England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Melbury Bubb St Mary

The Parish

The parish of Melbury Bubb, one of 4 "Melburys" in its county, lies in northwestern Dorset not too far from its border with neighbouring Somerset. Melbury Bubb is located roughly 9 miles south of the Somerset town of Yeovil and sits a half mile east of the A37 road which links Yeovil with Dorchester. Melbury Bubb is a tiny place, little more than a scatter of farms and cottages across its area, a few properties cluster around the church at the western end of a dead-end lane but that is all that passes for a village. Melbury Bubb sits north of Dorset's chalk and limestone ranges in clay-country where cattle farming was the dominant farming rather than the sheep of the Downs, interspersed were small patches of arable on more amenable soils. Modern developments have come to this small place, the railway line from Dorchester to Yeovil passing to the east and granting nearby Chetnole a station. Melbury Bubb is drained northwards by the wonderfully evocatively named Wriggle River which meanders to join the Yeo, the latter heads out into the Somerset Levels joining the Parrett at Langport before reaching the outer Bristol Channel through the port of Bridgwater. Melbury Bubb is sited at 120 metres above the sea sitting at the base of Bubb Down Hill which reaches 152 metres less than a quarter of a mile northwestwards, towards nearby Evershot heights in excess of 200 metres may be found.  Covering just over 1,200 acres Melbury Bubb was one of Dorset's smaller parishes supporting a population of around 100 parishioners on that acreage. Melbury Bubb is not mentioned in Domesday Book.

The Church

St Mary's church stands "set against a leafy hill" as poetically rendered by Pevsner at the end of the small dead-end lane that forms the only access. This is a church with two main elements, the medieval being quite late in the 15th century whilst the remainder dates from a typical rebuilding in the mid 1850s. The southwestern tower is the main fabric remaining from medieval times with initials of its sponsor Walter Bokeler confirming a date that must lie between 1466 & 1480, it is in the Perpendicular style of that period. Where other features remain, such as untouched windows, in the main body they too date from the same 15th century period. It is likely that the 15th century saw a replacement for a much earlier church. The mid 1850s saw a piece of work that went beyond the typical Victorian restoration into a semi-complete rebuild which does retain the styling of the 15th century original. As one travel towards the church the impressive walling of Melbury Bubb Manor House faces you, the manor house being an early 17th century build. A small grassy area allows a safe parking for a car or two from which a path curves around the wall to the churchyard. Sadly for the photographer close set thick conifers remove the favoured southeastern aspects but all other angles are available.