in Maiden Newton. This Charles, Lord Stourton was hanged at Salisbury, March 16th, 1557 or 8, for the murder of a man named Hartgill and his son, and his estates were attainted.

A deed dated 10th January, 1623/4, reign of James I (and similarly 10th June, 1625, reign of Charles I), the lease of lands and tenements at Maiden Newton. The interest here is that the tenements were �lying between two wurkows�. There are other references to the two work-houses, and to a cottage poor-house, and they appear to have been in the neighbourhood of Bull Lane.

It is interesting to note that in 1649 there were in Maiden Newton: 80 messuages, 10 tofts, 1 water mill, 1 dovehouse, 80 gardens, 100 acres of land, 80 acres of meadow land, 90 acres of pasture. The tenants of the time were: Widow Ferret, Richard Jay, John Barger, Richard Oliver, Robert Gifford, Widow Collins, Christopher Fooks, Widow Feaver, Widow Bowring, William Fone, Humphrey Loveless, John Fisher, Henry Pitcher, Thos. Foyne, Robert Baggs, Richard Baker, John Eveton, Richard Lastly, John Meade, Henry Eveton, Matthew Carnell, Joanna Locke, John Moutham, William Moutham, Ralf Swaffield, John Pearce, Widow Flee, Nathaniel Thorne, Xtofer Burbidge (Burbage), George Blanchard and William Whittle.

On May 11th, 1655, John Wyndham sold to John Moutham, mason, a cottage and garden betwixt two water courses near the two bridges.

On 29th September, 1760, Sir Gerald Napier, Bart, of Moore Critchel, sold to John Whitty of Frampton, a ruinous building formerly a Meeting House to be pulled down near the mill stream.

On 18th December, 1778, the lease for twenty-one years of turnpike tolls was given to John Bragge, for �100, by John Smith, Bart, the Rev. John Plowman, the Rev. Robert Pearson (Rector and Curate of Maiden Newton) and six other gentlemen trustees.

The well-known Reed family are first mentioned in a Deed, dated 1793, where William Reed is described as a �cordwainer� (cobbler) who bought a tenement called �Watts� and land. There is a Thomas, an Andrew, a John and a Mary Reed named, all family names in later generations.

There are many references in these deeds of sale to water grist mills in Maiden Newton and Notton. On 5th October, 1588, reign of Elizabeth I, John Browne of Frampton bought a water mill �as a bargain� of Barnabe Samborne of Tymsborough, Som�t, esq., and Francis Samborne of Maiden Newton, gent.

 

THE HAMLETS OF MAIDEN NEWTON

 

Throop, Notton, Crockway and Cruxton are not mentioned in Domesday but they all belonged to the manor of Maiden Newton.

 Throop, or Thorpe from Saxon throp meaning outlying farm, lies half a mile south of Notton and consists now of a farm and two houses. In the reign of Elizabeth I a part of it was held by William Mountjoy, of the Rector of the Church at Maiden Newton by rent of a pound of pepper value 20/-. An early reference to Throop is to the �dairy house atte Thrope in 1333. Thereafter the spelling varies: Throupe 1348, Throp(e) 1350, Le Throp(e) 1370, La Thrope juxta Frompton 1385. In the earliest Ordnance Survey, 1811, it is written Thorpe. The famous Roman pavement was unearthed here in 1794.

 Notton, meaning homestead, from Saxon tun. In 1350 it is Natton, probably meaning cattle farm, in 1370 it is Netten. The Old English derivation is Neat. Today there is one farm, the old mill cottage with remains of the mill (one of two mills frequently mentioned in the parish of Maiden Newton), a thatched cottages nearby (formerly three cottages), and another cottage with converted farm buildings on the summit of Notton Hill.

 Crockway. In the Subsidy Rolls of 1333, 1350 and 1370 it is Krokwei, Crokweye, and sometimes Crokeway from the Saxon, meaning perhaps crooked way. It figures in the Feet of Fines, and the Calendar of Inquisitions, 1405, 1412, 1428. The Old English is �weg� meaning way or road. In the reign of Edward VI Church lands here belonged to Cerne Abbey. There is now a pig farm with its associated cottages and houses.

 Cruxton, Recorded in Domesday as Frome after the river. It was called Fromma Johannis Croc in the Pipe Rolls of Henry II 1177, Crocston 1195, Crokeston 1204, Croxton 1205, Crokeston 1227, Croukeston 1346, Crokkeston 1428. Besides the above Johannis Croc, who must have held the place in or just before 1177, we have mention of William Croc here in 1195 and 1205, and of his family in 1227 in the Pipe Rolls, etc, So no doubt the original meaning was Croc�s town. The personal name of Croc of Scandinavian origin was fairly common in medieval England and has been assumed to enter into several place names in Danelaw. We may compare the personal name Grim which is Scandinavian, combined in the name Grimstone (Grim�s town) two miles away. Croc is found in Wiltshire and Hampshire, in the Domesday Book. There is a list of the owners of Cruxton from 1205, when �WilliamCroc� (William of Cruxton) gave 30 marks to have seizen of the vill of Croxton which had been recovered by him in the court of the lord, the King, whilst he was Earl of Moriton, against William Turpin by an assize of �mort d�ancestor�, and thence the same William was afterwards disseized by the King�s precept; and the Sheriff of Dorset was commanded to take security for the payment of 30 marks at the Exchequer and to cause to have seizen�. Later we hear of John de Crokeston holding it in the reign of Edward I, and later still of its becoming divided into Lower and Higher Crookston; the former being in the ownership of John Henning in the reign of Charles I (hence Henning�s Crookston) and the latter in the ownership of Richard Channing in 1654 (hence Channing�s Crookston). It must have been a bigger place in the old days, as must all of these hamlets, for we find Henry III granted a market and a fair here.

 The Channings lived at Cruxton in 1743, but must have owned the place before that date. There was a John Channing in Dorchester in 1739 who is mentioned in a deed on leasehold in Maiden Newton. The sad story of Mary Channing (Mary Brookes of Dorchester) has been told by Sir Frederick Treves in his Highways and Byways of Dorset and also by F.T Harvey Darton in his The Marches of Wessex, and they do not agree in every detail. According to Treves, Mary Brookes of Dorchester was forced in 1705 to marry Richard Channing, a grocer of Dorchester. But according to Harvey Darton, Mary Brookes was forced by her parents to marry Thomas Channing a respectable young man of Maiden Newton. Whichever it was, the consequences were fatal for Mary�s heart was given to a nameless young gallant. After thirteen weeks of more or less riotous living with her lawful husband, she then poisoned him by giving him white mercury, first in rice-milk and then a glass of wine. She was tried, found guilty and condemned to death, but her execution was deferred to allow the birth of her child. On a spring morning in 1705 or 1706, Mary Channing, still only 19 was dragged to the arena of Maumbury Rings, clamouring forth her innocence all the way. From the centre of this arena the solitary girl faced a crowd of 10,000 people, was strangled by the public hangman and then burned.

 According to this gruesome account it happened about five o�clock after the under-sherrif had had tea.

 Charlotte Channing, who died at Cruxton some 80 years later, had a much happier life as well as a much longer one. �Charlotte Channing�s Room� was an inscription cut by a diamond in a window (now removed) together with the words, �Look before you leap, Think before you speak, Consider before you promise�, April 24, 1784. Charlotte wrote in a scrap book which later came into the possession of the Browne family of Frampton (later owners of Cruxton Manor-house):

 Adieu, farewell, my once loved home

 Alas, how soon the fleeting years have gone which here I�ve spent.

 But let me not reflect on past enjoyments, imbittered with regret;

 But rather hope some future years to come

 I may speed happily to Maiden Newton.

