COMPTON DANDO MEMORIAL INSCRIPTIONS 2020 Compton Dando – Memorial Inscriptions Author: P J Bendall Date: 1-Jun-2020 Status: Issue 1 Issue 1 ii Compton Dando – Memorial Inscriptions Contents Introduction ..................................................................................................... 1 Layout ............................................................................................................ 5 Churchyard ....................................................................................................... 6 Internal Memorials ........................................................................................... 159 Plaques .................................................................................................. 160 Windows ................................................................................................ 163 Index ........................................................................................................... 167 Issue 1 iii Compton Dando – Memorial Inscriptions Issue 1 iv Compton Dando – Memorial Inscriptions Introduction The dates on the church’s walls suggest that the accordance with the opinion of Mr. Collins, the southern porch was added in 1735 along with the medical witness, who stated that an opiate might chancel being extended and the northern aisle possibly have caused these symptoms, but could added in 1905. The building in Grade II* listed by not be discovered on a post-mortem examination, as the quantity to be administered to so young a Historic England and this refers to “Anglican parish child could not be detected. He regretted to say church. C14, altered C15 and subsequently; chancel that the practice of administering opiates to restored 1735 and 1905, porch restored 1793, north children was very much resorted to in the aisle rebuilt 1820 and vestry added in 1840. Consists neighbourhood. of west tower, nave and south porch, north aisle, chancel and vestry.” From The Western Flying Post (Yeovil) of Tue 3 Aug 1858 p8 in an account of the excursions of the The eastern wall has, on the outside, a stone carved Archæological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. with ‘1735’ and ‘1905 AD’. The porch has a stone Compton Dando was the next stage at which the carved with the year ‘1793’. On the tower, one party stopped. Outside the church and built into stone has a carving of a Tudor rose. The tower also one of the corner buttresses, the Rev. Mr. Scarth pointed out the remains of a Roman altar, said to The church of St Mary, Compton Dando has a carving of a ‘daisy wheel’; such carvings are have been dug out of the Wansdyke, with figures believed to have been placed in houses and churches imperfectly discernible of Apollo striking the The parish is now part of the United Benefice of to avert evil. There is also a daisy wheel made up of lyre, and Hercules with apparently a lion’s skin. Publow with Pensford, Compton Dando and inscribed overlapping circles on the outside wall of Mr. Scarth stated that it was thought very Chelwood. the church in the eastern side. No scratch dial has probable that an inscription might be found on been found, any such would probably have the back portion of this interesting curiosity, and From the Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales disappeared when the porch was added as they tend so, with the consent of the vicar and 1870-2: to be found by the southern door. There is however, churchwardens it was taken out and examined, COMPTON-DANDO, a parish in Keynsham district, the remains of a sundial (without its gnomon), west but it was discovered that the back portion had been cut away, as well as the top, at the time of Somerset; on Wans dyke and an affluent of the river of the porch. insertion into the buttress. Then followed an Avon, 2 miles E by N of Pensford, and 3 SSW of extended drive to Stanton Drew. From The Bristol Mercury of Sat 30 Apr 1853 p8: Saltford r. station. It includes Tucking-Mills hamlet INQUESTS HELD BEFORE MR. BRUGES FRY, and part of Woolard; and its post town is Pensford From The Bath Chronicle of Sat 26 Jun 1915 p2: CORONER.―At Compton Dando on the body of under Bristol. Acres, 1, 974. Real property, £3, 081. On Wednesday afternoon a new lych-gate at the Martha Harvey, illegitimate child of Elizabeth Pop., 347. Houses, 77. The property is all in one entrance to the churchyard of Compton Dando Harvey, aged 5 days. From the fact of the Church was dedicated by Prebendary H. Vaughan, estate. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Bath grandmother having privately applied to the Rural Dean of Chew and Portishead. The cost and Wells. Value, £180.