DIRECTORY.] 755 BEAMINSTER:. [DORSET.] ASKERSWELL is a small villa~e and parish, in the the parish are Mrs. Bower, of Fontmell Parva, Miss Taunton, union, petty sessional divillion, and county court district of of Ashley, Winchester, and Henry Helyer, esq., of Hard­ Bridport, hundred of Eg-gerton, rural deanery of Bridport ington Mandeville, near Yeovil. The soil is chalk and sand; second portion, archdeaconry of Dorset, and diocese of SUbsoil, rock. The chief crops are grass, wheat and barley; Salisbury, 4 miles east from Bridport, situated on the Asker the area is 1,161 acres; rateahle value, .£1,106; the parish brook. The church of St. Michael is a stone edifice, and contained 229 inhaoitanh in 1871. consists of chancel, naye, north aisle, and embattled tower: Parish Clerk, Mark White. with the exception of the tower the whole was rebuilt in • 1858. The regi"ter dates from 1558. The living is a rectory, POST OFFICE.-Miss Annie Nobbs, receiver. Letters 1'e- yearly value £160, with residence, in the gift of Mrs. Bower, ceived through Bridport at10 a.m.; dispatched at 4.30 p.m. of Fontmell Parva, and held by the Rev. Eliward Walton Fox, Bridport is thft nearest money order & teiegraph office B.A.,of Wadham College, Oxtord. Here is asmal! National County Police Station, George Holloway, sergeant school. There is no manor. The principal landowners in National School, Miss Fanny Frize, mistress Fox Rev. Edwd. Walton, B.A. [rector] NobbsAnnie(Miss), dress maker & post White Mark, shopkeeper COMMERCIAL. office Williams Alfred, miller & baker Bishop William, farmer Sheppard John, farmer, Court place WiIliams John,Three Hor8e Shoes, &: Burt Fanny (Mrs.), farmer, Henibury Vine J oseph, dairyman blacksmith Dawe Ellis, farmer, South Eggardon Way George, farmer & miller Woodsford Joseph, boot & shoe maker

ATHELHAMPTON (or ADMISTON), is a parish on a school for the two parishes on the British system, attended the river Trent, or Piddle, in the hundred of Puddletown, by about 70 children. A little north of the church is Athel­ Dorchester union, petty sessional division, and county court hampton Hall, one of the most ancient seats in the county; district, diocese of Salisbury, archdeaconry of Dorset, and it is now occupied hy Mrs. Wood; the trustees of the late rural deanery of Whitchurch, about 6 miles north-east from G. J. Wood, esq. are the principal landowners. The area is Dorchester. The church of St. John, originally a chapel of 471 acres of land; gross estimated rental, £704; rateable ease to Burleston, is a plain stone building-, rebuilt in 1862 value, £027; the parish contained in 1871 a population of on a site presented by J. Wadham Floyer, esq. The register 94. dates from 1693. The living is a rectory, with that of Bur- leston annexed, joint yearly value £200, in the gift of the Letters are received from Dorchester through Puddletown" trustees of the late G. J. Wood, esq., and held by the Rev. which is the nearest money order office Henry Broadway 1tliles, who resides at Burleston. Here is British School, John Holmes, master Wood 1\11'8. Athelhampton hall I Homer George Wood, farmer I Lock John, dairyman I Talbot Brothers, farmers

BATCOMBE is a parish and small straggling village, 21 the Earl of Sandwich, and held by the Rev. Wm. Hamilton miles from Evershot railway station, abollt 12 north-west Nantes, M.A" of 1'rinity College, Cambridge, who resides from Dorchester, 4 north-west from Cerne Aobas, in the at Frome Vauchurch. 'fhe Earl of Sandwich is lord of the petty sessional subdivision of Sherborne, lmndred of Yet­ manor and the Jfrincipallandowner. The area is 1,109 acres,_ minster, Cerne union, Dorchester county court district, inclusive of 33 acres of glebe; gross estimated rental, .£1,306 ~ diocese of Salisbury, archdeaconry of Dorset, and rural rateable value, £1,193; the population in 1871 was 177. deanery of ~haftesbury. The church of St. Mary is a small Parish Clerk, John Jeans. Gothic structure, situated at the extreme end of the village, and was restored in 186<1. The register dates from the year -- 1813. The living i~ a rectory, an~xed to that of Frome Letters through Dorchester. Evershot is the nearest money Vauchureh, which is 5~ miles distant, joint annual value order office £411, in the gift of the Dowager Duchess of Cleveland and National School, Miss Georgiana Bishop, mistress COMMERCIAL. • Crocker John, farmer Hodges Waiter, farmer Bird Esau, farmer Downton Mary (Mrs.), farmer Jeans John,New inn, & basket maker Crocker George, farmer Hodges Alfred, farmer Saunders John, farmer