 We do not know whether Charlotte�s wish came true. Cruxton Manor farmhouse is a beautiful old building, originally built in the sixteenth century, once thatched, now modernized. A house of similar age next to it, the original manor-house, was demolished in the 1960s as unsafe and a bungalow built on the site. In recent years the bungalow has been replaced by a modern large house. There are now only six or seven dwellings in Cruxton.

 

THE PARISH CHURCH

 

The Parish Church is dedicated to Saint Mary the Mother of Our Lord and stands at the north end of the village. The walls are of local rubble and flint with ashlar (squared-stone) and dressings from Ham Hill and other stone; the roofs are covered with lead, tiles and stone slates. The lower part of the tower with parts of the nave belong to a mid-twelfth-century church with chancel, axial tower, nave and probably a south aisle. The chancel and the west tower-arch were rebuilt about 1400, and about the middle of the fifteenth century the south arcade (row of arches) and the south aisle were rebuilt and the south transept added. At the same time the west part of the north wall of the nave, the upper part of the west wall and the east wall of the chancel were rebuilt; the upper part of the tower was added or rebuilt, and the south tower-arch inserted. About 1500 the south porch was added or rebuilt with older stones, traces of which with designs are visible, and the wall of the aisle adjoining. There have been restorations in modern times including the addition of the vestry-organ chamber, in 1886.

Thus the architectural periods represented in this church are � (Saxon 600-1070), Norman (1070-1200), Early English-Gothic (1200-1300), Decorated (1300-1360), Perpendicular (1360-1550), which are usually thought of as medieval. 

The blocked Saxon Doorway in the north wall of the nave � said to be one of the oldest doorways in England. It has a Saxon keystone showing a seated monk or priest with the right hand raised. The wooden door outside with its iron hinges, one of which is broken, is the original door. The lower twelve to fifteen feet of the thick north wall of the nave as far as this Saxon doorway is Norman. About 1350, in the Decorated period, the nave was lengthened (the change in construction is clearly visible outside) and the roof was raised owing to the need for extra height both for the nave arcade on the south side and for the large windows in the north wall. The excellent corbel heads and grotesques inside the church are of this period. The outside cornice of grotesque heads is original Norman when the wall was raised. The west wall and doorway are of the Decorated period, the west window with its beautiful tracery altered and inserted flush with the outer wall, i.e., minus recess or hood moulding.

Transept and Aisle provide a good example of the Decorated period and are a fine addition to the church. The battlements and gargoyles are a notable feature, as are also the windows in the tracery of which are some fragments of old stained glass; the white roses and suns may be badges of the House of York. The piscina is in its original place, but the other fragments of carved stones have been let into the south wall of the transept; and the coffin lid with enriched cross and stepped Calvary, broken, of the late thirteenth or early fourteenth century fitted into the floor. The Holy Table, which is of date about 1700, was removed from the vestry and placed here when the chapel was restored in 1962-63. It was re-dedicated in the Name of the Holy Child Jesus, and the Book of Remembrance records the names of those who contributed furnishings and money in memory of relatives or friends whose names are also written in the book. The pews of pine wood were removed and sold, and at the same time other pews were re-positioned in the nave for choir purposes, and all darkened in colour. The Saxon keystone of an arch depicting a knight on horseback let into the wall over the south door appears to be a counterpart of the one fixed over the blocked Saxon doorway opposite. The font in the aisle is Early English (1220-1250) and was moved to its present position in 1962 from a spot opposite the door where the book table is now. The panelled ceiling of the aisle is modern, about 1850, though there are a few good corbels from the original decorated roof. The wood bosses of the modern ceiling consist of angels holding heraldic shields on which are depicted details connected with the betrayal and crucifixion of Our Lord. Beginning from the west end of the aisle they are � the robe with three dice above and bowl below; pillar, with scourges, birches, canes, etc.; head of Judas Iscariot, with thirty pieces of silver above it and below it a rope, lantern a sword and a cudgel. In the transept starting over the window, crown of thorns and three nails, IHS (Latin for �Jesus Saviour of Men�) on a cross with four more crosses in quarterings; five wounds of Christ on a cross, a heart pierced by four thorns, a hand in each of the upper quarterings bleeding into a cup on the end of the arms of the cross, a foot in each of the lower quarterings bleeding into a cup at the foot of the cross.

In the children�s corner is an altar table of 1641, an oak chest of 1660. Another chest in the Jesus Chapel is of 1700, and there is a poppyhead pew from about 1420 which used to be framed into a heavy oak curb which made them four or five inches higher. Rushes were spread on the floor in winter and the curb kept them in place. The waxwork model of the descent from the cross, in the glass case, was brought from Italy by Seaman William Pratt of Maiden Newton and given to the Church. The figures are dressed in textile materials against a background of rocks with foliage and small white flowers. Unfortunately the whole thing is decaying with wood-worm and may have to be removed soon. There are vaults beneath the aisle floor and the names of those buried in them are on grave stones laid flat outside the church wall, or on wall tablets.

Chancel and Vestry. The Norman apse or chancel was pulled down between 1220 and 1250 to make way for an Early English or Gothic chancel. Of this there now remains the south wall up to the corbel height, with the piscina and lower portion of the priest�s door; also the south-east buttress and the lower four feet of the east wall which can be seen from outside. One hundred years later the windows of the Decorated period replaced the Early English in the north and south walls. The east window is part of the restoration in 1850. The chancel was also re-roofed at the same time. The vestry was added to the chancel in 1886 when the decorated window was built into the east wall. The vestry serves the purpose of an organ chamber too. The organ used to be on the gallery at the west end of the church, which gallery was removed as unsafe (and un-used) in 1930. The organ is a Walker, built 1850-1860, possibly bought from another church. A cupboard behind the organ has an early eighteenth-century door with carved cherubs.

Of course, prior to 1886 the choir sang in the gallery. A tale has been handed down which may or not be true, that the choir of Rampisham Church came for a special occasion and took offence at something they thought the clerk gave out, and rose up in a body and left the gallery. The clerk gave out the hymn and read a line � �Return ye ransomed sinners home�. The visitors declared he said � �Return ye ramp�sham sinners whome�.

It is true, however, that in 1863 (according to a local newspaper) one of the churchwardens left the church in the midst of a service in a fit of disgust brought on by the number of candlesticks in front of the altar and other �Popish mummeries�.

The only stained glass windows in the church at present are in the sanctuary and all are memorials to members of the Hankey family. The Reverend Montague Hankey, M.A., Canon of Salisbury, was Rector of Maiden Newton for forty-four years, from 1869 to 1913, and is remembered affectionately by older parishioners as Father Hankey, not because he was a high churchman but a fatherly, kindly, generous man. The windows date from 1879 to 1886 and represent the Good Shepherd, the Annunciation, Virgin and Child, Mary and Elizabeth, St. Anne, and the Virgin Mary as a young girl, and St. Joseph with the Boy Jesus.

Most of the memorials in this church are to previous rectors and their families, and to the Channings of Cruxton (in the Jesus Chapel in the south transept). Charlotte Channing, who loved Cruxton Manor Farmhouse and Maiden Newton so much, is among them. Robert Pearson, who was rector in 1775, is commemorated with members of his family; and in the chancel one of the rectors, Mr. Wm. Cox, M.A., 1693, has a gravestone in the floor., and another on which is inscribed a pathetic verse in remembrance of his 13-year-old daughter:

 �Like as a bud nipt of a tree, so death hath parted you and me,

 Therefore dear friends I you befeech, be fatisfied for I am rich.�

There is a brass tablet on the wall of the chancel in memory of William Hugh Scott, M.A., second son of Hugh, Fourth Baron Polewarth, Prebendary of Salisbury Cathedral, thirty-one years rector of this parish. He built the parsonage, founded the school and restored the church in 1868. The tablet is in memory of his wife, too, Eleanor Sophia, daughter of Charles Baille-Hamilton, Archdeacon of Cleveland, and of Lady Charlotte Sophia, his wife, daughter of the 9th Earl of Home (1853). The tombs of this family are near the south porch. Our present Prime Minister was the 14th Earl of Home � Sir Alec Douglas-Home.

