Dorsetshire. Oorfe Castle
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DIRECTORY.] DORSETSHIRE. OORFE CASTLE. 1205 Lionel William Stanton :M.A. of Trinity College, Dublin, and NEWTON is a quarter of s mile west; West Wood, I mil!} Oxford. Reginald Joseph Weld esq. of Lulworth Castle, is north-west. lord of the manor and chief landowner. The soil is strong Parish Clerk, John Loveless. clay; subsoil, Bagshotr series. The chief crops are oats, Letters, through Wareham, arrive at 8030 a.m. Wool is the .barley, Wheat, turnips and with some land in pastnre. The nearest money order & telegraph office area is 2,004 acres; rateable value, £" 1,216; the population LET1'3R Box cleared at 5.20 p.m iD, 1881 was 129. The children attend the school at East Lulworth Stanton Rev. Lionel Wm. M.A. Vicarage IDowle Alfred, dairyman White WaIter, farmer,Westcoombe fI'm BuddenGeo.Alfd.frmr.EastCoombe frm Lucas James, shopkeeper CORFE CASTLE is a parish and village, with a station vertically on the east, west and north sides. The northern, -on the London and South Western raIlway,S miles south- or highest point, is occnpied by the noble TIlins of the Keep east from Wareham, 21 south-east from Dorchester and 130 and principal buildings; the great gateway stands at the from London, in the Eastern division of the county, Corfe southern, or lowest angle; the Hutavant tower, the western ; Castle hundred,Wareham petty sessional division and county and the Queen's hall, or tower, near the eastern angle; the court district, Wareham and Purbeck union, rural deanery whole inclo"ing an area of about 3t acres, which is divided of Dorchester Purbeck portion, archdeaconry of Dorset and into three wards-the outer (by far the largest), the middle, diocese of Salisbury: it is situated nearly in the centre of and the inner ward: a bridge of four arches, crossing a deep the Isle or Peninsula of Purbeck, and derives its name and dry moat, connects the castle with the town. A full and origin from the ancient castle: its first charter, granted by admiraLle detai'ei account of the history of the castle is Queen Elizabeth, conferred on the inhabitants equal privi- gIven by 1\1r. T. Bond, in the last edition of .. Hutchings' Ie"o-es with the Cinque Ports. The church of St. Edward History of Dorset," and has been more recently revised and the Martyr, a. building of stone with green slate roof, was issue:! as a distinct volume. The earliest historical even' rebuilt, with the exception of the tower, in 1859-1860, recorded of Corfe is in connection with the murder of King from designs by Wyatt, in the Perpendicular style, and con- Edward the Martyr, A.Do 978. Elfrida's" house" stood sists of chancel and chancel aisles, nave and aisles, north here, and in March of that year, by her hand, or by her in· porch and an ancient embattled west tower with pinnacles, stigation, King Edward was assassinated on his horse at the with an interesting doorway and clock and a peal of 6 bells: door of her hospice: his foot being entangled in the stirrup, the chancel is enriched by a stained east window, in memory he was drag5ed away by the affrighted animal till it reaChed of Lady Charlotte Bankes ; a fine reredos has been added by the brook on the Wareham side of the mound, where the the Earl of Eldon, designed by the late G. E. Street R.A.: body of the unfortunate prince was found and taken 'to there are eight other memorial windows: the stained window Wareham, whence it was afterwards removed with grea' in the south aisle was erected by the rector in memory of pomp to Shaftesbury. William the Conqueror next appear. his youngest son and the other two to his eldest daughter; connected with the fortress, as' having caused the Keep 01' 1lhat at the west end is to Captain Sir GeoI'ge Hiddlecombe, great tower to be built, and the castle was used chiefly as • knight, who left money for the purpose: there is an orga.n, prison. Stephen, in his wars with Matilda, f()und the castl. and a very beautiful ancient font of Purbeck marble: the impregnab!e. John made it a royal residence and con· chancel, which is Early English, is built of the Purbeck stone siJered it the safest depository of his treasure and regalia; and Purbeck marble, which is effectively introduced in the here, also, he confined the Princess Alinor, sister nf hi. columns of the chancel (copied from those of the former victim Arthur, ill company with the two daughters of the -edifice) and other part~ of the interior: there are 600 sit- King of Scot.and. From Corte Castle, Edward n. was taken tjngs. The register dates from the year 1653. The living to BerkeJey by his