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A History of Motcombe Motcombe. Motcumbe, Motcumb 1244. Mottecumbe 1288. Modecumbe 1371. 'Valley where meetings are held' from the Old English Môt and cumb. It may well have been the meeting place of the old Medieval Hundred of Gillingham.
Motcombe is a scattered village and parish in the North of the County near Shaftesbury. Reached from the outside world by way of the aforementioned town or Semley.
It has a population of 1,500. Industries are agricultural and dairy. Cyder is made on a considerable scale and the district is celebrated for it's cheese. Market gardening and brick making find employment for many and there are also milk, cream and butter factories and poultry egg, bacon and other farm produce merchants who do a thriving trade with London buyers. The principle factory belongs to Messrs. C. & G. Prideaux who employ large numbers of hands.
The parish church of St. Marys is not in any way remarkable, rebuilt in 1846 of green sandstone in the Early English style and has a fine West tower containing six bells, two of which were given by Lady Theodore Guest. The registry dates from 1676, retained value of the living which is a vicarage and to which is attached the chappelry of Enmore Green, £236 with a residence. Motcombe also has chapels belonging to Welseyans and the Primitive Methodists and Enmore Green one of the latter as well as a Lifeboat mission.
Motcombe is chiefly interesting as the residence of the Rt. Hon Lord Stanbridge who is Lord of the Manor and a major landowner. His residence is Motcombe House in red brick Tudor style with stone dressings built be Messrs George and Peto the renowned London architects. The first Motcombe House upon which the present house was built was belonged to Marchioness of Westminster. Extract taken from Dorsetshire Illustrated - Chantry Press 1900
As Shaftesbury stands on a hill, it always had in the past to get its water supply carried up in carts. (There was more beer than water in Shaftesbury then). The water came from some springs at a place called Enmore Green in the neighbouring parish of Motcombe. From the 17th century onwards, there was a yearly ceremony by which the Mayor and Corporation of the town went down to the village, feasted and danced, and handed over a peculiar object called the Shaftesbury Bezant, all in recognition of Motcombe's right to the water supply. No proper history of the custom has yet been written, and the wells only appear in it as a prosaic water supply. It has been the custom in the tithing of Motcombe, time out of mind, on the Sunday next after Holy Rood Day, in May every year, for each parish within the borough of Shaston to come down that day to Elmore, or Enmore Green, at one o'clock in the afternoon, with their minstrels, and play with games, and from one to two o'clock-one whole hour to dance. The Mayor of Shaston was to see that the Queen's Bailiff had a penny loaf, a gallon of ale, and a calfs head, with a pair, of gloves; to see the order of the dance that day, and if the dance failed any day and the bailiff had not his due, the bailiff and his men stopped the water from the four wells at Elmore which supplied the borough. Extract taken from The General Gazetteer, Vol. III, 1823 W. Gracie, London
Some Notable Dates
1244 Dorset Assize Roll mentions Cowridge and Frog Lane.
1825 The Grosvenor family purchases Motcombe Estate.
1841 The census shows the first shopkeeper in Motcombe as William Blandford on the site of the present Post Office.
1846 St. Mary's Parish Church rebuilt.
1867 "Motcombe Past and Present" by Lady Theodore Grosvenor first published.
1870c Motcombe's first Post Office opened run by Thomas Parsons.
1925 Sale of the Motcombe Estate, Lord and Lady Stalbridge leave the village leaving Charles Prideaux as principle personage. He builds some homes for his workers in Shorts Green Lane.
1929 Charles Prideaux buys Motcombe House.
1933 Enmore Green, hitherto part of the Parish of Motcombe is incorporated into the Borough of Shaftesbury.
1933 Sale of remainder of the Motcombe Estate including the Post Office ("The Old Post House") and six farms.
1940 Charles Prideaux dies at "The Grange" aged 87.
1947 Port Regis school rent the mansion from The Prideaux family.
1950's Council develop Elm Close & Turks Close.
1967 Case and Sons buys Prideaux's Egg Packing Station and Pig factory.
1970's Grays Close built.
1980's Stainers Mead, Glebe Gardens and Hunters Mead developed.
1990's The Limes and Red House Close built.
2002 Case & Sons closes. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks to L. Clark. |