The oak reredos was put in as part of the memorial to the Hankey family by Miss Hankey, a sister of the rector. It shows Christ in glory in the middle panel accompanied by two angels in the other panels. The carved table was given by the Rev. S. Lane in 1840, then Rector of Frome Vauchurch. The brass almsdish, embossed with St. George and the dragon, probably came from Augsburg. All the chairs in the church are ancient, the tall-backed one with turned legs is dated 1700, and the coffin stools are seventeenth-century stools. The Royal Arms at the top of the arch in the nave is of George I, probably made by a local craftsman.

The memorial of outstanding interest in the church is that to the Reverend Doctor Whetcomb, above the piscina in the chancel, composed of freestone. John Whetcombe, D.D., was rector from 1610 to 1635 in the first years of the Stuarts. He is holding a skull and a book (The Bible?) and wearing a ruff. The monument was once painted, and bore a Latin inscription which is now almost un-readable. It tells of his goodness, justice, courtesy, and equity (as a magistrate), and of his learning. The Reverend Canon D.F.Slemeck, rector 1938 to 1958, secured a translation of the Latin before it faded too far, from his brother-in-law, Mr. Justice Vesey. The Latin was in capital letters.

RESEMINATIO . VENERABILIS . VIRI . IOHANNIS . WHETCOM . SACRAE . THEOLOGIAE . PROFESSORIS . HVIVS . ECCLESIAE . PER . XXV . ANNOS . RECTORIS . ERVDITIONE . PIETATE . IVSTITIA . MORVMQVE . SVAVITATE . INSIGNIS . QUIBUS . FIE . CVRATIS . MAGISTRATV . AEQVISSIME . FYNCTO . PVBLICIS . FELICITER . ACTIS . PRIVATIS . BENE . COMPOSITIS . SYMMO . BONORVM . LVCTV . NON . MINIMO .ECCLESIAE . ET . REPVBLICAE . DAMNO . OBDORMIENTIS . RESURRECTIONI . ET . HONORI . SACRVM . POSVIT . MOESTISSIMA . CONIVX . ANNA . CARISSIMA . THOMAE . HOLLANDI . FILIA.

Returned to Earth is John Whetcum, D.D., a man greatly revered, for 25 years Rector of this Church. He was famed for his learning, his goodness, his justice and his courtesy. By which qualities (religiously cultivated) as a Magistrate he wrought Equity, and blessed with good fortune in his public life, Ordered his own affairs successfully, he sleeps the sleep of Death to the grief of all good men, and to the great loss both of Church and State. His sorrowing wife Anna (beloved daughter of Thomas Holland) placed this memorial to record his worth and hope of resurrection.

On the north wall of the chancel there was a square compartment containing the Arms of the Strangways of Melbury Sampford, dated 1637. But this has now disappeared, perhaps under plaster.

The Doorways in the wall at the east end of the nave are those of the stairway leading to the rood loft, now blocked as there is no rood. They are of the Perpendicular period, about 1380, and the north wall was thickened outside to make way for these stairs. The door behind the pulpit leads to the tower and belfry. The fourteenth-century roof of the nave is part of the alteration resulting from the addition of the aisle, but the original tie-beams were replaced by deal beams in 1764-69, when the lead sheeting on the roof was renewed. In 1940 the whole roof was treated against death-watch beetle, and the lead sheeting re-cast. Some sheets on the north side have the names of churchwardens stamped on them. The transept roof was repaired in 1960 when extra support was given to the beams, and the copper sheeting laid.

The south Porch is all of the Decorated period. The fine oak door still carries the massive piece of timber from which the lock was fashioned; the hinges are Norman, presumably taken from another door. Outside, built into the west wall of the porch are two Norman arch stones, ornamented with chevron pattern, and another stone which may be a Saxon capital. The well-moulded outer arch, the show buttresses, the stone and slate roof, the stone seats, the oak door, the three niches above it for statues, all combine to present a compact and pleasing example of the sturdy craftsmanship of 600 years ago.

The Tower is a mixture of Norman, Transitional and Decorated, the window in the north wall probably built in during the seventeenth century, though dated about 1380. When the transept and aisle were added to the church during the century 1350-1450, the Norman arch leading to the nave was replaced by the present Decorated arch and the one of similar design was inserted for the transept. At the same time the south and west walls of the tower were rebuilt and increased in height for the bells. All this work involved the building up of the immense pillar at the meeting of the aisle, transept and crossing, under the belfry. The hagioscope was pierced through the thick wall opposite this thick pillar to allow worshippers in the aisle to see the altar and the celebrant. It is possible that the solid stone block against the thick pillar on which the war memorial book is placed is a stone nave altar. The chief feature of the upper stage of the tower is the beautiful design of the belfry lights with panels of pierced stone instead of the usual louvres, a typical feature of Dorset and Somerset churches. It may be noted that the south panel of the west light has been fixed upsidedown. On the south side there is a sun dial of 1630-60, a square slab with simple capping and iron pin whose shadow points to the hour.

The Bells. There are six of them, very sweet and mellow in tone. They are dated 1580, 1593, 1606, 1883, and two are undated, one of which is inscribed, �Sancte Garbeel ora pro nobis� � �Holy Gabriel pray for us�. The other of these two was recast in 1883, together with the two dated ones, 1580 and 1606. The whole peal was re-hung in 1924-25 on a steel frame by Messrs. Mears & Stainbank at a cost of �300. Maiden Newton or Frome Vauchurch boasts a visiting bell-founder, Roger Purdie, whose bell foundry was set up probably at Tollerford on the Crewkerne road. Purdie in 1633 restored the bells of Cerne Abbas, at Maiden Newton and not at Closworth says A.O. Gibbon in his �Notes and Speculations on Cerne Abbas�. The tenor bell at Maiden Newton was made by William Warr in 1593. In the belfry a painted board is inscribed as follows:

  • This is to certify that James Grove, the foreman of the Ringers of Maiden Newton has received on the first day of January, 1851, of Mr. Thomas Cox of Cruxton, the sum of two pounds, being the rent of a field called �ringers field�, the rent of the said field being the ringers� due to be paid to them by one of the churchwardens. Dated this 3rd of January 1851. The present ringers names: James Grove, John Corbin, John Lot and Frederick Scriven.

 A peal of Bob Minor (5040 changes) was rung on Saturday, April 2nd, 1932, in 2 hours 55 minutes. �The first peal on the bells� says the certificate which we hesitate to query, but it sounds unlikely. The bells were re-hung in 1924-25, so it may mean since that date.

