Parish Church of St Mary, Melbury Bubb. NGR ST59595 06549, Grade 1 listed. Lead author: SMA
Melbury Bubb is a village nestling beneath the well-wooded hill known as Bubb Down, seven miles south of Sherborne in north-west Dorset. Despite its small size, it has always been a parish and remains so today, and includes the tything of Woolcombe, which formerly had its own chapel, part of Redford, a few houses at Holywell and three at Heneford. Ref: Melbury Bubb Parish Records, Dorset (opcdorset.org)
1. Melbury Bubb Church
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2. The tower
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The Historic England Grade 1 listing states that the south tower, nave, and chancel was built in the late fifteenth century. The nave and chancel were rebuilt in 1854, probably by Withers of Sherborne. The listing describes: “Rubble-stone walls, with ashlar stone dressings. Slate roofs, with stone gable-copings.”
The main outside walls are built of the locally quarried Forest Marble (rubble-stone). The window mullions, tracery, buttresses, doorways are Ham Hill Stone from the quarries in Stoke-sub-Hamdon and Montacute in Somerset ( Ashlar stone dressings…with stone gable-copings).
The main outside walls are built of the locally quarried Forest Marble (rubble-stone). The window mullions, tracery, buttresses, doorways are Ham Hill Stone from the quarries in Stoke-sub-Hamdon and Montacute in Somerset ( Ashlar stone dressings…with stone gable-copings).
3. Another general view
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4. Detail of Ham Hill Stone mullions and tracery in windows
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5. Detail of Forest Marble walls. (Note the one flint, there are a handful of others on the outer walls used as fillers).
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6. South Entrance to Melbury Bubb Church. Lower Jurassic Blue Lias flagstones outside and worn Ham Hill Stone flagstones inside the porch.
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7. The font
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The Anglo-Saxon font that is described below in the parish records * is thought to be an upturned hollowed out cross. It has been whitewashed in the past so difficult to identify but may be stone from Normandy which is known to have been shipped to Dorset in the 11th Century .
* The Church is also famed for its font, which is thought to be the hollowed-out, upturned base of an Anglo-Saxon carved cross. The carvings depict a bestiary, with two small dragons and four large animals: a stag biting a serpent whose coils interlace the feet of the other animals; a tall horse with paws instead of hooves; a male lion biting a small dog with its tale between its legs and a large animal with a mane facing the horse. The presence of this intriguing artefact suggests that at the very least there was a standing cross on the Manor in Saxon times, if not a church. Services were conducted at these standing crosses, which often later became the sites of parochial churches. Ref: Melbury Bubb Parish Records, Dorset (opcdorset.org)
* The Church is also famed for its font, which is thought to be the hollowed-out, upturned base of an Anglo-Saxon carved cross. The carvings depict a bestiary, with two small dragons and four large animals: a stag biting a serpent whose coils interlace the feet of the other animals; a tall horse with paws instead of hooves; a male lion biting a small dog with its tale between its legs and a large animal with a mane facing the horse. The presence of this intriguing artefact suggests that at the very least there was a standing cross on the Manor in Saxon times, if not a church. Services were conducted at these standing crosses, which often later became the sites of parochial churches. Ref: Melbury Bubb Parish Records, Dorset (opcdorset.org)
8. The altarpiece
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9. The altarpiece
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10. The altarpiece shelf
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The Altar Piece is a Victorian Carving of the Nativity which is possibly of Normandy Caen Stone on a shelf of what is probably red Devonshire Marble (a polished limestone from Devon)
