WOOL, fciNDoN, AND LULWORTH MEETING. xli. 



de Newburgh, Countess of Sarum, was so great a benefactress to the abbey that 

 she was reckoned the chief foundress. It was dedicated to the Blessed Virgin 

 Mary. King John confirmed all liberties, wrecks, &c., and made various grants 

 of lands, &c. , including houses, streets, &c., in Dorchester. Eleanor, Queen of 

 Henry III., granted ' for the health of her soul and of the late King Henry 

 her husband ' to the Church of St. Mary at Bindon, in pure alms, all her lands 

 and tenements Vill : Welle. Co. Dorset. Kobert de Newburgh, by charter, for 

 the health of his soul and those of his ancestors and successors, granted to it in 

 free, pure, and perpetual alms, all his manor in Woolaveston, with all appur- 

 tenances, &c. Edward I. by his charter sets forth that his mother Queen Eleanor 

 had given to this convent a carucate of land at Welle in the hundred of Winf rith. 

 He remits at his mother's instance certain customs due to him from that laud 

 worth ISd. a year, and in the 9th year of his reign he confirmed the grant of 

 various other lands to the abbey. There are also records of gifts to the abbey of 

 lands, &c.. in nearly all the neighbouring villages. Part of the great gate, a few 

 paces from the west end of the church, was standing about 1750. The abbey was 

 demolished soon after the Dissolution. Coker says that out of the ruins of the 

 Monastery, Thomas, first Viscount Bindon, raised a fair house. It is said to have 

 been burnt down in the time of the Civil Wars about 1644. 



The abbey church appears to have been a spacious fabric. Five large semi- 

 circular arches supported by the six massive round pillars sunk deep in the earth, 

 and four windows above the arches, remained when Mr. Buck drew and engraved it 

 in 1733. The north wall of the body , 70 feet in length and 42 feet high, and part of 

 the wall of the north aisle, 21 feet high and above a yard thick, remained in 

 1770 ; all the rest was completely ruined. The north and south aisles were equal, 

 115 feet long by H feet broad. The body, including the choir, was 170 feet long 

 and 30 broad. The eastern part of it seems to have extended 24 paces beyond the 

 present ruins. Perhaps here was a chapel dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, as was 

 usual in most conventual churches. The tower was 58 by 38 feet square. There 

 were formerly six pillars on each side of the body. Some on the south were 

 blown down in the great storm of 1703. The precincts, including the ruins of the 

 church and site of the abbey, take up 10 acres. The cemetery seems to have been 

 on the north side of the church, where bones have been dug up. At the south- 

 east of the church, just below the footstep of the side altar, a slab was dis- 

 covered containing the figure of an abbot surrounded by the following inscription 

 in Lombardic capitals : 



" ABBAS I^IGA^DYS DE MAKERS HIG 

 AD PENAS TAI^DYS DEYS HYNG SALYANS 



In this church the Newburghs and Poynts of Sutton had their sepulture, and 

 probably other great families. John Newburgh, senr., by his will dated March 

 29th, 1484, ordered his body to be buried in a marble tomb, at his father's feet 

 in his chantry of the Holy Trinity Chapel built by him in this church. At the 

 Dissolution of the Monasteries, the Abbey was valued at 147 7s. 9fd. by Dugdale 