The Churchyard and Cemetery. Close to the transept is the base and part of the shaft of a churchyard cross of the Decorated period. It is now preserved by the Commissioners of Works under the Ancient Monuments Act of 1931 by Order, dated July 6th, 1959. The churchyard contains the tombs (table and other) of well-known local people, like the Channings, the Hennings, the Strangways, and also of Rectors Scott and Hankey, and of the well-known Reverend Doctor Andrew Reed, Minister of Wycliffe Chapel in London, a descendent of the famous Reeds of Maiden Newton. A notable burial also was that of Hugh Crofts in 1725, whose age was reputed to be 107. Since 1887 when the Church Cemetery was bought, the churchyard has been little used. Negotiations for the purchase of land for a cemetery were entered into some years before, first for a piece of land north of the railway station, then for a bit of glebe land in Dorchester road. The Vestry Meeting empowered the Burial Board to borrow up to �500 for fencing, planting etc., one acre and providing a lych gate. Robert Wyatt and his sister, Miss Kate Wyatt left �500 for the improvement and upkeep of the cemetery. Half this money was spent in 1960 levelling graves � over 250 of them. The annual income from invested capital brings in �11 per annum � quite inadequate of course to do what should be done. More generous benefactors are needed, or the revival of a church rate for the upkeep of cemeteries like this. In 1851 the church rate in Maiden Newton was one penny in the pound. The rate today would have to be sixpence in the pound. The old fire-engine in 1851 used to be kept in the churchyard at St. Mary�s. This was a hand-worked cart still preserved in the new fire station erected in 1958 in Bull Lane.

The Registers of Maiden Newton Parish Church date from 1555. The ancient registers are in the keeping of the County Archivist in the County Hall, Dorchester, as are all the ancient registers of the Maiden Newton group of parishes, viz. Frome Vauchurch (1654). Compton Abbas West (1538), Toller Fratrum with Wynford Eagle (1640), together with Poor Books, Rate Books, Churchwardens and Parish Overseers Account Books and Banns books. Fragments of the Batcombe registers are also in this safe keeping, because Batcombe was joined to Frome Vauchurch from 1752 to 1925. The Maiden Newton and Frome Vauchurch registers were transcribed by two or three past rectors and all re-copied and edited by the Reverend Grosvenor Bartelot, M.A., F.S.A., then Vicar of Fordington St. George, Dorchester. These transcriptions are kept in the church chest at St. Mary�s Maiden Newton.

The Rectory of Maiden Newton is actually in Higher Frome Vauchurch at Tollerford,. The Rectory is obviously the residence of the Rector, as the Vicarage is of the Vicar, and the Manse of the Minister, sometimes called the Parsonage. The present Rectory was built in 1930 by Dr. Stevenson, and was bought by the Church Commissioners in 1958 when the house, now called Summerleaze opposite the garage in Dorchester road was sold. This house was called the Lynchets for a few years after it was sold, and then reverted to its original name of Summerleaze. When Maiden Newton House, next to the church, was sold in 1938, this house was then two cottages and was bought and converted into a rectory. The old rectory, now Maiden Newton House, was built or re-built by the Reverend the Hon. William Scott during his incumbency 1837-1869. It is a beautiful house of ecclesiastical architecture and considered much too large for modern times. This is not really so, it is a question of expense and staffing. This house is at least the second rector�s house to be built next to the church of St. Mary, previous ones being possibly a little nearer to the River Frome, which flows through the garden to the Mill (this earlier house is shown on the 1838 Tithe Map). Attached to the rectory or vicarage is often glebe land and there is still some left in Maiden Newton � much of it has been sold during the 1950s � the Rectory tennis courts in Bull Lane (now Glebe Close), the Parson�s Copse at Hog�s Cliff Farm, and fields in the Dorchester road, now Maiden Newton Filling Station.

 

THE INDEPENDENTS OF MAIDEN NEWTON

The story of the Congregational Churches, or Independent Chapels of Dorset has been told by two authors � W. Denham and J. Ogle, in a book published in 1889. From the chapter on Maiden Newton we take the following information. At the time of the King�s Indulgence, 1672, licences were issued for houses of worship in �Newton, Dorset� and one of them received a grant of �5 from the Congregational Fund Board on December 6th, 1703. In 1715 William Orchard was minister. In 1777 the house of worship had disappeared. Hutchings writes of it as situated �a little north of the town�.

The family of Dr. Andrew Reed, formerly the honoured minister of Wycliffe Congregational Chapel, London, and founder of several asylums for orphans and idiots, etc., was, for some considerable time, associated with Maiden Newton.

Thomas Denney is the next important person we hear of among the Congregationalists of Maiden Newton. Educated at Hoxton Academy, he was invited by the County Association to become itinerant preacher in Dorset. A meeting was held in Dorchester in July 1798 to welcome and solemnly set him apart for the work. He was appointed to labour in the vicinity of Maiden Newton. At the Association meeting held in Beaminster the September following, Thomas Denney gave an account of his work, of the good order manifest in various places, of opposition defeated, of providential openings for meetings and of hopeful impressions produced. More than 800 persons weekly attended his preachings in the various villages he visited, to many of whom the Gospel had hitherto been a strange thing! Mr. Denney took up his abode with a farmer at Down Frome (Frome Vauchurch) who allowed him to preach in his barn on the sabbath evening. Some young people were deeply impressed. A farmer at Cattistock offered him his barn for services, and another farmer became a decided dissenter with several of his family. A Mrs. Porter took out a licence for her house at Chilfrome, in which he held services. In some places he met with little encouragement, but for the most part was gladly received. In one of the villages when it was proposed to build a meeting house, a poor bricklayer came forward and said that though he could not give money he would cheerfully give labour to the value of �5.

 Thomas Denney seeing that Maiden Newton was populous and central in situation was anxious to provide a permanent place of worship, and this was secured by the gift of a barn by Mr. Henry Petty, woolstapler of Evershot, which was forthwith fitted up and opened for divine service in October 1798. The expense is said to have been borne chiefly by a lady, whose name does not transpire. Mr. Denney left in 1802, but returned in 1840 and continued his work for six more years after filling various pastorates elsewhere. He died at Poole in 1858.

 Henry Larter came to Maiden Newton in 1847 and in 1851 the new chapel was erected in Chapel Lane, on the additional plot of land given by Mrs. Henry Petty of Evershot. The new structure was put up in a workman-like manner, and was said to be the best piece of building in the town! The Weymouth Itinerant Society, and Dr. Andrew Reed each gave �10. There were other donors, of course, and the local trustees appointed were: Geo. Whitty, dairyman (Cruxton), Walter Whittle, plumber, J. Chalker, watchmaker, H. Harris, farmer (Chilfrome), and J. Devenish, shoemaker. In 1866 Miss Scott of Sherborne, sister of Mrs. H. Petty, gave a plot of ground adjoining the chapel premises for the erection of a schoolroom when required. As far as we know it was never required for the purpose. The Congregational Chapel fell into disuse during the 1914-18 War, and was finally sold for secular purposes in the 1930�s.  The chapel is currently the workshop of Messrs. Webb and Ford, local builders.

THE METHODISTS IN MAIDEN NEWTON. METHODISM in Maiden Newton has a history of more than a century. In a small book called Methodism in Dorset it is recorded that in 1870 �a work has been recently commenced through the instrumentality of Messes Bush and Gideon Wright, jun�r. But this is a reference to plans to erect the present chapel on the Crewkerne road. We first hear of the Methodists meeting in Frome Vauchurch in 1838, as witness a document at the Weslyan Church, South Street, Dorchester, which reads:

  • To the Right Reverend, the Lord Bishop of Salisbury and his Registrar, I, John Mason of Dorchester, Wesleyan Minister, do hereby certify that a house in the occupation of John Scriven in the parish of Frome Vauchurch, in the County of Dorset is intended forthwith to be used as a place of Religious Worship by an Assembly or Congregation of Protestants; and I do hereby require you to register and record the same according to the provisions of the Act passed in the 52nd year of the reign of his Majesty, King George the Third, intituled, An Act to repeal certain Acts and amend other Acts relating to Religious Worship and Assemblies and persons teaching and preaching therein, I hereby request a Certificate thereof, as witness my hand this��.1838. John Mason. I, Septimus Smith, deputy registrar of the Court of the late Diocese of Bristol do hereby certify that a Certificate, of which this is a true copy, was this day delivered to me to be registered and recorded pursuant to the Act of Parliament therein mentioned, Dated this 23rd day of November, 1838.
  • In 1851 a similar Certificate was issued by the Venerable, the Archdeacon of Dorset, to petitioner John Stevens, Wesleyan Minister, for �a certain dwelling house now in the occupation of Jacob Groves in Frome Vauchurch�.

