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.

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