Nether Compton

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Coordinates: 50°57′15″N 2°34′27″W / 50.9542°N 2.5742°W / 50.9542; -2.5742
Nether Compton

Nether Compton parish church
Nether Compton

 Nether Compton shown within Dorset
Population 300 
District West Dorset
Shire county Dorset
Region South West
Country England
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Police Dorset
Fire Dorset
Ambulance South Western
EU Parliament South West England
UK Parliament West Dorset
List of places
UK
England
Dorset

Nether Compton is a village and civil parish in the English county of Dorset. It lies within the West Dorset administrative district, and is situated 3 miles (4.8 km) west of Sherborne and 3 miles east of Yeovil in Somerset. As of 2001 it had an estimated population of 300.

History

Nether Compton was burnt in 1066 by William, Duke of Normandy.

The parish church of St. Nicholas can be found at the south end of the village on a road leading to the A30 between Yeovil and Sherborne. The chancel, nave and south porch date from the 13th century while the west tower, north chapel and nave windows demonstrate that the church was altered significantly in the 15th century. The whole building was then restored in the 1880s, when the chapel was extended and various internal modifications made.[1] The stone screen is Perpendicular and the pulpit early 17th century.[2] The west tower houses five bells: one from the 15th century (Salisbury foundry, inscribed "Sit Semper Sine Ve Qui Michi Dicit Ave"), one dated 1585, two dated 1658 (Thomas Purdue, Closworth) and one from 1886 (Gillett and Co., Croydon).[3]

Many of the buildings in the village date from when it was improved in the last decades of the 19th century[citation needed], Colonel John R. P. Goodden having inherited Compton House in 1883. Architect Evelyn Hellicar (1862–1929) is responsible for a number of the buildings.[4] These include Sheriff's Lodge (1889). The Grade II listed former village school, built c. 1843, is now a private home.

Personalities

Nether Compton was the childhood home of BAFTA Award winning actress Kristin Scott Thomas and her younger sister, Serena Scott Thomas, also an actress.[citation needed]

Harald Penrose (1904-1996), British test pilot and aviation author, lived in Nether Compton for more than 50 years in a house of his own design.[5]

References

  1. Royal Commission on Historical Monuments England, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Vol. 1, West Dorset, London: HMSO, 1952, pp. 100-101.
  2. John Newman and Nikolaus Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Dorset, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1972, p. 304. ISBN 0-300-09598-8
  3. Christopher Dalton, Bells and Belfries of Dorset, Ullingswick: Upper Court Press, 2000-2005, vol. 2, pp. 491-494. See also the relevant page of the online Dove's Guide for Church Bell Ringers
  4. Hellicar obituary, RIBA Journal, 21 September 1929, p. 772
  5. Philip Jarrett, "Obituary: Harald Penrose", The Independent, 11 September 1996

External links

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