    •  In 1871 a further certificate was issued by the Registrar General of Births, Marriages and Deaths in England, to one John Hugill, Minister of Dorchester �under and by virtue of an Act of the 18th and 19th years of her Majesty Queen Victoria, Chapter 81, entituled � An Act to amend the law concerning certifying and registering of Places of Religious Worship in England, that a certain building known by the name of Wesleyan Methodist Chapel will be used as a Place of Worship by a Congregation or Assembly or Persons calling themselves Wesleyan Methodists�.

     This building was erected in 1871 at a cost of �345 by I. Guy and Son, on a site purchased from Maiden Newton Mill. Furnishings cost another �35. The debt on it was not cleared until 1924, when the trustees (of whom there were nine out of an original eighteen) sold Waterloo Cottages at the back of the Chapel to Mr. Dubbin, a working miller in the village. It is interesting to discover from the Circuit Plan of Preachments that in 1880 there were 31 members of this Chapel and they gave about 10/- each p.a. for its upkeep, etc. It was opened on Good Friday, April 7th, 1871 by the Rev. A.M. Auley of London.

     One of the houses in Frome Vauchurch already referred to and licensed for worship, rumour has it, was at Tollerford, Higher Frome near the old foundry.

     The number of Methodists at any time varied little, being about 30. There were probably fewer Methodists in Maiden Newton in 1960 than at any previous time. As far as one can see from the Preaching Plans, Maiden Newton had only one local preacher ever living in the village, and none of the Circuit ministers has ever lived here, but always in Dorchester, the centre of the Circuit.

     There was once a splendid small organ in the chapel which had the following inscription:

  • Presented by the Citizens of Christchurch, New Zealand to the Discovery, for the Antarctic Expedition, August 1901 to September 1904.
  • This organ is on loan from Mrs. Richard Eyre of Bull Lane, Maiden Newton. It was constantly used throughout the voyage, and afterwards was given, together with the piano and pianola to Mrs. Eyre by her father, the Late Vice-Admiral Sir Charles Royds, K.B.E., C.M.B., F.R.G.S. Lieut. Royds (as he then was) was Captain Scott�s 1st Lieut. and the ship�s musician. Christchurch was the last stopping place of Discovery before entering Antarctica in 1901, and it was not until April 1st, 1904, that the expedition returned to New Zealand. This organ was first used on Saturday, December 21st, 1901, at a short Farewell Service conducted on the mess deck by the Bishop of Christchurch.

    •  

MAIDEN NEWTON SCHOOL

�There is a Charity School in Maiden Newton where are several poor children put to school by the Minifter and other private Perfons� 1720. This statement is found in Cox�s History of Dorset. There were also Dames Schools, two in Dorchester Road, in the houses now called Rainbow Villa (Cheverells) and Turkey Cottage. There was also one at Tollerford, presumably for Frome Vauchurch children.

The present school has over a century of history behind it. The first headmaster was Mr. John Brown, a descendant of the well-known George Brown Esq., of Frampton, whose charity is still administered by the Rector of Maiden Newton. Mr. John Brown was appointed first headmaster of Maiden Newton School when only 18 years of age. This was in 1852. He then had more pupils than the school has now, or has ever had probably, 200 of them. He remained headmaster for 47 years, until 1899. He was an astonishingly vigorous and capable young man, and remained vigorous and capable to the end. For 51 years he was organist at Maiden Newton, and district choirmaster. He was a Sunday School teacher (as if he did not have enough of children on weekdays). He taught sometimes from 5.30 a.m. and also had evening classes! About 1860 Mr. Brown provided the school with a printing press, and produced a monthly Maiden Newton Herald (two copies exist in the church scrapbook). He started a Fife and Drum Band, which later became the Village Brass Band. O happy days! He also looked after 40 hives of bees as well as 200 boys and girls. As a boy, John Brown walked the 31/2 miles from Grimstone to Maiden Newton and back daily, which was thought nothing of in those days but is regarded as a hardship now. But there were hardships as the School Log Book tells from those early days:

All boys required to wear blue pinafores while learning to knit.

Girls are forbidden to wear curl-papers.

Non-attendance was accounted for by reasons such as these:

No money, no food, no boots, children in bed.

The family had a drop too much on Fair Day and did not get up in time.

Agone to plough in place of sick brother � aged 6!

Kept at home to help mother to breede � braid nets.

Younger child sent instead of usual child in order to get full benefit of fee paid � 2d.

Sent home from school for wearing too much crinoline � aged 4.

Until 1960, there have been six Headmasters of Maiden Newton School since Mr. Brown: W.H.M. Dodd, R. Twemlett, C. Baloos, J. Hounsel, F. Greenland and J.H. Dowell. The member of the teaching staff with the longest record of service was the late Mrs. E. Scriven. She was Miss Ellen Gale and when she married in 1924 she was presented with a silver tea service. She was on the staff from 1898 to 1948 and a scholar in the school before that, from 1883 to 1898 when she became a teacher. There is a memorial altar book in the Jesus Chapel in the Parish Church.

The School was built in 1841, a great deal of money being raised by a sale and fete. It was enlarged in 1865 and again in 1870, and the public clock over the front entrance was put there in 1887 to commemorate Queen Victoria�s Jubilee.

 It is interesting that our Dorset poet, the Reverend William Barnes, Vicar of Winterbourne Came, whose memorial statue is outside the parish church of St. Peter, Dorchester, wrote a poem in the Dorset dialect in support of Maiden Newton School when it was in building. It was printed on glossy paper and sold at the fete. We have copies of it in the church. There are four verses and the poet called it, �The Fancy Fair at Maiden Newton�:

The Frome, wi�ever water�ed brink, do run where shelven hills do zink;

Wi� houses all acluster�ed roun, the parish tow�rs below the down.

An� now vor oonce, at least ov all the pleaces where the stream do vall,

There�s oone that zoome today mid vind do come the uppermwost to mind

An� that�s out where the Fancy Fair is on at Maiden Newton.

Am vo�k a-smarten�d up, wull hop out here, as ev�ry train do stop

Vrom up the line, a longish ride, an� down along the river zide.

An� zome do beat, wi heels an� tooes the leanes an� paeths in nimble shoes

An� bring, bezides, a biggish knot ov all their children that can trot

A-vlocken where the Fancy Fair is here at Maiden Newton.

If you should goo, today, avore a Chilfrome house or Downfrome door

Or Frampton�s park zide row, or look droo quiet Wraxall�s pretty nook,

Or elbow-streeted Catt�stock, down by Castlehill�s cwold winded crown,

An� zee if volk be all at hwome, you�d vind �em out - they be a-come

Out hither where the Fancy Fair is on at Maiden Newton.

 

Come, young men, come, an� here you�ll vind a gift to please a maiden�s mind;

Come, husbands, here be gifts to please your wives, an� meake �em smile for days

Come, so�s, an but at Fancy Fair a keepsake vor your friends elsewhere;

You can�t but stop an� spend a cwein wi� leadies that ha� goods so vine

An� all to meake, vor children�s seake, the School at Maiden Newton.

 

 In 1949 the Education Authority took over financial responsibility for the school; and it became a �controlled� school.  This means that it is still basically a Church school, the Rector of the parish being chairman of the school managers, and two church or �foundation� managers are appointed. In 1963 the school became a Junior school when all 11-plus children were transferred to the new Beaminster school. In the late 1970s, a new Primary School was erected in Chilfrome Lane in Frome Vauchurch. When completed, the old school building was sold and is now a private house.