BEAMINSTER is a market and union town and parish, parishes; comprising Beaminster, Bettescombe, Broad in the petty sessional division and county court. district of Windsor, Burstock, Cheddington, Chelborough (East), Bridport, hundred of Beaminster Forum, diocese of Salis­ ChellJorough (West), Corscombe, Evershot, Halstock, bury, archdeaconry of Dorset, and rural deanery of Brid­ Hook, Mapperton, Marshwood, Melbury Osmond, Melbury port, 18 miles west-by-north from Dorchester, 6 north from Sampford, Mosterton, Netherbury, Perrott (South), Pilsdon, Rridport, 6 sonth from Crewkerne, and 133 by road from Poorstock, Poorton (North), ltampisham, Stoke Abbott, London: its nearest railway stations are Bridport and WraxaIl and Misterton, and Heaborough in Somerset. The Crewkerne. The town is of considerable antiquity: in Union House is one mile from the town, in the adjoining " Domesday Book" it is classed amongst lands belong-ing parish of Stoke Abbott: it is capable of holding 230 inmates. to the Bishopric of Sarum: it was g-iven in 1091 to Bishop The church of the Virg-in Mary is a large, handsome stone Osmund, to augment two of the prebends of his cathedral: building, standing on an eminence on the southern side of it is pleasantly situated in a fertile and beautiful valley, the town: it is principally of Perpendicular character, of through which runs the river Birt, which issues from several about the end of the 15th century: it consists of a chancel, sprin~s about one mile north fi·om the town, and flows into with nave and aisles, and has a handsome western front: the English Channel at Bridport Harbour. Thereare many the tower is nearly 100 feet high, and cOlltains a clock and a good residences, and its modern appearance may be attri­ peal of 8 bells, with chimes, which play every three houn;: buted to the destruction of the old town by fire, which took the tower is well proportioned, and enriched with figures place in the CiviI Wars of Charles I. 111 the parish register representing the Virgin Mary, Crucifixion, Resurrection,. it states that-" On the 14th of April, 1644, it was all con­ Ascension, and others; it was anciently ornamented with sumed by a terrible fire, except the East streete and part of pinnacles; those on the top are supposed to have been the Church streete, Prince Maurice and his army lyinge entirely destroyed, either at the Reformation or during the then in the towne:" it was rebuilt with the assistance of Civil Wars, whilst age has made sad havoc with the re­ Parliament, but again, with the Market-house, destroyed mainder: there are two handsome monuments of the Strode by the fire of June 28th, 1684; and again on the 31st of family, several mural tablets, some brasses, and fine stained March, 1781, at about 5 a.m., a fire broke out in the back windows: the church bail sittings for 1,000 persons. The premises of the King's Arms Inn, in the Market place, de­ parish re~ister dates from the year 1684. In 1849 Beamin­ stroying in a few hours the whole of the houses (two only ster was eeparated from the mother-church of Netherbury, excepted) on the west side of the street leading to the to which it was formerly subject, and made a distinct church, also the houses in Church street and Little street. parish for ecclesiastical purposes. The living- is a vicarage, An ancient cross, surrounded by rows of steps, and gross yearly value .£J60, in the gift of the Bishop of adorned with curious carved work, was, about the middle of Salisbury, and lleld by the Rev. Alfred Codd, M.A., of the last century, ruthlessly destroyed. The town is paved, St. John's Colleg:e, Cambridge, prebendary of Grimston, in and lighted with gas. Special and petty sessior.s are held Salisbury cathedral. The Holy Trinity chapel of ease, at at the Police 8tation at 11, every alternate month; and the north-western extremity of the town, is in the Early petty sessions are also held for magisterial and criminal English style, consecrated and opened in 1851 : it has 400 business on alternate Mondays, at 11. Beamin~ter is a sittings, all of wJJich are free and unappropriated. The • polling place for the county, and the bead of a union of 26 school, founded by Mrs. Tucker in 1684, for :W poor boys of