STURMINSTER NEWTON. XXXIX. 



FOURTH SUMMER MEETING. 

 STURMINSTER NEWTON. 

 Tuesday, 16th September. 



About sixty members and their friends accompanied 

 Mr. N. M. Richardson, the President, and the Club was once 

 again indebted to Mr. E. Doran Webb for assistance during 

 the day. 



The place of assembly was Sturminster Railway Station, 

 whence the party drove to the village of Hammoon, which 

 derives the latter portion of its name from the Mohuns of 

 Dunster ; other branches of this family were settled at Fleet 

 and at Bothenhampton during the sixteenth century. 



On arriving at Hammoon the remnants of the mediaeval 

 village cross, consisting of the broached socket stone and a 

 section of the shaft, were first examined. Mr. W. Fisher 

 Crouch said that he had found the fragments in April last 

 in a ditch, and that they had since been placed on their 

 original site. Lord Port man had proposed to complete the 

 shaft, and so restore the cross. At the church the visitors 

 were received by the VICAR, the Rev. G. H. WYNNE. The 

 fabric of the building, although considerably altered from its 

 original condition, retains many points of interest. The 

 oldest surviving part is the thirteenth century chancel, 

 showing a slight inclination to the North, and there is a 

 three-light East window, which was regarded as a good 

 example of the same period. Canon MANSEL-PLEYDELL 

 said that before the restoration there was a Norman arch 

 between chancel and nave, but it had been removed 

 by an incumbent as being " very inconvenient." The 

 fifteenth century oak-ribbed roof of the nave was described 

 by Mr. Doran Webb as almost perfect. Other noteworthy 

 objects were the carved pulpit, bearing the date 1635, and an 

 Elizabethan holder for an hour glass. There is also the 