murderers, Sir John Matravers, of Langton is a rectory, gross yearly value £680, includlng 70 acres of Matravers, and Sir John Gurney. Elizabeth sold the domain glebe, with residence, in the gift of W. R. Bankes esq. the to her favourite, Sir Christopher Hatton, who, in 1587, waa proprietor of Kingston Lacey, near Wimborne, and held made Lord High Chancellor: in 1635 it passed by putc~e since 1854 by the Rev. Eldon Surtees Dankes M.A. of Dni- into the p')ssessinn of the then Attorney-General, Sir John varsity College, Oxford, surrogate, prebendary of Salisbury B<l.nkes, afterwards Lord Chief Justice, the ancestor of the and rural dean of Dorchester Purbeck portion. Here are family of Bankes, of Kingston Lacey, where the key of t.h. Congregational and Wesleyan chapels. The charities are ca&tle is sti,l preserved; in 1643 it was taken by treachery, £80 yearly, arising from rents of lands left by Robert Abbot by the Pal'1iamentary forces, and month/'! were occupied ;n ani others, and are spent in allowing the sum of £2 5S. a reducing- it to its present state by gunpowder. Two and a ,yen each to 12 aged persons and in buying clothing for the half miles to the north-east of Corfe Castle is Rempstone poor. A museum for depositing the rich geological, natural Hall, the seat of Lady Caroline Calcrart. The principal and ancient curiosities !las been established in East street landowners "re W. Ralph Bankes esq. D,L" i.p. of Kingston and recently (1889) been renovated and re-arranged. The Lacey, who is lord of the manor, Wllliam Montagu CaleraH tradeofCorfe Castle for many centuries has consisted cbielly esq. loPo Nathaniel Bond esl'J.o DoL., l.P. of Creech Grang. m stone and grey marble, generally known by the name of and the Earl of Eldon JoP. The soil is various j subsoil, Purbeck marble, which abounds not only in the vicinity of chalk. The chief erops are Wheat, barley and oats, with a thIS place, but throughout the Isle of Purbeck ; and the fact large area of pasture land. The area is 8,809 acres of land -of its being found in the interior of almost every old cathe- and 1,075 of water; rateable value, £6,981 ; the population dral and church in the kingdom, as well as in many foreign in 188 [ was, including Kingston, 1,777. -churches, shows that the trade in this article must formerly Parish Clerk, Thomas Roe. have been very considerable. After the introduction of POST, M. 00 & T. O. & S. B.-Robert George Gilman, post- foreign marble, the trade in Purbeck marble decline1, and master. Letters arrive from Wareham at 5.30 a.m. &2.10 it fell into disuse nntil the rastoration of the Temple Church, po m. ; dispatched at 9.45 a.m. &; 8.30 p.m.; 011 snndsy. London (1842), where it was reintroduced in forming the arrive at 6 a.m. & dispatched at 5030 p.m pillars = the font of the church of Harrow-on-the-Hill, 700 PuBLIC OFFICERS:- years old, is formed of this material; the nave of f:)t. Alban's Medical Officer, Corfe Castle district, Wareham &; Purbeck Abbey and the cathedrals of Salisbury, Winchester, Canter- union, Herbert Cresar Hawkins L.B.C.p,Edin bury and Gloucester contain specimens of this marble. A Trustees of the Corfe Castle Charities, Earl of Eldon,Rector Ilumbel' of the inhabitants are now employed di~ging potters' & Churchwarlens, W. M. Calcraft, Nathaniel Bond esq. 1llay, hom wbirh Minton's b~t china is made, large quanti- & John Jolmson ties of which are expOt'ted to all parts both of this and fureign Relieving Officer &; Registrar of Births & Deaths, Jame. ~ntries. Fairs are held on the 12th May and 2}th October. Henry Willshire The market is dil!<-"Ontinued. The Bankes' Arms hotel has National School (mixed & infants), with residence for recently (18a}) been enlarged and refitted and afford!! very master & mistress, built in 1832, for 250 children; avep- good accommodation for visItOrs. age attendance, 98 boys & girls & 88 infants j East street; The Castle stands on a lofty eminence commanding the William He'lry Thomas, master j &; Miss Elizabeth Card, Corfe, or gap, which here occurs in the Pnrbeck range, and infants' mistress 'he walls follow the crest of the hill, which descends almost RaIlway Station, Hubert Owen Green, station master ..Banlres Rev. Eldon Surlees M.A. [pre. Ketchley Rev. WaIter Clement [cnrate] Day Henry, shopkeeper bendary of Yatesbury in Sarum COMMERCIAL. Desallioud Francis, tailor Caihedral~ rector, rural dean & sur· Abbott Edwin, farmer, OweI' farm Desallioud Mar)" (Miss), Greyhound P.B rogate]. Rectory Aplin Ed ward, baker Dew John, grocer & beer Tetailer Bawler RevoGeo.Riggs[Congregational] Batrick George, b~ker &; miller (water) Fayle & Co.