MAIDEN NEWTON VILLAGE HALL

 

Efforts to provide a village hall for Maiden Newton began as far back as 1936. In July that year a fete and carnival was held in the Rectory grounds (Maiden Newton House) opened by the Lady Wynford to raise funds. Before this time the small upper story of the building behind the houses called Berrocco near the village cross was furnished and used as a village hall and named Cromwell Hall. Later it was used by the school for overflow classes. The building now a builder�s workshop and office near to the White Horse Inn was the village hall. A sum of �50 which remained of the money raised for a new village hall when the project had to be given up owing to the second world war, was given to the Parish Church as most of it had been raised in the rectory garden. After the war a fresh start was made, and there was much hard work put in for several years by successive members of committees to raise the money needed. In April 1958 the new Hall, between the railway station and the church cemetery, was opened, and at the Opening Ceremony, the Reverend Canon D.F. Slemeck, who had just retired as Rector of Maiden Newton after twenty years, was presented with a cheque for �100 by parishioners and friends. The repayment of the loan of �800 from the National Council of Social Service and the outstanding debt to the builder was made within about six years. The Hall is now used a great deal by a number of the village organisations and has been used for B.B.C. broadcasts � Country Dance Festival and �Any Questions�.

 Hanging framed in the hall is a Loyal Address from the people of Maiden Newton to her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II when she stayed the night in the royal train at Maiden Newton Station on one of her visits to the Duchy of Cornwall. It reads:

 Your Majesty,

  • On behalf of the people of Maiden Newton we wish to express our loyal greetings and devotion on the occasion of Your Majesty spending a night within the boundaries of our parish, an event in our history which will always be remembered with pride.
  • We are Your Majesty�s most humble and obedient servants;
  • Albert F. Wakely, Chairman
  • Hedley W. Haward, Vice-Chairman
  • John F.C. Paulley
  • William J. Dunn (ex-Postillion to H.M. Queen Victoria)
  • Bertram Russell
  • Albert R. Edmonds
  • Otho M. Bullivant.
  • July 2nd, 1952. Members of the Maiden Newton Parish Council. Norman C. Drewer Trump.

    • THE RAILWAY TO MAIDEN NEWTON

    The branch line from Maiden Newton to Bridport was opened on November 11th, 1857, after two and a half years work on its construction at an estimated cost of �65,000. J. Spencer Gilks tells the story in an article in the Railway Magazine for November 1957 on the occasion of the centenary. In 1845 Parliament sanctioned the construction of a line from Southampton to Dorchester, and of the Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth railway, from Thingley Junction (near Chippenham) to Salisbury and Weymouth under the auspices of the London and South Western and the Great Western, and thus made provision for the first rail communication to the county of Dorset. The two big railway companies mentioned were in opposition over the construction of lines to Exeter via Dorchester and Yeovil, and from Exeter to Maiden Newton via Sidmouth, Honiton and Bridport, linking up with Southampton. Bridport people were afraid that they would be side-tracked whatever plans were made by the big companies; so in 1854, Henry J. Wylie, the engineer, submitted a report on branch lines in Scotland and elsewhere in support of a project to provide a branch line from Maiden Newton to Bridport. In the following year the directors of the new company met in Bridport at the house of Mr. E. Flight, who became secretary and rented his premises in East Street for �400 p.a. In 1857 an agreement was made with the Great Western Railway to run the Bridport line at cost price for at least two years from its opening, and to provide the necessary staff, locomotives, carriages and movable plant. The branch line from Maiden Newton to Bridport and West Bay was eventually purchased entirely by the Great Western Company, in fact, on July 1st, 1901. In 1857 too, the Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth line was extended from Yeovil to Weymouth and Maiden Newton became a junction.

     The Bridport Branch, which is now long gone, used to start from a covered bay on the upside of the main line at Maiden Newton station and is connected with the down main line only. There is no run-round loop, and so the engine pushed the train up a gravity siding which rises behind the water tower and retreats to the branch approach, while the coaches roll back onto the platform. The line passes through a steep cutting and turns through a right angle to a south-westerly direction. As a result of a decision made in 1855 the bridges are wide enough only to take one track, so that at Toller and Powerstock the stations only had one platform being rightly called �Halts�. Toller at one time handled a considerable traffic in watercress for Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield, Bolton, as well as boxes for the Kentish fruit markets, railway sleepers and wood for collieries, from the saw mills.

     The time-table issued for the opening of the Maiden Newton-Bridport line shows that there were to be five return trips (weekdays only), two trains calling at Powerstock (Poorstock until 1860) in each direction, and one (the 8.15 a.m. from Bridport and the 8 a.m. from Maiden Newton) carrying first, second and third class accommodation. In February 1858 however, the service was limited to four return workings, though calling at Powerstock on all journeys, connections being advertised to London, Bristol, Dorchester, Weymouth and (though no times were given) Salisbury. Bradshaw�s Railway Guide for 1844 (July to December) shows that four trains then operated from Maiden Newton over the next extension to West Bay, while three others ran to the old terminus at Bridport. Six return workings to West Bay were advertised in the summer of 1910, and a similar number were still running when the service was withdrawn, a total of nine trains remaining to serve the original branch thereafter.

     In recent years, both the station and the signal box have been designated as �Listed Buildings�.

    PREHISTORIC MAIDEN NEWTON

     

    There is a barrow on Hogscliffe Hill and Notton Down of the Bronze Age. There is an earthwork on the same hill enclosing an area of twenty six acres, excavations 1958-60 established that it was an early Iron Age stock enclosure with village. On the same hill, too, an Early Iron Age settlement and on the Ridges Iron Age brooches have been found. This was in 1934. Then there are lynchets above the railway embankment at Maiden Newton the old method of strip cultivation as used by the Saxons and Early English. Traces of a British settlement have been found at Throop where the Roman pavement was unearthed.

     

    ROMAN MAIDEN NEWTON

     

    A ROMAN pavement was discovered at Throop in 1794 by Mr. Channing�s men who were digging for flints for building purposes about a foot below the surface. It is situated on the right hand bank of the River Frome, two miles south-east of St. Mary�s, Maiden Newton, in a field known as Nunnery Meadow (which might imply the existence of a religious house in the neighbourhood at one time) on the boundary of Frampton. A full account of this pavement has been given by several people and a picture of it is to be found in the Survey and Inventory of the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments. It is also fully described in the Dorset Year Book for 1947. H.M. George III, who was staying at Weymouth (Melcombe Regis) in 1796, visited the site to inspect the pavement accompanied by the Queen and the three Princesses, Augusta, Elizabeth and Mary. The King also arranged for a party of soldiers to assist in clearing the site. A drawing of the pavement was made by James Engleheart and exhibited to the Society of Antiquaries of London in 1795. The pavement is a mosaic and several details concur to suggest that the date of it is about A.D. 350, i.e., after the time of Constantine the Great, the first Christian emperor baptized at York in A.D. 312. These details are the prominence of Neptune, god of the sea, the similarities of the mosaic work and the decline in the quality of its execution compared with other works of art in this period, e.g. in the vaulted ceiling of the mausoleum of Constantine. The most notable detail, however is the addition of the Greek monogram XP meaning Christ. It is asserted by some people that the sign XP was used before Rome became Christian and so does not necessarily indicate the influence of Christian religion. The same sign has been found in a pavement discovered at Hinton St. Mary, Dorset, in 1963. Jane Toynbee in her pamphlet on this Christian pavement at Hinton St. Mary, refutes the suggestion that XP is not a specifically Christian monogram. It always refers to Christ after it was adopted by the Christians in the third century.