* Patron, the Bishop of Bath sexton to bury the child, which was not baptized, of the lych-gate was defrayed by the feoffees of and Wells. The church has a square tower, and is or a medical man called in until it was dying, and Compton Dando Church Estate. The good; and there are a Wesleyan chapel, and the doctor was passing the door, an inquest was structure, executed in pitch-pine and roofed with charities £75. deemed necessary by the parish officers. It dun-colour Broseley tiles, has each gable resulted in a verdict of “Died of Convulsions,” in Issue 1 1 Compton Dando – Memorial Inscriptions surmounted by a Latin cross, and bears on the The war memorial is not in the graveyard but on depicting Hercules and Jupiter and another with the frontal beam the word “Resurgam.” . the corner of Bathford Hill and Church View. figure of Bacchus). The Charity which provided the funds for both the lych-gate and the restoration is a very ancient (A ‘Columbo cross’ is more commonly known as a Historic England has an entry 1115375 for one, being one of the very few similar Celtic cross or sometimes as an Ionic cross after the ‘unidentified monument in the churchyard 15 yards foundations which escaped attention and isle of Iona, rather than anything Greek.) confiscation at the Reformation. The primary to east of St Mary's church . Chest tomb. Mid-late object of the founder was to provide a fund for C18. Limestone ashlar. Illegible inscribed panels; maintaining the fabric and the services of the From the Bath Weekly Chronicle and Herald of Sat enriched pilasters; moulded frieze, base and church of Compton Dando, and secondly, relief of 10 Dec 1938 p34: cornice.’ From the location and description, this is the poor of the village. Like many another, the About 1917, the Rev. Eldred Morgan then Vicar of memorial 66. Compton Dando, brought two pennant stones Charity fell on evil days and suffered maladministration after the Reformation, but from the churchyard into the church. They were some 50 years ago was rescued and restored. from the top and bottom of an ancient coffin lid .” or ledger stone, five inches thick. There is an inscription down the middle lengthwise, not round the edge as on the similar one at Bristol Cathedral. The incised stone at Compton appears to read: ROG; NORMANO: GIST: ICI (?): DEU . RY . PAT: NOSTER with about eight inches between RY and PAT unreadable. The Taunton Courier of 22 Jul 1939 p4 (and subsequent editions in 1940) carried an enquiry about why a ‘heathen’ Roman altar had been built into the NE buttress of Compton Dando church. This had a figure of Hercules with his club on the east face and Apollo with his lyre on the north face. The view of Rev H M Scarth was “I am inclined to think After centuries of laws against those who did not that previously to the extension of Christianity to accept the Church of England’s doctrines and its presumed monopoly of truth as regards Christian From the Shepton Mallet Journal of Fri 27 Sep 1929 Britain, and the building of a church at Compton doctrine, the early 19th-century relaxation of the p4: Dando, a small Temple or Shrine had existed in the restrictions provoked various negative reactions. A war memorial was unveiled at Compton pretty and secluded valley where the church now Dando, on Saturday, by Colonel the Hon. E. stands. Roman altars have not infrequently been These were usually protests from Anglican Strachey. found buried in Christian churchyards.” It was clergymen about parishioners going over to the There was a longer report in the Western Daily subsequently established that it was part of the ‘church of Rome’. At Compton Dando in 1850 a Press of Mon 23 Sep 1929 p8 which refers to the altar in the Roman temple within the bath complex petition and an address to the Bishop of Bath & Wells memorial being erected by public subscription at a at Bath and was reinstated there as one of the four was circulated against a perceived ‘act of invasion’. cost of about £68 and “takes to form of a Columbo corners. (Two other corners have been found, one From the Bath Chronicle of Thu 14 Nov 1850 p4: cross in silver grey Cornish granite rustic with fine axed faces for lettring”. Issue 1 2 Compton Dando – Memorial Inscriptions COMPTON DANDO.―The following Protest and Address have been extensively signed in this Of the 1,679 burial register entries in the period parish. 1701-present, about 18% have names that appear on PROTEST.―Whereas, the Bishop of Rome, in memorials. pursuance of an aggressive policy, not attempted in this country since the Reformation by the boldest of his predecessors, has presumed to There is an enigmatic entry: John Gay buried on 3 nominate a Romish ecclesiastic as Archbishop of Jun 1740 with the annotation “supposed to be Westminster, and to designate other English murdered by his master James Perry”. cities or towns as episcopal sees in communion with the Bishop of Rome; and more especially as Burial Registers concerning the undersigned, has affected to At Somerset Heritage Centre: transfer the episcopal charge of our Right The age profile has 18% aged under 11 and 40% aged D/P/com.d 2/1/1 Baptisms, Marriage and Reverend Father in God from his hands to those over 70. Where occupations have been determined, Burials 1653-1738 of an affected Bishop of Plymouth.