ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



APPENDIX 



ecclesustiCjIL divisions of the county 



The conversion of Dorset, as has been already described, was finally accomplished by the 

 establishment in 705 of a bishop-stool at Sherborne, the see of which, described roughly as lying 

 ' west of Selwood,' was carved out of the old Wessex diocese on its partition at the death of Bishop 

 Haeddi. For more than three centuries — and in spite of many fluctuations — the head of the diocese 

 pertained to this county, but in 1075, following the decree of the Council of London which ordered the 

 removal of sees generally to more populous centres, it was transferred to Old Sarum and subsequently 

 to Salisbury to the diocese of which Dorset was attached down to the sixteenth century. In 1542 

 this county, then forming the archdeaconry of Dorset, was severed from Salisbury and annexed to 

 the new see erected at Bristol under which it remained until the year 1836, when by an order in 

 council it was again united to the Salisbury diocese. 



The thirteenth-century compilation of church property, known as the Taxation of Pope 

 Nicholas IV, gives the five rural deaneries into which the archdeaconry of Dorset was then divided, 

 namely, Shaftesbury, Pimperne, Whitchurch, Dorchester, and Bridport, and records the names of 

 171 churches besides Wimborne Minster — a deanery in itself — and several dependent chapelries. 

 The Survey of 1340, recording the value of the ninth of corn, wool, and lambs which had been 

 granted to Edward III, shows a marked increase in churches, which then numbered 218. The f^ahr 

 Ecc/esiasticus, which Henry VIII ordered to be taken in 1 535, shows a further increase to 234. 



At the present time no addition has been made to the number of deaneries, but each deanery 

 has been subdivided into two, three, or four portions. 



The names of the difiFerent parishes under their several deaneries and portions are as 

 follows : — 



Deanery of Bridport 



Jhhotshury Portion : Abbotsbury, Long Bredy with Little Bredy, Cattistock, Chilfrome, Compton 

 Abbas or West Compton, Langton Herring, Litton Cheney, Maiden Newton, Portisham, 

 Puncknowle, Swyre, Winterborne Abbas with Winterborne Steepleton. 



Bridport Portion : Allington, Askerswell, Bothenhampton, Bradpole with St. Andrew's Chapel, 

 Bridport, Burton Bradstock with Shipton Gorge, Chilcombe, Loders, Powerstock with West 

 Milton, North Poorton, Rampisham with Wraxall, Symondsbury with Eype and Broad Oak, 

 Toller Porcorum, Walditch, Wytherstone. 



Lyme Portion : Bettiscombe, Catherston Leweston, Chardstock St. Andrew, Chardstock All 

 Saints, Chideock, Hawkchurch, Lyme Regis, Monkton Wyld, Pilsdon, Thorncombe, Wam- 

 brook, Whitchurch Canonicorum with Marshwood and Stanton St. Gabriel, Wootton 

 Fitzpaine. 



Bearnimter Portion : Beaminster with Trinity Chapel, Broadwindsor with Blackdown and Drimpton 

 and Burstock, Cheddington, East Chelborough or Lewcombe with West Chelborough, Cors- 

 combe, Halstock, Hooke, Mapperton, Melplash, Netherbury with Solway Ash, South Perrott 

 with Mosterton, Stoke Abbott or Abbotstoke, Toller Whelme. 



Deanery of Dorchester 



Dorchester Portion : Bradford Peverell, Broadmayne with West Knighton, Charminster with 

 Stratton, Compton Valence, Dorchester St. Peter, Dorchester Holy Trinity with Frome 

 Whitfield, Dorchester All Saints, Fordington, West Fordington, Frampton, Frome Vauchurch, 

 Moreton, Stafford, Toller Fratrum with Wynford Eagle, Whitcombe, Winterborne Monkton, 

 Winterborne St. Martin, Winterborne Came, Woodsford. 



JVeymouth Portion : Bincombe with Broadway, Buckland Ripers, West Chickerell, Fleet, Melcombe 

 Regis with Christchurch and Radipole, Osmington, Owermoigne, Portland St. George with 

 Southwell St. Andrew, Portland St. John, Portland St. Peter, Preston, Upway, Warmwell 

 with Poxwell, Weymouth St. John, Weymouth Holy Trinity, Weymouth St. Paul, Wyke 

 Regis. 



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