     The Latin inscriptions on the Throop Pavement are imperfect but the general meaning is fairly clear: verses in praise of Neptune god of the sea. Other imaginary gods and goddesses are figured in this pavement � Venus, Adonis, Cupid, Paris, Mars, Apollo, Jupiter and Mercury. There are creatures of various kinds � dolphins, nymphs, nereids, cormorants, horses, lions, dogs, does, stags and male and female figures in the nude. It is decorated with leaves, medallions, lobster claws and guilloche work (plaited rope design).  There are other designs with technical architectural terms. Such terms with the Latin inscription are of interest only to scholars. The pavement has been re-covered to preserve it. It was the floor of the central room of a villa or maybe of a temple. Its size � 20 by 30 feet, with the foundations of the surrounding wall. Coins and pottery have been found near it.

     In Wynford Eagle another Roman pavement was found which was the floor of a villa. It also has guilloche borders, foliage and dolphins, and is tessellated. Many coins have been found here and in Maiden Newton (of Nerva, Trajan and Hadrian) together with tile fragments, clay lamp and terra cotta bowl. The latter was found in Cow Bottom, Maiden Newton, where was evidently another villa. Coins found here are many of Constantine, Carausius and Maximus Magna.

     A Roman urn of grey-coloured ware was found in a field called Court Close, on the north side of the church at Maiden Newton in 1857. It contained bones supposed tot be human. This was reported and exhibited in 1858 by Mr. J. Irvine at a meeting of the Archaeological Institute. The proceedings of this meeting are reported in the Archaeological Journal, volume 15, 1858.

     

    IN MAIDEN NEWTON

    The first thing which attracts the attention of anyone passing through the village is the remains of the old Market Cross which stands at the junction of Dorchester Road and Church Road. It consists of a square base and the lower part of a rough-hewn square stem, the whole thing standing about 5 feet high. The shaft has beaded angles and on the west face are the much-weathered figures standing on a corbelled projection. It dates probably from the 15th century.

     Around this village centre are the shops, and notably the White Horse Hotel, or Inn. It is an old coaching inn, first mentioned in a deed on 16/17 January, 1698. In 1743 it belonged to John Gollop of Dorchester, and in 1754 Thomas Gollop of Burton Bradstock and Swyre sold it to George Sheppard. On 13th March, 1764, a memo endorsed that Geo. Sheppard in his Last Will and Testament, dated 9th September, 1760, bequeathed the White Horse Inn to his son, John Sheppard, which proved to be invalid for want of proper expression; but that the eldest son and heir, Geo. Sheppard, being anxious to carry out the intention of his late father, conveyed the White Horse Inn to his said brother, John Sheppard. This seventeenth-century hostelry has two stories, and had dormer windows, was thatched, had stone mullions with dripstone, and arched gateway with room over leading to the stable yard. Rebuilt in the early 20th century, it is, of course, less attractive as a building. The Royal Dorset Coach from Weymouth to Yeovil and Bristol would probably stop at this old coaching inn in the 1830�s. The White Horse is mentioned in Thomas Hardy�s novel Tess of the D�Urbervilles, and also in the Interlopers at the Knap, one of the Wessex Tales. Maiden Newton is �Chalknewton� in the Wessex novels, and is mentioned again in the book Under the Greenwood Tree. In Chalknewton Tess breakfasted at an inn where several young men were troublesomely complimentary to her good looks. To escape any further unwelcome attention of this sort on leaving the village after breakfast, Tess despoiled her face and dress, cutting off her eyebrows and covering her hair to disguise herself. The night before she had been accosted by a man she had seen before, and hidden in a plantation for the night. Tess was on her way from Port Bredy (Bridport) to Flintcomb Ash Farm (above Piddletrenthide). The next man she met on her way out of Chalknewton rudely said to another, �What a mommet of a maid�. In this gloomy tale of human misery, Tess stands alone in purity and goodness. Apart from Tess and possibly her sister Liza-Lu there is not an admirable or attractive character in the book. In The Interlopers, one of the Wessex Tales, we read �on a fine summer day the boy came. He was accompanied halfway by Sally and his mother to the White Horse Inn, the fine old Elizabethan Inn at Chalknewton�. A footnote says in reference to the White Horse Inn � �It was pulled down and its site occupied by a modern one in red brick, 1912�

     Once upon a time there were as many as six inns in Maiden Newton (the 1851 Census records nine, although their were reputed to have been fifteen). The only remaining pub is the �Chalk and Cheese� which until recently was known as �The Brewery�. The Castle Inn, which never had anything to do with a castle in spite of its name and appearance and the White Horse Inn were closed during the 1990s and the Railway Inn which closed during the 1960s. Then there were inns at �Kingsley� a house with lovely windows which are scheduled for preservation, once called �The King�s Arms, and farther east, on the Dorchester road, the �Acorn�, now Acorn House.

     There are about a dozen buildings in the village of seventeenth century origin, including the barn behind the church, and of the eighteenth century, the Mill (now a carpet factory) and a few cottages. Cottages of the nineteenth century are commoner, and the twentieth century is well represented by council houses and modern bungalows.

     

    THE MILLS OF MAIDEN NEWTON

     

    Their history, of course, begins in Domesday Book. Duo instini reddentes, 20s at Neweton, indicating the existence of two mills, valued at 20s. (Eyton). We know that there were two mills in 1799, and we hear of one at Cruxton in 1299, but this is probably the same as Notton where there was one grinding corn in 1903. So it seems that our two mills (if not three) were water mills and are very old.

     On October 5th, 1588, in the 30th year of the reign of Elizabeth the First there was a sale of a water mill, by Barnabe Samborne of Tymsborough, Som�t. esq and Francis Samborne of Maiden Newton, gent. to John Browne of Frampton esq. The following names are recorded in connection with this �bargain sale� � Ric Goughe, Barnard Lison and Eleanor his dau., Cecill wife of Barnabe Samborne, Joan wife of Francis Samborne, Thos Warham, W-Gosley, Angel-ngton, Ric Faizer, Angel Smith, Mich(ael) Hardye, Wm Baker, Wm Bartlett, Wm Littell, Jn Bishope, Ric Good.

     On 24th July, 1651, we find Hugh Wyndham, Lord of the Manor, leasing to Christian Feaver a water grist mill at Maiden Newton.

     An inventory of goods of John Gray, miller of Maiden Newton, is in the County Archives, together with about a dozen deeds of sale or lease of mills and attached property in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. John Gray�s inventory is very interesting, is dated 1711, and reads as follows:

     An inventory of all the, and singular all the goods and Cattols (cattle, chattels) of, and debts of John Gray, late of Maidon (-ton) in the County of Dorsett, miller, deceased evalude and aproved by John Homber, the tenth day of December one thousand seven hundred and eleven in the tenth yeare of our Soveron Lady Anne, in form as follows, viz-

     

         � s. d.

     Imprimus one horse   2 0 0

     Item for clothes and money in pocket   10 0

     Item for one bed and bed-clothes   15 0

     Item for croke (crook) and kittle (kettle)  3 0

     Item for putter (pewter) and killet (stewpot)  2 6

     Item for a tabell, bord and forme, chaires  4 4

     Item for a covoll (coat?) and trendols*  3 0

     Item for a pocke (peck?) in stie**   10 0

     Item for bages and coborn clothes***  4 2

     Item for iron doges, fire pans and tongues  1 6

     Item for chest, box, and cubar (cupboard)  2 9

     Item for a bedstead    1 0

     The totale in full ys   4 17 03

     

     foure pounds seventeen shillings and threepence.

     

    • *a trendle was a bundle of partly cleaned wool, a dialect word. If covoll is a coat, then trendols may be wool.
    • **sty?
    • ***clothes-cupboard?
    • In 1734 Sir William Napier of Moore Critchel, Bart, leased to William Chipp of Maiden Newton, miller, for �100 two water grist mills with one farm of two acres for 99 years on lives at rent of 20s. In 1744 William Chipp assigned the two mills to Robert Coombes, mill-wright. In 1788 there was a lease and re-lease of these two mills: Francis John Browne of Frampton, esq. To George Lilly of Martock in the county of Somerset, tobacconist for �180 the sale of two mills. By 1800 the value of the two mills had gone up considerably for in June that year George Lilly and his wife, Sarah, sell them to Thomas Hopkins of Stoke Abbot, miller, and John Hopkins the younger as trustee for the sum of �1,250. In 1825 they are worth �3,100 and in 1828 a moiety of the mills went to Samuel Hutchings and to George Bullock for �7,500. In living memory, the Swatridges were millers here.

    The first World War 1914-18, brought the mills to the close of their long history as corn mills. The picturesque mill in the center of the Village has been used in recent years for making church carpeting, has been used for rope making, and currently (2004) houses a business which designs and manufactures screen print machinery. The mill stands as possibly the most attractive building in Maiden Newton close by the confluence of the two streams � the Frome and the Hook, and the two bridges.

     

    THE EVOLUTION OF THE VILLAGE

     

    That there has been a community and a human presence in area now occupied by the village of Maiden Newton is probably not in dispute. The site itself, virtually at the head of the Frome Valley is one which students of economic history would recognize as a prime site for habitation. The Romans were here, or hereabouts, for certain and the presence of the sites mentioned above under prehistoric Maiden Newton provides evidence of early settlement.

    There is no known factual evidence, but it is possible that an early settlement stood alongside the present Cattistock Road on higher ground which possibly provided an easier defensive position.

    Of the pre Norman times we know very little. The evidence of a Saxon door in the present church has perhaps been used to surmise the presence of an earlier church, but where? From the Ash Tree states �Maiden Newton had been an English village for up to five hundred years before we have a list of the better off tax payers in 1327.

    Domesday Book (1086) provides probably the earliest accessible record of Maiden Newton and it is true that, unlike many other great manors or holdings in the country, Maiden Newton has not experienced a long continuous period of ownership under one family. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the Brownes and Sheridans of Frampton Estate held much of Maiden Newton but it is reported that a vast quantity of estate records were burnt at the time of the Sheridan Estate sale in 1931.

    In the 13th century King John made four visits to Maiden, in 1204, 1207, 1208 and 1213. One could assume that for the English King to visit, there existed a property of some considerable size. Aslo in the 13th century, the break up of the manor began with the death of Walter Waleron in 1202, the state passing via his three daughters in a fragmented manner.

    In 1221 Letters Patent granted a market at Maiden Newton and, although this market was subsequently contested by borough jurors at Dorchester, little could be done as Maiden Newton was more than five miles distant from that town.

    In the 14th century, King Edward I spent a night here in 1303, and the Black Death (1348-49) would have wreaked havoc. More records also begin to survive from this time. Lay subsidy values were fixed and nation wide taxation records still exist, including Dorset�s contributions in 1327 and 1332. The names of village jurors begin to appear, in 1341 for instance.

    The 15th century was a period when considerable alterations were made to St Mary�s Church, the most impressive being the construction of the nave roof. At the end of this century we begin to find documents of a type which increase in numbers during the next three centuries. These are known as leases for lives. A deed of 1489 shows Thomas Coombs renting a cottage for three lives, himself, his wife and his son John. At Crockway in 1499 Robert Browne and John his son lease three tenements and two cottages for thirty two shillings a year. The Browne family were later to have a major impact in Maiden Newton.

    By the time we move into the 16th century, there are now many more records surviving that chart ownership of land and property in Maiden Newton. There is no point in repeating them here, most of them are available in the County Record Office in Dorchester and many of them are referred to in From the Ash Tree.

    Regarding the physical appearance of Maiden Newton, the first map of any worthwhile detail is the Tithe Map of 1837/38. Comparing this map and the schedule which accompanies it, and noting the dates on houses in the center of the village, it is clear that Maiden Newton has been substantially changed from the mid 19th century. Some properties identified on the Tithe Map still survive and some of these have existed since the 17th century.

    The cottages at the start of Cattistock Road and some of those at the Quarr probably, some of the properties between Bull Lane and Frome Lane which are recorded as being sold in 1643 by Henry Robert Henley to one John Buckler. Indeed, in respect my own house, 39 Dorchester Road, I have been able to trace the ownership as far back as 1640. 

    The original White Horse and the Kings Arms were probably known in the 17th century and the Brewery where the Chalk and Cheese now stands was probably quite ancient.

    To quote From the Ash Tree: �Until the coming of the railway Maiden Newton remained compact. Coming from Dorchester in 1830 the first building on the right was the workhouse dating from 1772. Next was a thatched bakery burned down in 1918: Hill View stands here now. [This previous statement may well have been true in 1830, but by the time of the Tithe Map, there was an unoccupied property before the workhouse and a house owned by Lot Curtis, a blacksmith, between the workhouse and the bakery]. At the Frome lane corner, several businesses lay in wait for those from over the river � another bakery, two inns, The Royal Oak and the Acorn and a shop. The coaching inn, The King�s Arms, was a couple of doors up on the east side of Dorchester Road

    There were a number of cottages in what is now the Cornstores development in Dorchester Road. Three cottages which stood where the Pump House in Dorchester Road were demolished in the 1950s. The three cottages at Waterloo which no longer exist.

    A study of the First Edition Ordnance Survey Map of 1887 reveals the center of the village much as it looks today, with the exception that the present hardware shop and adjoining antique shop extended to the road edge and were attached to the Chalk and Cheese, this being the Brewery. The section of Dorchester Road from the bridge at the boundary to the west, to the junction of Dorchester Road and Church Road is recognisable as it is today, with the exception of the disappearance of three cottages at Waterloo, the development of the White Horse site and the disappearance of a shop adjacent to the newsagents. The area of what is now the Cornstores contained a number of cottages and a photograph of this area exists. Chalk Newton House and Bank House are both identified on the map as Banks. The village Police Station is at the eastern end of Dorchester Road.

    Since 1837, the Rectory has moved to its present position, the railway has arrived and with it the Railway Inn, The school has appeared, what are now numbers 41 to 49 Dorchester Road have replaced a larger house called Martins which was in the ownership of Elizabeth Whittle, what is now 35 Dorchester Road has been built in a gap between 33 and 37, Royal George Terrace has appeared in Bull Lane and the area around the Dorchester Road and Church Road junction has been largely re-built.

    It is obvious that the coming of the railway had a significant effect on the appearance of the village. The need for housing for employees of the railway and the opportunities offered to produce material for the railway meant great change.

    Comparison between the 1887 and 1901 Ordnance Survey maps reveals little change of any significance.

    It would appear that the major changes in the village in the first sixty years of the 20th century concern the arrival of the Dairy Factory, with the employment opportunities that this offered, the disappearance of some of the drinking houses, the demolition of a number of cottages in Dorchester Road and Cattistock Road and the disappearance of a number of small businesses.

    The 1960s to this day have seen significant changes to the appearance of the village. The building of Hill View and Frome view (actually in the 1950s), the closure of the Railway, White Horse and Castle inns, the redevelopment of the White Horse site, the development of Stanstead Road, upper Cattistock Road, the Cornstores, Canons Row and the arrival of the new school.

    What appears in the section above is but a brief (and incomplete) statement of the evolution of Maiden Newton and much more needs to done to identify both the property growth and the people of Maiden Newton over the years. Maybe one day!